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Spirit Airlines said Tuesday its board will decide on competing offers from JetBlue Airways and Frontier Airlines before a shareholder meeting at the end of the month as the battle for the discount carrier heats up. “The Board expects to bring the process to a conclusion and provide an update to stockholders” ahead of its June 30 meeting, Spirit CEO Ted Christie said. Spirit postponed a meeting where shareholders would vote on the existing Frontier deal from June 10 until June 30 to review the bids. Spirit’s shares rose more than 3.4% on Tuesday, while shares of Frontier added 1.5% and JetBlue’s rose 0.5% after Spirit’s statement. JetBlue made a sweetened offer to buy Spirit on June 6, raising a reverse break-up fee to $350 million should regulators not approve the acquisition. Spirit has had a merger agreement with fellow ultra-low-cost airline Frontier since February and is still bound by the terms of that cash-and-stock deal, it said. Frontier offered a $250m reverse break-up fee. JetBlue’s included prepaying $1.50 a share from the break-up fee to shareholders to raise its offer from $30 a share to $31.50 in cash. “As part of this process, Frontier and JetBlue are being given access to the same due diligence information, on the same terms,” Christie said.<br/>

Ryanair Group CE Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday bookings at Europe's biggest budget airline are strengthening and he expects summer fares to be between 7% and 9% higher than pre-pandemic levels. He said the load factor, a measure of how well an airline is filling available seats, should be around 94% in June, almost reaching pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. "And July, August, and September look very strong with higher load factors and also higher fares," he said. "Fares will be up probably high single digits 7,8,9% over summer 2019." He said he expects the travelling experience for European customers to improve over summer as airport management groups "iron out" staffing shortages through recruitment. A snapback in air travel has triggered long queues at some British airports, as well as Amsterdam, Dublin and Toronto, as airport managers struggle to fill jobs fast enough.Spanish cabin staff on Monday said they will go on strike six days late June and early July, but O'Leary said any disruption caused by industrial action was likely to be "tiny and inconsequential". He said there might be a small number of cancellations or delays but that the proposed strike action has "no support".<br/>

Ryanair’s Portuguese cabin staff will go on strike for three days in late June, Portugal’s union of civil aviation personnel SNPVAC said on Tuesday. The workers, demanding compliance with Portuguese law and better working conditions, will walk out on June 24, 25 and 26, SNPVAC said. “This mobilisation is not only an opportunity to put the spotlight on multiple attacks on workers’ dignity and to make this reality known but also a moment to show unity and solidarity against dumping”, the union added. Ryanair did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment. The announcement came a day after Ryanair’s Spanish cabin announced a six-day strike planned for late June and early July. French cabin crew at Ryanair went on strike on Sunday and Monday demanding better pay and working conditions, a union representative said earlier, adding that more than 40 flights had to be cancelled.<br/>

Air travel chaos in Britain is purely down to Brexit "shambles" by hobbling recruitment at airports, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday. The CEO of Europe's biggest airline also dismissed threats of summer strike action by what he called "Mickey Mouse" unions in Belgium and Spain covering some Ryanair workers. And he said his company has dropped a controversial pre-boarding questionnaire for South African passport holders requiring them to answer questions in Afrikaans - a language commonly used by just 12% of South Africans, many of them white. O'Leary told AFP that "100 per cent" of the woes experienced by air passengers in the UK - including massively long lines and cancelled flights - was because "Brexit has been a shambles". "It was delivered by a government led by Boris Johnson that is also a shambles. It was inevitable that Brexit would constrain the labour market, you see," he said. O'Leary said Britain's decision to pursue a hardline departure from the European Union that put a halt to EU workers filling jobs is largely why it was difficult to quickly ramp up recruitment for ground and security staff at UK passports. Airports and airlines in several countries, including in the EU and the US, have struggled to cope with surging numbers of travellers, many of them keen to fly after months or years of being grounded because of Covid restrictions.<br/>

Scoot, the low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines (SIA), has launched the ticket sales for its first non-stop flight from Singapore to Tokyo, Japan. Passengers can book tickets for travel from 1 August. Pre-pandemic, Scoot operated flight services to Tokyo via Taipei and Bangkok. Customers can also book flights – for travel from 1 September – for its non-stop service to Osaka, resumed since it was stopped due to the pandemic. In a note to media, Scoot said that fares for Singapore – Tokyo (Narita) and Singapore – Osaka start from S$263 and S$296, respectively (taxes inclusive, one way). The flight services will be operated by Scoot’s Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Japan started to allow tourists from certain countries – who are on approved group tours – to enter the country from 10 June. In May, Scoot launched sales of a new thrice weekly direct flight service to Jeju, South Korea, which will start from 15 June. It said then that the approximately six-hour flight service will be operated by Scoot’s Airbus A321neo aircraft, and promotional fares are pegged from S$300 for one-way trips, inclusive of taxes.<br/>

Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia X Bhd will add new long-haul routes from Kuala Lumpur to London, Dubai and Istanbul this year, the airline said on Wednesday, aiming to take advantage of growing demand as travel curbs are lifted. The airline, which is operating six Airbus A330 jets, hopes to have 15 planes in service by year-end, its Malaysia CE, Benyamin Ismail, told reporters. "We remain confident we want to go back to pre-COVID capacity. It will take time," Ismail said, without setting a date. "We have to be profitable first." AirAsia X had a fleet of 39 planes, including 13 in Thailand and two in Indonesia before the COVID-19 pandemic, its 2019 annual report showed. The airline, which was unprofitable even before the pandemic, had limited cargo and charter flights until recently, when many Asian nations eased travel and quarantine rules. Last year, the creditors of AirAsia X agreed to a restructuring that paid just 0.5% of debt owed on liabilities of 33.65b ringgit ($7.62b) and ended existing contracts, giving it a fresh start as demand recovers. On Wednesday, AirAsia X said it would resume four routes to Japan and Hawaii from July 1 and add flights to Dubai, Istanbul and London by the end of the year after it gets the relevant approvals and airport slots. The airline had stopped flying to London in 2012, citing soaring taxes and higher jet fuel prices, though founder Tony Fernandes had long teased the prospect of a return. "We are now in a very high fuel environment so fares will generally be higher," Ismail said of the current market, adding the airline had adopted fuel surcharges as a result. The new flight to London would involve a stopover in Dubai, he said, but prices have not yet been revealed.<br/>