A Southwest flight attendant suffered a compression fracture to a vertebra in her upper back during a hard landing last month in California, according to federal safety investigators. The NTSB said the impact of landing was so hard that the flight attendant thought the plane had crashed. She felt pain in her back and neck and could not move, and was taken to a hospital where she was diagnosed with the fracture. The safety board completed its investigation without saying what caused the hard larding. The NTSB said none of the other 141 people on board the plane were injured in the incident at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California. The pilots told investigators that they were aiming for the normal touchdown zone on the relatively short runway. “However, it ended up being a firm landing,” the NTSB said in its final report, dated Friday. Southwest said Monday, “We reported the matter to the NTSB in accordance with regulatory requirements and conducted an internal review of the event.” A spokeswoman for the airline declined to provide further information when asked about the result of the internal investigation and whether the plane was inspected for evidence of damage that could occur during a hard landing. The plane has been making several flights a day, according to tracking services. Shortly after the 18-year-old Boeing 737-700 taxied off the runway, the pilots — a 55-year-old captain and 49-year-old co-pilot — were told about the injury to the flight attendant, who was in a jump seat at the back of the plane. The NTSB, which did not travel to the accident site, has not made its documents from the investigation publicly available.<br/>
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The wing of a JetBlue Airways plane clipped the wing of a Southwest Airlines jet at New York's LaGuardia Airport Sunday morning, the FAA said. As JetBlue Flight 2519 was being pushed back from its gate at around 9:40 a.m. Sunday, the plane's left wingtip hit the right wingtip of an empty Southwest plane parked at an adjacent gate, the FAA said. FAA air traffic controllers were not directing the aircraft when the accident occurred, the agency said. No injuries were reported, according to the FAA. The JetBlue aircraft was an Airbus A320 and the Southwest plane was a Boeing 737, the FAA said. "We are aware that an aircraft belonging to another airline came in contact with a portion of the wing of a Southwest Airlines aircraft that was parked at a gate at New York's LaGuardia Airport," Southwest Airlines said in a statement. "There were no Crew Members or Passengers onboard at the time and the aircraft is now out of service to allow our Teams to make necessary repairs." CNN has reached out to JetBlue for comment.<br/>
Sun Country Airlines notched higher revenue during Q2 2022, as leisure travel demand rose. However, the Minneapolis, Minnesota-headquartered carrier joins its airline peers across the USA in struggling with ensuring it has enough qualified and current flight crew to cover all of its needs. Sun Country said on 8 August says it posted a loss of $3.9m for Q2, which ended on 30 June, while revenue rose to $219m from $149m in the same quarter a year ago. That’s an increase of 46.8%. Compared to the same period in pre-pandemic 2019, revenue came in 29% higher. But expenses also more than doubled, primarily owing to the higher cost of aviation fuel, as well as salary increases. Sun Country flies a mix of scheduled service, charter and cargo operations with an all-Boeing 737 fleet. “We continued to see strong leisure demand in July and expect it to stay elevated through the summer travel period,” says chief executive Jude Bricker. “We are facing the same training challenges that have impacted the rest of the industry, resulting in less scheduled service flying than we would like to have flown and negatively impacting results. "Demand continues to be at some of the strongest levels that we have seen,” echoes CFO Dave Davis. “Unfortunately, despite growing second quarter block hours by 23% versus 2019, we were undersized in the quarter due to training challenges limiting our scheduled service and ad hoc charter growth.” The airline says that 92% of its charter block hours are flown under long term contracts. Bricker adds that the company is “making progress on resolving these training challenges” and they will be temporary. “I am as bullish as ever on all of the critical factors that will determine Sun Country’s long-term success,” he adds.<br/>
Hungary accused Ryanair of consumer protection violations and fined it more than three-quarters of a million euros after the budget carrier raised ticket prices to cope with a tax on what the government calls “extra profits” of industries ranging from airlines to banks. Justice Minister Judit Varga wrote Monday on Facebook that an investigation against Ireland-based Ryanair started in June and found “unfair trade practices,” triggering a fine of 300m Hungarian forints ($777,058). The fine is the first tied to the tax, which led Ryanair and others to increase prices and set off a clash with industry. Hungary has said costs should not be passed along to customers. Ryanair says it will “immediately appeal any baseless fine” but that it hasn’t received notice of one. It pointed to European Union law allowing airlines to set fares for flights within the 27-nation bloc without interference from national governments and says it will appeal to EU courts if needed. PM Viktor Orban’s right-wing nationalist government says industries from banking to insurance to airlines that have enjoyed “extra profits” arising from soaring demand after the COVID-19 pandemic should contribute to the country’s economic recovery. His government blames the war in Ukraine and EU sanctions against Russia for woes like the skyrocketing energy prices, its currency weakening to record levels and inflation reaching 12.6% in June. The government has said it hopes the tax will raise 815b forints ($2.1b) to maintain a program that reduces people’s utility bills and bolsters the military. The economic problems “require that whichever multinational companies that make extra profit should pay their share of the costs of the overhead protection and the national defense,” Varga wrote Monday.<br/>
UK carrier Titan Airways highlights the diversification of its activities, including the introduction of Airbus A321 converted freighter operations, as driving a sharp cut in losses for the year ending March 2022 and bright prognosis for the coming year. Titan reduced its pre-tax losses from GBP16.3m ($19.7m) in its 2021 financial year to GBP3.6m last year, despite the continued impact on travel demand of the pandemic. It cut net loss to GBP2.6m for the year to March 2022, a sharp improvement on the GBP13m loss incurred the previous year. The improved performance was driven by a more than doubling in revenues to GBP121m, surpassing its pre-Covid high of GBP117m. “Given the ongoing challenges presented to the industry by the Covid-19 pandemic, the directors are extremely pleased with the performance of the company,” Titan says in its results commentary. ”Thanks to the diversified business mix and the company’s agile nature, securing new niche contracts, the company results reflect a strong second half to the year.” Notably that includes the expansions of its cargo activities, including securing contracts for its A321 converted freighters. Titan took delivery of the first of these at the start of 2021 and now operates three – with conversions slots for a further two units this year. It also took delivery of an A330 freighter in August, while returning an A318 and Boeing 737 freighter at the end of their leases during its last financial year.<br/>
European budget airline Wizz Air (WIZZ.L) will resume flights from Abu Dhabi to Moscow from October, it said on Thursday, more than five months after the carrier suspended all services to Russia following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February. The airline's Abu Dhabi-based joint venture, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, will operate the daily flight from Oct. 3, with fares starting from 359 dirham ($97.74), it said. Wizz Air, which in October 2021 announced the Abu Dhabi to Moscow flights would start in December that year, said on Feb. 27 it had suspended all flights to Russia. Other Emirati carriers, including Emirates, have continued to operate services to Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. Wizz Air Abu Dhabi is a joint venture between Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ and the European airline. It is based in Abu Dhabi and is a United Arab Emirates registered carrier.<br/>
Three Indian banks have internally categorised loans to SpiceJet as being at "high risk" though the airline has not defaulted, people with knowledge of the matter said, drawing a denial from the airline. IDFC First Bank, Yes Bank and Indian Bank are concerned about SpiceJet's cash flows and have held talks with the carrier seeking assurances as it has been behind on payments to some aircraft lessors, said the sources who declined to be named given the sensitivity of the matter. However SpiceJet called the Reuters report false and baseless. "None of our banks has put our account on high risk or alert," SpiceJet said. "The same has been confirmed to us by our lenders." IDFC said it had not categorised SpiceJet as a "red-flagged" account as it is a performing account. An IDFC spokesperson said the bank's net exposure to SpiceJet was small at 460m rupees ($5.8m), 200m rupees of which was covered under a government-sponsored programme and further supported by a "comfortable 2X security cover". The other two banks did not respond to Reuters' requests seeking comment on their SpiceJet loans. One of the sources said they were "very, very concerned about the SpiceJet account and have put it in high-risk category and are regularly monitoring it".<br/>