JetBlue Airways Corp. is working with consultants to set targets for a new round of cost cuts, even as it prepares to meet surging consumer demand for travel. The airline expects to see “progressive improvement” in its cost performance throughout the rest of this year, following an operational meltdown in April that led to hundreds of flight cancellations and cost overruns, CFO Ursula Hurley said at a Bank of America conference Tuesday. JetBlue, which is pursuing a $3.3b hostile takeover bid for Spirit Airlines, previously had said it would detail its next round of “structural cost initiatives” at an investor day later this month. It’s ultimately targeting low single-digit growth in costs for each seat flown a mile in 2023, excluding fuel, Hurley said.<br/>
unaligned
It was an “unlikely event” as they say in aviation lingo. A woman gave birth to a girl on a Frontier Airlines flight from Denver to Orlando with the swaddling earning an appropriate middle name—“Sky.” Flight attendant Diana Giraldo assisted with the delivery after helping the mother to a lavatory, the airline announced on Facebook. The jetliner diverted to Pensacola where paramedics were waiting at the gate, pilot Chris Nye said. Frontier didn’t disclose the birth date or flight number.<br/>
A plane was forced to divert to another airport after a passenger on board became disruptive. The Jet2 flight from Gran Canaria to Newcastle made the unscheduled stop at Porto in Portugal during the early hours of Monday. The airline confirmed the passenger was taken off the plane. It said it took a "zero-tolerance approach" to disruptive behaviour and would "vigorously pursue" any costs incurred as a result of the diversion. Flight LS542 left the Spanish island at 21:30 BST on Sunday and had been scheduled to arrive at Newcastle at about 02:00 BST. It is not yet known if any action was taken against any passengers following the disruption. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which regulates UK aviation, said the punishment for disruption to flights can vary depending on the severity.<br/>
Ryanair has lost its challenge against the 2019 government bailout of German charter airline Condor, as the EU’s General Court ruled there was no reason to doubt the legitimacy of the aid. Europe’s biggest budget airline had won a first challenge against the rescue of Condor at the Luxembourg-based EU court in June 2021. But the court on Wednesday said Ryanair had failed to demonstrate any grounds for doubt regarding the European Commission’s handling of the aid application. The EU executive in 2020 cleared an E550m German state-guaranteed loan to Condor, which had filed for insolvency in September 2019 after its parent company Thomas Cook collapsed. “The applicant did not succeed in rebutting the Commission’s findings that Condor’s difficulties were the result mainly of the Thomas Cook group being placed into liquidation and not of an arbitrary allocation of costs within the group,” the court said. “The General Court dismisses the action in its entirety.” Condor operated a fleet of more than 50 aircraft before the COVID-19 pandemic. Ryanair has filed more than a dozen lawsuits against the Commission in recent years for allowing state aid to Lufthansa , Air France KLM and others, as well as against national schemes benefiting flag carriers.<br/>
IndiGo, India’s biggest airline, has appointed KLM veteran Pieter Elbers as its new CEO, as airlines return to profit and chart out growth plans amid a rebound in air travel post-pandemic. IndiGo's current CEO Ronojoy Dutta will retire at the end of September and Elbers' appointment is expected to be effective from Oct. 1, the company said here on Wednesday. “Given Mr. Elbers’ deep understanding of the business, his legendary leadership qualities coupled with his energy and passion, we are ever so confident that under his stewardship, IndiGo will play a pivotal role in this growth opportunity,” the airline’s managing director Rahul Bhatia said. Elbers is currently the chief executive of KLM, the Dutch arm of Air France-KLM, where he started his career in 1992. India has seen a strong rebound in domestic air travel and with the government easing COVID restrictions, international travel - where profits are higher - is also on the rise. IndiGo turned a profit during the Oct-Dec quarter after two years of losses and had previously expressed ambitions to expand to places like Moscow, Cairo and Manila with non-stop flights using its narrowbody fleet of Airbus SE planes. However, the airline has recently seen a churn of top executives.<br/>
El Al is working to restore its operation to pre-crisis levels with the intention of shifting to profitability from the second half of 2023. It has posted a $66.3m net loss for Q1 2022, a 23% improvement on the previous year’s figure for the period. Activity is recovering, the carrier states, with capacity at 53% of 2019’s figure. The airline is operating 33 aircraft compared with the pre-crisis total of 43, and aims to re-introduce remaining aircraft by 2023. El Al more than doubled its revenues to $282 million – although cargo revenues slipped by 2% – while operating expenses increased by 77% to $293m. The carrier attributes the rise in expenditure partly to a surge in jet fuel costs, up nearly $58m, following the rise in prices and increased consumption. But it also says it spent an extra $46m on salaries owing to the workforce returning from furlough.<br/>
Philippine Airlines parent company PAL Holdings rebounded to profitability in the three months to 31 March, on the back of a dramatic rise in revenues following easing of travel restrictions in key markets around the world. The company posted a net profit of Ps1.3b ($24.8m) for the three-month period, its second consecutive quarter of profitability. The net profit compares to the staggering Ps8.6b net loss in the same period last year. Group revenue for the quarter was Ps23.6b, nearly a three-fold increase year on year. This was led by a tripling of passenger revenues to Ps17b, with cargo revenue rising 72% year on year. “The uptick in revenues reflect a stronger recovery in travel volumes as borders reopened in the Philippines and other key markets in Asia, Australia and North America. The cargo sector continued its strong performance,” says PAL Holdings. Quarterly expenses rose about 65% to Ps21.8b, led mainly by rising fuel costs coupled with an increase in flight operations. Philippine Airlines president and operating chief Stanley Ng says: “We welcome the financial turnaround demonstrated by the positive operating results for the first quarter of 2022. Just the same, we must not lose sight of the considerable headwinds we continue to face, brought about by rising fuel prices, the economic fallout from geopolitical events such as the conflict in Ukraine, and the incomplete recovery in travel markets, as certain Asian regions have yet to fully open their borders.”<br/>