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Nepali search and rescue teams on Tuesday recovered the body of the last of 22 people aboard a small plane that crashed in the Himalayas two days earlier and also found the flight's voice recorder. Two Germans, four Indians and 16 Nepalis were on the De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter aircraft that crashed 15 minutes after taking off from the tourist town of Pokhara, 125 km west of Kathmandu, on Sunday morning. The plane was bound for Jomsom, a popular tourist and pilgrimage site, 80 km northwest of Pokhara, on what should have been a 20-minute flight. A spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said the plane had only the voice recorder to preserve ground to air and air to air conversations. Modern planes have two such "black boxes" - a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder. "Nothing except the wreckage is left at the crash site now," Deo Chandra Lal Karna said. "All the bodies and the black box have been recovered." Operated by privately owned Tara Air, the aircraft made its first flight in April 1979, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24. Soldiers and rescue workers had retrieved 21 bodies from the wreckage, strewn across a steep slope at an altitude of around 14,500 feet, on Monday.<br/>

Spirit Airlines’s shareholders should vote against a proposed merger with Frontier Airlines in favor of a competing offer from JetBlue Airways, a prominent shareholder advisory firm recommended on Tuesday. The firm, Institutional Shareholder Services, said that while the rival offer from JetBlue might face more regulatory scrutiny, it would offer Spirit investors more money and more choice, depending on whether they expect the recovery in travel demand to falter. Many large investors take ISS’s recommendations seriously when deciding how to vote on corporate proposals, director candidates and other matters. “On balance, a potential agreement with JetBlue would appear to offer shareholders superior optionality, allowing those concerned with the turbulence ahead to exit at a significant premium, while allowing those with a more optimistic outlook to reinvest,” ISS said. JetBlue’s cash offer represented a 56% premium to Frontier’s cash-and-stock offer as of last Wednesday, ISS said. Spirit and Frontier announced a proposal to merge in February. Weeks later, JetBlue countered with its own offer. Spirit’s board declined that offer and urged shareholders to reject a subsequent takeover bid, arguing that the deal has little chance of being approved by antitrust regulators and may simply represent a “cynical attempt” to disrupt its merger. Airline analysts generally agree that a merger between Spirit and Frontier would be easier to execute because the airlines operate a similar low-cost business model with different geographical strengths.<br/>

The EC has approved the second half of a E90m recapitalisation package to airBaltic under temporarily slackened European Union state aid rules to businesses hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, the commission said in a statement. The E45m is half of the sum that the Latvian flag carrier said in December was “still subject to the approval of the European Commission” and was itself split into two measures: E11.6m to cover damage suffered between June 16, 2020, and June 14, 2021; and E33.4m for the period to the end of June 2022. The other E45m was approved in December. The funding will be injected in return for new state-held shares and tops up the government’s emergency investment of E250m in the company’s equity at the height of the crisis in 2020. “Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the travel restrictions that Latvia and other countries had to impose to limit the spread of the virus, airBaltic incurred significant operating losses and experienced a steep decline in traffic and profitability and is currently facing a serious risk of default and insolvency,” the commission explained in its May 24 statement. “With its main hub at Riga airport, airBaltic is the largest airline in Latvia and plays a major role in the Latvian economy, notably because it ensures essential connectivity services within Latvia and from/to Latvia to other European and international destinations,” it added.<br/>

Passengers booked on a Vueling flight from Gatwick were told the plane departed empty because of delays at the West Sussex airport. Flight VY6209 was due to take off for the Italian city of Florence at 8.20pm on Monday. But the Airbus A319 - which can carry up to 144 passengers - left nearly two hours late with no-one on board for the 734-mile flight. Nisha Gupta, 32, from Windsor, Berkshire, was booked on the flight with her husband Ash. She told the PA news agency they were forced to queue for more than four hours to check in luggage, but when they arrived at the departure gate they were informed no passengers could board the plane due to a staff shortage. She said: "Eventually we were told by staff that the pilots made a decision to fly the plane back empty without a single passenger onboard due to Florence airspace closing. The environmental impact of this is insane and a decision was clearly made to prioritise cost implications over customer experience and environmental impact. Throughout this entire experience, there was a maximum of three staff members dealing with all Vueling flights that day." The airline's passengers at Gatwick continued to face severe difficulties. One person posted a photograph showing a large crowd of people waiting to check-in, with the caption: "Vueling you need to get a grip of this absolute chaos at Gatwick. One member of staff to handle this many people is completely unacceptable. Do you understand the impact this has on people?"<br/>

Virgin Atlantic is to allow its cabin crew to display tattoos, the first UK airline – and leading carrier worldwide – to do so. The airline is to announce the change in policy to its staff, a month after it launched a branding campaign “championing individuality” – and as the aviation industry scrambles to recruit more people in key roles as demand bounces back after the pandemic. Sir Richard Branson’s airline, in common with most carriers, has until now banned visible tattoos, only hiring staff who could conceal any ink work under their uniform. Estelle Hollingsworth, Virgin Atlantic’s chief people officer, said restrictions were being relaxed “in line with our focus on inclusion and championing individuality”. She said: “At Virgin Atlantic, we want everyone to be themselves and know that they belong. Many people use tattoos to express their unique identities and our customer-facing and uniformed colleagues should not be excluded from doing so if they choose.” Facial and neck tattoos will remain banned for flight attendants – for now, although the airline is considering relaxing the rules at a later date. Tattoos with swearing, or deemed culturally inappropriate, or those that refer to nudity, violence, drugs or alcohol are off limits. Prison-style love/hate knuckle tattoos will also remain proscribed.<br/>

South African aviation company Comair, a franchise partner of British Airways, said on Tuesday it had suspended all flights until it secures additional funding. The company, which is under a local form of bankruptcy protection called “business rescue,” said in a statement that efforts to raise the necessary capital were under way and there was reason to believe funding could be secured. “Once received the airline will be able to recommence operations, but regrettably under these circumstances, the practitioners (administrators) have no choice but to voluntarily suspend all scheduled flights until the funding is confirmed,” it said. Comair said it had suspended ticket sales for British Airways operated by Comair flights, as well as ones for its low-cost kulula.com brand.<br/>

Air Do and Solaseed Air have followed through on plans hatched during the pandemic to merge in 2022, announcing on May 31 that they had signed a contract to set up a Tokyo-based joint holding company. The merger aims to cut the two regional carriers’ operating costs through “more efficient use of resources” such as staff and facilities and by jointly procuring parts. The holding company, to be called Regional Plus Wings Corp., will be established on October 3, 2022, if the shareholders of both airlines agree in votes set for late June. “The business environment surrounding both companies faces future uncertainties due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the diversification of work styles and lifestyles, changes in consumer values, ​​and market changes due to advances in digital technology,” Air Do and Solaseed Air explained in a joint statement. “The business development of both companies must also undergo major changes in response.” They will continue, however, to be “airlines rooted in the region, each with its own business licence and unique brand. By 2026, the group will aim for operating income of about JPY100b yen (US$783m) and profit of JPY9b, the statement said. Based at opposite ends of Japan, with Air Do on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and Solaseed Air on the island of Kyushu in the far south, the two airlines have both the state-owned Development Bank of Japan and ANA Holdings as major shareholders. They have no overlapping routes and operate Boeing fleets.<br/>

Malaysian long-haul low-cost carrier AirAsia X swung to an operating profit in its financialQ3, with revenues climbing sharply from a year earlier. For Q3 ended 31 March, AirAsia X generated a net operating profit of MYR33.6b ($7.7b), according to its results statement. Revenue for the quarter came in at MYR113m. The large net operating result stems from a write-back related to the carrier’s restructuring. Owing to a change in its financial year, the carrier did not provide figures for the previous corresponding period in 2021. However, the carrier’s results statement for the three months to 31 March 2021 show that a year earlier it suffered a net operating loss of MYR5.3b, and posted revenues of just MYR38.5m. Cash burn continues to be a challenge for AirAsia X, which has undergone a major restructuring. As of 31 March, AirAsia X had MYR43.7m in cash and cash equivalents, down from MYR68.5m at the beginning of the quarter. The carrier notes that it felt the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which saw the majority of its fleet grounded. This resulted in AirAsia X defaulting on various contracts.<br/>

The parent company of low-cost carrier Indonesia AirAsia narrowed its Q1 loss, on the back of a reduction in costs. For the three months to 31 March, Indonesia AirAsia reported an operating loss of Rp442b ($30.4m), compared to the Rp685b loss in the same period last year. Revenues for the quarter rose nearly 24% year on year to Rp277b, helped by an uptick in passenger travel revenue, both in scheduled as well as chartered operations. Costs, meanwhile, fell about 21% year on year to Rp719 billion as the company cut depreciation and foreign exchange losses. However, fuel costs - along with operational costs - rose slightly, as the airline gradually resumed flights across its network. Indonesia AirAsia narrowed its quarterly net loss to Rp502b, compared to Rp750b in the year-ago period. Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the quarter stood at Rp63b, significantly higher than the Rp21.1b it began the year with. The company reiterates its earlier commitment to continue cutting costs, in areas such as payroll, as well as marketing and sponsorships. It will also continue to renegotiate costs and restructure outstanding liabilities with vendors. <br/>

AirAsia has launched a ride-hailing service in Bangkok, eyeing a slice of the region’s growing market as tourism reopens. AirAsia Ride officially started operations from Tuesday, with 3,000 drivers currently registered in the capital and plans to recruit more, the company said in a statement. The firm also aims to expand into holiday destinations in Thailand such as Phuket and Chiang Mai to capture demand from international tourists, it said. AirAsia, the budget airline that experimented with online commerce during the depths of the pandemic, is counting on a rebound in travel this summer to fuel a so-called “super app” that offers a suite of on-demand services from car-hailing to flight bookings. Competitors in the country include Grab Holdings and Estonia’s Bolt Technology. “It won’t be an easy task for AirAsia to penetrate the ride-hailing market as it will need to burn a lot of cash to recruit drivers,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Nathan Naidu. “Having said that, my experience with other markets in the region tells me that Southeast Asians are not yet loyal to their platforms, meaning they can be persuaded to switch with incentives such as coupons and promotions.”<br/>