The prospects for a proposed sale of Spirit Airlines to Frontier Airlines appear to be under threat as a prominent shareholder advisory firm reversed its guidance on the combination of the two budget carriers, recommending on Friday that Spirit’s investors reject the deal. A bidding war has led Spirit to repeatedly delay a shareholder vote as it seeks to garner support for the Frontier deal over an unsolicited bid by JetBlue Airways. The additional time, shifting terms of the deals and market dynamics led the advisory firm, Institutional Shareholder Services, to change its recommendation twice, most recently on Friday. Frontier said days earlier that it had no plans to adjust its offer and acknowledged that it remained “very far” from obtaining the support needed from Spirit’s shareholders. At Frontier’s request, Spirit this week delayed the shareholder vote again, to July 27. It had been scheduled for Friday. Although JetBlue’s offer is more valuable than Frontier’s, Spirit and Frontier have argued that regulators are unlikely to approve a sale to JetBlue. But after taking into account the potential effect of a regulatory delay, ISS estimated that JetBlue’s offer was still worth 11.5 percent to 19 percent more than Frontier’s. Spirit’s management team has also repeatedly argued that the Frontier deal offers more long-term benefits to shareholders: The two airlines share a low-cost business model, and their combination would be easier to pull off and create a viable national budget carrier, it has argued. But movement in Frontier’s share price since it and Spirit jointly announced the acquisition plan in February suggests that investors are not confident that a market “recovery is on the horizon,” ISS said. Ultimately, it concluded, “the proposal from JetBlue appears to represent a superior alternative.”<br/>
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A former Southwest flight attendant who was fired after sparring with her union president over abortion and other issues won a $5.1m jury verdict against the airline and the union. A jury in federal district court in Dallas handed down the verdict Thursday. If it stands, Charlene Carter could collect $4.15m from Southwest and $950,000 from Local 556 of the Transport Workers Union, mostly in punitive damages. Southwest said Friday that it “has a demonstrated history of supporting our employees’ rights to express their opinions when done in a respectful manner.” It plans to appeal. A lawyer for the union said jurors might have misunderstood the judge’s instructions, and it also plans to appeal. Carter alleged she was fired in March 2017 after complaining to the union president about flight attendants going to a march in Washington, D.C., where more than 500,000 people protested President Donald Trump’s positions on abortion and other issues. Carter, who had clashed with the union for years over other issues, believed dues were paying for an anti-abortion protest. Carter sent a series of Facebook messages, some containing videos of purported aborted fetuses, to Audrey Stone, who was president of the union at the time. She called Stone “despicable” and said she would be voted out of office. According to court documents, the airline said it fired Carter because posts on her Facebook page, in which she could be identified as a Southwest employee, were “highly offensive” and that her private messages to Stone were harassing. The airline said she violated company policies on bullying and use of social media.<br/>
El Al said it welcomes the “very positive” decision by Saudi Arabia to open its airspace to all airlines, including flights traveling to and from Tel Aviv. “It’s great news!” said Shlomi Am-Salom, spokesman for El Al. “We’ve been waiting for it for a long time.” Until the decision by Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation early Friday, most commercial flights to and from Israel had to skirt Saudi airspace, adding hours of travel -- and substantial fuel costs to some flights. El Al has previously said that allowing its jets to fly over Saudi airspace would cut travel times to New Delhi and Bangkok by more than two and a half hours, and open up the possibility of direct flights to Australia. “It will be a great help for Israeli passengers, and we really think this is a very positive, and welcome, and blessed decision,” Am-Salom said.<br/>
An Israeli official said on Saturday he expected members of the country's Muslim minority to be able to fly directly to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage by next year after the kingdom signalled new openness as it hosted U.S. President Joe Biden. On Friday, Riyadh said its airspace would be open to all carriers - a de facto extension of flyover rights for Israeli planes, which previously had a Saudi corridor only for Gulf destinations, to include various Asia routes too. Esawi Freij, Israel's regional cooperation minister, said the Saudi decision showed U.S.-encouraged efforts to move the countries toward more normal ties "are at a very advanced stage" that may "turn the dream into reality" for Muslims like himself. "I believe that, in a year, the Muslim Israeli citizen will be able to fly from Ben Gurion (airport near Tel Aviv) to Jeddah and from there to Mecca to fulfil his pilgrimage duty," Freij told public broadcaster Kan.<br/>
An Antonov cargo plane operated by a Ukrainian airline crashed Saturday near the city of Kavala in northern Greece, authorities said. Local residents reported seeing a fireball and hearing explosions for two hours after the crash. Greek Civil Aviation authorities said the flight was heading from Serbia to Jordan. The An-12, a Soviet-built turboprop aircraft, was operated by cargo carrier Meridian. Greek media reported there were eight people on the plane and that it was carrying 12 tons of “dangerous materials,” mostly explosives. But local officials said they had no specific information on the cargo and provided varying numbers of people on board. As a precaution because of a strong smell emanating from the crash site, a coordinating committee made up of municipal, police and fire service officials told inhabitants of the two localities closest to the crash site to keep their windows shut all night, to not leave their homes and to wear masks. Authorities say they do not know if there were dangerous chemicals on the plane, including those contained in batteries. Greece’s Civil Aviation authority said the pilot managed to alert authorities about a problem in one of the plane’s engines and he was given the choice of landing in either the Thessaloniki or Kavala airports, and he opted for Kavala, which was closer, saying that he had to make an emergency landing.<br/>
India's biggest airline, IndiGo, said on Sunday it had diverted a plane to Karachi in neighbouring Pakistan due to a "technical defect", the second such incident for an Indian carrier involving an unscheduled landing in less than two weeks. The flight was meant to go to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates from the southern city of Hyderabad. It was not immediately clear when the incident occurred. "IndiGo flight 6E-1406, operating from Sharjah to Hyderabad was diverted to Karachi. The pilot observed a technical defect," IndiGo said in a statement to the media. "Necessary procedures were followed and as a precaution the aircraft was diverted to Karachi." IndiGo was dispatching an additional flight to Karachi to bring passengers back to Hyderabad, it said. SpiceJet said on July 5 a Boeing 737 aircraft from New Delhi to Dubai made an emergency landing in Karachi due to a fuel indicator light malfunctioning, prompting the airlines watchdog to issue a warning notice. <br/>
Vietnam's budget airline VietJet Aviation (VJC.HM) will launch 13 new routes between the Southeast Asian country and India later this year, the company said on Monday, noting it also planned to add more Airbus A330 planes. The new routes to be launched from early September to early December will link Vietnam's major cities and its tourism island of Phu Quoc with Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai, VietJet said in a statement.<br/>"We now prioritize expanding and increasing flight operations to India...to serve the rise in demand for both leisure and business travel," VietJet Vice President Nguyen Thanh Son said. The airline currently operates four Vietnam-India routes, linking Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with New Delhi and Mumbai. VietJet, which operates a fleet of 80 Airbus aircraft on around 100 routes, plans to add more A330 widebody planes as part of its fleet development plan, it said. The airline, which currently has two leased A330 planes, said it intends to increase the number to at least 10 but did not give any time frame.<br/>
Crossing the Tasman is about to get a lot cheaper with the return of budget airline AirAsiaX to New Zealand skies. The airline has announced it will operate services from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne (Tullamarine), Sydney and Perth, as well as Auckland. Flights to Auckland will operate via Sydney, which is good news for Kiwis looking for a holiday in Australia. AirAsiaX has released launch fares of $169 one-way economy from Auckland to Sydney, and $618 for their flatbed premium product. The airline's first flight out of Auckland will take place on November 1. Currently, airfares to Sydney are selling for as much as $500-$700 one-way on Air New Zealand and Qantas. However, on November 1, the same day AirAsiaX begins its trans-Tasman service, one-way airfares to Sydney drop to $265 on Air NZ, and $316 on Qantas.<br/>AirAsiaX is also launching its services to New Delhi, Seoul, Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka and Honolulu as well as London, Dubai and Istanbul. "We are thrilled to recommence our services to Australia and New Zealand as a core part of our expansion strategy with our famous great value fares for medium to long-haul travel," the airline's CEO Benyamin Ismail said.<br/>