Low-cost carrier Frontier Group Holdings has declined to further raise its bid for takeover target Spirit Airlines, potentially drawing curtains on its months-long bidding war with JetBlue Airways Corp. Spirit signed a cash-and-stock deal with rival Frontier in February to form a new no-frills airline and compete against big national carriers. In April, JetBlue jumped into the fray with an all-cash offer. Since then, JetBlue and Frontier have been fighting to seal a deal, which would expand their domestic footprints and create the fifth largest US airline. In a letter to Spirit, Frontier CE Barry Biffle said the Florida-based ultra-low-cost carrier should consider last month's revised merger agreement as its "last, best and final offer." He also expressed his company's willingness to waive its right to match JetBlue's latest offer. Under the revised terms, Frontier agreed to bump up the cash component of the deal by $2 per share to $4.13 per share. The Denver-based carrier also increased its reverse termination fee to Spirit by $100m to $350m. Frontier's cash-and-stock offer stood at $24.69 per share as of Friday's close. JetBlue, however, responded with a higher bid, raising the overall value of its offer to $3.7b in cash. "In line with our recent discussions, Frontier does not intend to propose any further modifications to the financial terms of the Merger Agreement," Biffle said in his letter. The bidding war has repeatedly forced Spirit to delay a shareholder vote on its merger deal with Frontier. <br/>
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Canada Jetlines says ticket sales will begin “imminently” and it expects to begin operations in the next few weeks. The news comes after Canada’s latest leisure airline entrant successfully completed all demonstration flights for Transport Canada in the process to obtain its Air Operator Certificate (AOC).<br/>On July 5, Canada Jetlines operated a flight from the Region of Waterloo International airport to Greater Moncton Roméo Leblanc International airport and back, to the satisfaction of Transport Canada inspectors. “We are extremely proud of our operations team for successfully completing this comprehensive program with Transport Canada,” said Eddy Doyle, CEO of Canada Jetlines. “There are only a few administrative items for Transport Canada to complete before issuing the AOC, which is expected to be completed within the next two weeks. As a start-up during the pandemic, we emphasize preparation and collaboration. We are currently staffed and equipped to accommodate and welcome guests to travel with Canada Jetlines.”<br/>
Wizz Air expects to have to cut flights this summer due to labour shortages and strikes at European airports, the budget airline said on Monday, sending its shares down around 5%. Wizz CE József Váradi had said in June the company was confident of returning to pre-COVID productivity by reaching full utilisation of its aircraft this year. However, the company said on Monday it expected to cut utilisation another 5% for the summer to reduce the impact of "ongoing external disruptions". After a blip caused by the Omicron coronavirus variant, travel demand has roared back, with airlines betting on summer holiday travel in July-September to boost their bottom-lines. But strikes and staff shortages are forcing airlines to cancel thousands of flights and causing hours-long queues at major airports across Europe.<br/>
They say one person’s trash is another person’s treasure, and that’s proving true in the operational issues facing European airlines this summer. Wizz Air is benefitting from the widespread schedule cuts with fuller planes and higher fares. “The fare environment remains strong, with industry capacity reducing and consumer demand over summer strong,” the Hungarian discounter said in an investor update on July 11. Wizz benefits from a route network that is focused on Eastern Europe where there have been fewer of the operational issues. Many of the challenges are at Europe’s largest hubs — Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and London for example — where Wizz has a smaller presence than many of its competitors. But this does not mean the airline is immune to the continent-wide bedlam; to “avoid cancellations and secure a more punctual operation to our customers,” Wizz has reduced its planned summer capacity by 5 points, to up 35 percent compared to 2019. Wizz expects a “high-single digit” increase in unit revenues during the September quarter compared to the same period in 2019. This would be a nearly 20-point swing from the 10% year-over-three-years unit revenue decrease in the June quarter. Flights are forecast to be on average more than 90% full over the summer. This is good news for the budget airline that posted a significant loss in its last fiscal year, which ended in March. It also suggests that the forecast in June by Wizz CEO Jozsef Varadi that summer airfares could be as much as 60% higher than they were in 2019 may yet prove too conservative.<br/>
United Arab Emirates carrier flydubai has suspended operations to Colombo in Sri Lanka until further notice, a spokesperson for the budget airline said on Monday. "We will continue to closely monitor the situation on the ground in Sri Lanka. Passengers who have booked to travel on these flights will be contacted and offered a refund," the spokesperson told Reuters by email. Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways did not follow suit, but said that some of its services from Colombo would stop at India's Cochin International Airport to refuel before continuing onwards to Abu Dhabi starting from July 14. "Etihad continues to closely monitor the situation in Sri Lanka," a spokesperson for the airline said. Sri Lanka's president and the cabinet will resign to make way for a unity government, the prime minister's office said on Monday, after tens of thousands of people stormed the official residences of both men, enraged by the island's worst economic crisis in decades. <br/>
India's Supreme Court sentenced Vijay Mallya to four months in jail and ordered him to deposit US$40m, the latest legal setback for the former billionaire known as the "King of Good Times". Mallya is out on bail in London, where he has been contesting extradition to India following his arrest in the British capital in 2017. Mallya was charged with contempt of court, after he failed to repay debt owed to lenders led by the State Bank of India. He was found guilty by India's Supreme Court in 2017 for transferring US$40m to his children and failing to fully disclose his assets. Mallya's sentencing in absentia is rare, as Indian laws require people to be present when a punishment verdict is handed out to them. The top court decided to make an exception under its extraordinary powers, saying Mallya chose to not appear despite repeated opportunities since 2017. The crackdown on Mallya is part of efforts by Indian lenders to recover dues from defaulting big businesses. Mallya, whose empire spanned liquor to a cricket franchise and Formula One team, lost his fortune after a severe cash crunch at Kingfisher Airlines, the full-service carrier he founded in 2005 and was grounded seven years later.<br/>
Air Busan, a budget carrier unit under Asiana Airlines, said Monday that it would introduce six A321neo aircrafts next year for mid-haul destinations in maximum distance of 6,100 kilometers. The new fleet of next-generation aircrafts can fly to Singapore and Thai resort island of Phuket. The airliner has been deploying A321 carriers from 2020 to replace aged planes for carbon commitment and upgrade. As the result, its fleet of 25 is aged 10 years or less. “Through deployment of A321 neo carriers, we can fly longer while emitting less emission to raise the quality of our service in mid-haul flights,” said its CEO Ahn Byeong-seok.<br/>