Spirit Airlines reported a Q2 loss as strong travel demand and higher fares weren’t enough to overcome a surge in costs. Spirit reported results less than two weeks after it announced it agreed to sell itself to JetBlue Airways for $3.8b, ending a monthslong bidding war for Spirit between JetBlue and Frontier Airlines. Miramar, Florida-based Spirit posted a net loss of $52.4m for the three months ended June 30. Revenue rose nearly 35% from pre-pandemic 2019 to almost $1.37b. Expenses soared more than 66% compared with three years ago. Its fuel bill more than doubled. Passengers were paying more to fly, however, with revenue per passenger, per flight up more than 24% from 2019 to $140.61, including fees. Spirit, like other discount carriers, offers travelers low fares and charges fees for add-ons like cabin baggage and seat selection. In the current quarter, Spirit expects pretax margins between negative 1% and positive 1%, citing capacity constraints in Florida. The Federal Aviation Administration this spring said it would add more air traffic controllers to handle a surge in volume in the state. Spirit, JetBlue and other major carriers have already dialed back their growth plans in an effort to avoid flight disruptions, which were made worse this year by staffing shortages. Still, Spirit said it expanded flying almost 10% in Q2 compared with the same period of 2019. It plans to grow its schedule by 14% in Q3 and 25% in the last three months of the year, compared with three years earlier.<br/>
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LATAM Airlines, Latin America's largest regional airline, reported a second-quarter net loss of $523.2m Tuesday, the company said, partially hurt by the high increase in fuel costs. The Chile-based airline's quarterly loss compares to a loss of $769.6m during the same three-month period last year. LATAM's Q2 revenue rose 150.5% to $2.226b from the year-ago period. The airline, born in 2012 from the merger of Chile's LAN with Brazilian rival TAM, has operating units in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Peru. Last month, LATAM shareholders approved a reorganization plan as part of the company's bankruptcy proceeding in the United States in the wake of pandemic-related restrictions.<br/>
Wizz Air is to restart flights to Moscow through its Abu Dhabi joint venture, drawing warnings that a return to Russia risks reputational damage for the European low-cost airline. Wizz Air Abu Dhabi will restart flights to and from the Russian capital on October 3. It suspended services following the invasion of Ukraine. Russia has been effectively cut off from flights to and from the UK and EU following a barrage of flight bans and sanctions after the war began in late February. But the bans do not apply to Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, which is based in the Middle East and is a joint venture with ADQ, an Abu Dhabi state investment vehicle, which owns 51%. Wizz Air, which is based in Hungary and listed on the London Stock Exchange, said the resumption of flights would bring its Abu Dhabi airline into line with its major rivals in the Middle East such as Emirates and Etihad, which have not stopped flying to Russia. But analysts warned of potential reputational damage that could outweigh the extra business. “While we can see the commercial logic of this, we do feel that the optics look all wrong,” analysts at Goodbody said on Tuesday. The stockbroker added that the additional flights would not “really change the dial” in terms of Wizz’s overall network or its flight plans going into this winter. The decision could also complicate the retrieval of four Wizz Air planes that are still on the ground in Ukraine after becoming stuck following airspace closures around the time of Russia’s invasion. Wizz Air was one of the carriers worst hit in Europe by airspace bans across Ukraine following the start of the war, with around 7% of its scheduled capacity for summer 2022 originally flying to and from Ukraine, according to Moody’s.<br/>
Ryanair said Tuesday it expects to incur no disruptions to its daily flight schedule in August or September from planned weekly strikes by some of its Spanish cabin crew. Members of the USO and SITCPLA unions said last month they would strike from Monday to Thursday every week from Aug. 8 to Jan. 7 to press demands for higher pay and better working conditions. The Irish airline, Europe's largest carrier by passenger numbers, says the vast majority of its Spanish cabin crew are represented by another union, CCOO, with which it has already reached a pay agreement. "Ryanair expects that these latest threatened strikes, which involve only a handful of our Spanish cabin crew, will have zero impact on our Spanish flights or schedules in August or September," a spokesperson said. USO and SITCPLA members walked out for several days at many Spanish airports in July. Ryanair said on Tuesday that the small number of cancelled flights in Spain last month was mostly due to air traffic controller strikes and flight delays.<br/>
Virgin Australia is on the lookout for new first officers to crew its growing fleet of Boeing 737s, including the 737 MAX 8 and MAX 10, with the “lowest minimum” flight-hour requirements seen in recent times for narrow-body aircraft. It comes as the industry navigates a global shortage of qualified pilots, that has resulted in Australian pilots taking up roles overseas, as air travel markets abroad open up quicker than Australia’s domestic market. According to a recruitment advertisement, the airline is taking on non-type rated pilots with a minimum requirement of 500 total command flight hours on any fixed-wing aircraft, and a minimum of 200 hours command on a multi-engined aircraft, alongside all other standard license and medical requirements. These experience-related requirements fall far below those of startup budget airline Bonza, which was also recently recruiting for pilots on its fleet of 737 MAX jets, which specified that applicants have at least 3,000 total flight hours, and recent experience on a Boeing 737.<br/>