JetBlue Airways Corp said Thursday it was extending the expiration date of its cash tender offer for Spirit Airlines to July 29 from June 30, after sweetening its bid for the ultra-low-cost carrier earlier this week. In the latest offer on June 27, JetBlue included a ticking fee of 10 cents per Spirit share, raising the deal value to $34.15 per share. Spirit Airlines on Wednesday deferred a shareholder vote on Frontier Group Holdings Inc's merger offer for the budget carrier until next week. Frontier also raised its bid for Spirit last week. Both bidders see Spirit as an opportunity to expand their domestic footprints at a time when the US airline industry is dogged by labor and aircraft shortages. Either of the deals would create the fifth-largest US airline.<br/>
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Low-cost carrier Avelo Airlines is opening a new base at Orlando International Airport Thursday, adding two new routes to its map and extra service to its existing hub in New Haven, Connecticut. "We’re excited to make Orlando a big center of gravity," Andrew Levy, Avelo's CEO told USA TODAY in an interview. "There’s a lot of opportunity to add service in and out of Orlando to markets that are not being served either at all or adequately today.” Avelo will start with three Boeing 737s in Orlando, with about 10 pilots and 15 flight attendants designated per plane. Levy said that having crews and equipment based there will make service to the airport more reliable and will allow the airline to serve more destinations from Florida starting this week. “It’s such a massively popular destination,” Levy said. “It’s incredible the demand that there is to fly in and out of central Florida, and it’s really year-round.” Seasonal service between Orlando and Baltimore-Washington International Airport will start Thursday, with new service to Wilmington, North Carolina, slated to begin Friday, the airline said in a statement. Introductory fares to both cities start at $59 for a one-way ticket. Above all, Levy said, the new base will help make service between New Haven and Orlando more robust, with up to three flights per day on the new schedule for that route, with one-way fares starting at $69.<br/>
As the Canadian travel industry continues to struggle with an unprecedented rebound in demand, WestJet Airlines Ltd. is flying 32 per cent fewer flights in and out of Toronto Pearson International Airport in July than it did pre-pandemic. CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said the Calgary-based WestJet made a series of proactive schedule reductions between March and May in anticipation of the logistical problems that have led to the long lineups, snarled connections and canceled flights experienced by travellers at Canadian airports in recent weeks. “I don't think there is another airline that serves Toronto that has reduced its schedule as much as we have,” von Hoensbroech said in an interview Thursday. “We have been quite proactive and thoughtful in dealing with our flight plans.” As Canada's largest airport, Toronto Pearson has been the epicenter of the travel-related woes affecting this country's air passengers since the lifting of COVID-related public health restrictions began. Airlines and airports that reduced staffing levels drastically when air travel ground to a near-halt at the start of the pandemic have found themselves unprepared for this spring's dramatic resurgence in demand. WestJet, for example, which hit a pandemic low of just 4,000 employees in 2020, has built its head count back up to 10,000, but that's still nearly 30 per cent lower than the 14,000 staffers it had in 2019. “We've hired more than 1,000 people over the last couple of months, and we are now hiring another 100 people just to deal with baggage challenges. We have increased our call centre staff by 20 per cent,” von Hoensbroech said. “We are doing whatever we can to get staff in, but we also know that across all industries, we are seeing a lack of staff. It's not just a WestJet problem, it's not just an aviation problem - it's a general economy problem.”<br/>
Ni-Vanuatu Prime Minister Bob Loughman Weibur has asked the Tongan government to grant seventh-freedom rights to Air Vanuatu which would allow it to increase connectivity to/from Tonga by basing an aircraft there, the online Kaniva Tonga news site has reported. "Such an arrangement would serve as a firm foundation for the creation of an equitable and collective multi-national air transport system for our countries and those of our fellow nations in Oceania," Weibur said. Tonga - a country of just over 100,000 residents - has one active airline, Lulutai Airlines (L8, Tongatapu), which operates one Saab 340B(Plus) and one Y12. As the archipelago country remains in relatively strict COVID-related lockdown, the airline operates domestic services from Tongatapu to Eua, Ha'apai, and Vava'u on a scheduled basis but with reduced frequencies. It also serves Niuafo'ou through charter flights. The Tongan government is reportedly considering selling the state-owned airline to dormant Fly Niu Airlines, which is owned by 'Atu Finau, the CE of Air Vanuatu. Commenting on the request for the seventh-freedom rights, Finau said Air Vanuatu was planning to expand its Pacific network but did not comment on whether the plan to acquire Lulutai Airlines was still in place.<br/>