The Dominican Republic’s new low-cost carrier AraJet has begun selling tickets for a projected 15 September launch. The airline, which is the successor of now-defunct Flycana, will begin operating a network of 13 destinations in nine countries across Latin America, according to its website. The carrier aims to expand to 20 cities in 12 countries, including to Canada, later this year. “We promised low fares…never seen before in our country,” chief executive Victor Pacheco said on 9 August. ”This is the first step in the process to build the first strategic connecting hub in the Caribbean that will foster the Americas connectivity at the lowest fares. Additionally, starting in September we are kicking-off our mission to convert Las Americas International airport into a premier Latin American air hub,” he added. The new airline’s inaugural flights will be between Santo Domingo and Mexico City, the company says. After that, the carrier will add routes to Monterrey, Mexico; Barranquilla, Cali and Cartagena, Colombia; Quito and Guayaquil, Ecuador; Lima, Peru; Guatemala City, Guatemala; San Salvador, El Salvador and St. Martin, Aruba and Curaçao in the Caribbean. In October, Arajet plans to begin flights to Toronto and Montreal; Medellin and Bogota, Colombia; San Jose, Costa Rica; and Kingston, Jamaica. Destinations in the United States will come “in the near future”, the company adds. <br/>
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Brazil’s Azul has posted record second-quarter revenue as it profited from increased demand for corporate travel and freighter services. The Sao Paulo-headquartered airline recorded revenue of R$3.9b ($760m) in Q2 2022, usually seasonally the weakest of the year. That’s more than double the revenue it achieved in the same three months in 2021, and 50% higher than during the same three months of pre-pandemic 2019. Azul says it was the third consecutive quarter with net revenues above pre-pandemic levels. But the company recorded a R$2.6b loss, owing in large part to currency fluctuations and the higher cost of jet fuel. Expenses in the quarter were R$3.8b, up 80% from R$2.1b in the same quarter a year earlier, driven by a nearly 81% rise in jet fuel prices in addition to the airline’s capacity increase as measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs) of almost 60% in the same time period. “The second quarter of 2022 proved once again the strength of our business model,” CE John Rodgerson said on the company’s quarterly earnings call on 11 August. “While geopolitical volatility led to higher fuel prices and the devaluation of the Brazilian real, we demonstrated once again our disciplined capacity deployment by focusing our growth in markets where we are strong.” Azul’s cargo business as well as its package vacations unit Azul Viagens both are growing faster than the company as a whole, executives say. Viagens had stronger bookings in July than it did in June, even though the primary travel month for the South American winter is July. That’s a “good indication” that the leisure market remains strong, Azul’s chief revenue officer Abhi Shah says. Azul Cargo Express, which grew 29% year-on-year, is triple the size it was in 2019, executives say, with above-average margins continuing into the foreseeable future. Corporate travel has returned as well, with the company reaching 130% of 2019 corporate revenue during the quarter between April and June. Passenger volume is about 80%, with average fares 50% higher, Shah says. “There’s still more corporate volume recovery that will happen in the second half of the year,” he adds. <br/>
LATAM Airlines Group hopes to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the last quarter of 2022 after securing the financing plus US Bankruptcy Court and shareholder approval for its restructuring plan, says Group CEO Roberto Alvo. "We have closed the second quarter with significant progress in our reorganisation process under Chapter 11, and we hope to emerge from it during the last quarter of this year. Although the group has made advances in its operational recovery, we continue to remain cautiously optimistic about the coming months, closely monitoring fuel prices and macro-economic variables, as the industry still finds itself in the midst of a very dynamic environment," Alvo said. At an extraordinary shareholders' meeting, LATAM obtained the necessary approval from its shareholders for the company's new capital structure and the issuance of the financing instruments presented in the restructuring plan, receiving the support of the vast majority of shareholders, corresponding to 99.8% of the shares present or represented at the meeting, which correspond to 77.5% of the total shares with voting rights. This will allow LATAM to begin the final phase of regulatory requirements in Chile for the eventual implementation of the plan. <br/>
Air Peace has announced it is suspending its flights to Johannesburg O.R. Tambo from August 22 until October 8, 2022, citing as reasons delays in South Africa granting visas to Nigerian visitors, a worsening foreign exchange crunch, and the scarcity/price hike of aviation fuel. "However, having informed the South African High Commission in Lagos of the effects of the difficulty in getting SA visas by Nigerians, which consequence is the abysmally low passenger loads on our flights to and from Johannesburg, we believe that the situation will have improved within the next 60 days. Hence, our willingness to resume operations on October 8, 2022," airline management announced in a statement posted on social media. South Africa's Department of Home Affairs was not immediately available for comment. The Department, at the end of June 2022, acknowledged a backlog in the granting of visas. It extended until September 30, 2022, a blanket temporary extension of the current visa status of all foreign nationals already in South Africa who are awaiting the outcome of their visa extension applications. The backlog in visa processing is being caused by the introduction of a new immigration system in South Africa announced by Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi at the start of June, according to South African legal firm Webber Wentzel. Visa applications previously went through outsourced facilitation centres or through South African missions abroad. Now these visa applications are processed through a centralised system to achieve consistency and uniformity in the visa adjudication process.<br/>
The A380 super jumbo has many supporters around the world, but none quite as vocal and powerful as Tim Clark, the president of Emirates, by far the largest operator of the aircraft. The Dubai-based airline purchased nearly half of all A380s ever produced and now has 118 in its fleet, about 80 of which are currently flying. The entire fleet will be back in the air by spring of next year, as part of a resurgence that has seen the super jumbo reintroduced into service with many of its operators, after the pandemic led many to believe it was ready for retirement. "The notion that the A380 was a spent force was always a little bit of a difficult one for us to swallow," Clark said. "I was chuckling to myself, thinking 'Wait and see.' We started flying the A380 into Heathrow six times a day in October of last year, and we haven't had a [free] seat on any of them since." The airline will start refreshing the interiors of almost 70 of its A380s later this year, adding a new premium economy class that will slightly reduce passenger capacity from 519 to 484. The most distinctive feature of Emirates' super jumbo, however, will remain the legendary shower spa, which offers first class passengers the luxury of a full-fledged shower at 35,000 feet. There are two such suites, at the front of the upper deck, and Emirates is the only airline to offer them, after Clark explicitly requested them during the final design phase of the plane, in the early 2000s. "Airbus had come up with a fairly sad possibility of putting benches and having little lounges there, but the notion that you would have bathrooms with showers and all the other bits and pieces was an interesting one," he says. "It was a bit of a risk for us, but these were dead spaces which we couldn't generate income from. I realized that actually they would be hugely popular." Convincing Airbus to install them, however, wasn't easy. "We designed the showers and then went to Airbus, who were very much arms folded at that time," Clark adds.<br/>
Permission for El Al Israel Airlines to fly over Oman is expected in "a matter of days", chief executive Dina Ben-Tal said on Thursday, a move that would be a big boost for the flag carrier's Asian routes. Ben-Tal, speaking to reporters after El Al issued second-quarter results, said the airline had already received approval to fly over Saudi Arabia but also needed to fly over Oman to skirt Iran and save time for journeys to Asia. Last month, Saudi Arabia said it would open its airspace to all air carriers. El Al and smaller Israeli rival Arkia later said they had applied for permission to fly over both Saudi Arabia and Oman. Opening Saudi airspace to flights to and from Israel was a focus of US President Joe Biden's tour last month of the countries, which do not have formal ties. "It's not just Saudi Arabia. We need the full route to be approved," Ben-Tal said. Once fully approved, it would cut about 2-1/2 hours from flights to India and Thailand and save fuel costs. Present routes to those popular destinations bypass Saudi airspace by flying south over the Red Sea around Yemen. "We are planning to reschedule our network around that new (shorter) route," Ben-Tal said, adding El Al was also looking into new non-stop routes to destinations such as Australia. "It definitely will have a huge efficiency (benefit) around our network."<br/>
El Al made a pre-tax loss of $90m for the first half of the year, although a tax gain pushed the airline into a net profit of $34m. The airline generated revenues of nearly $799m over the six months to 30 June. El Al says the gradual post-pandemic re-opening of travel access which began in the first quarter continued in the second, and resulted in a strengthening of the airline’s business. For Q2 the airline posted a $9m and $64m profit for EBIT and EBITDAR respectively, both a substantial rise on the first-quarter figures. Although demand in Israel has increased significantly – even returning to pre-crisis level in certain respects – the airline says it has not yet returned to its full scope of activity. It says this lag in restoring production capacity relates to such matters as employee training and aircraft serviceability. El Al says its activity level for the second quarter ran at about 73% compared with the same pre-crisis period of 2019, when it operated around 43 aircraft compared with the current 36. As a result of this lag, it says, the company experienced an “excess of demand over supply”. The airline adds that, alongside these “challenges”, it is also facing increasing expenditure from inflation – particularly in the cost of jet fuel. But El Al is optimistic that a recent salary agreement with its pilots – ending a period of disruption to its services – and the possibility of opening new routes as a result of access to Saudi Arabian airspace. It says this network access is still subject to approval from the Omani government but, once cleared, the airline will be able to consider destination including cities in Australia.<br/>
Bangkok Airways trimmed its second-quarter operating loss, as revenue increase outpaced a steady rise in costs. For the three months to 30 June, the Thai carrier posted an operating loss of Bt440m ($12.5m), a slight improvement over the Bt587 million loss in the same period last year. Revenue for the quarter jumped nearly 75% year on year to Bt2.5b, outpacing a 64% increase in expenses at Bt3.2b. Bangkok Airways attributes the rise in revenue to a significant seven-fold increase in passenger travel revenue, following the easing of travel restrictions. During the quarter, Bangkok Airways flew about 535,000 passengers, five times higher year on year. Capacity grew fourfold, while traffic increased by more than five times year on year. The increase in expenses is due mainly to a rise in fuel prices, the airline adds. For a six-month period, Bangkok Airways also narrowed its operating loss - at Bt1.27b compared to 2021’s Bt1.34b. Revenue for the half-year rose 49% year on year to Bt4.2b, again outpacing an increase in expenses, which grew about 42% to Bt5.6b. While travel demand is expected to be robust, Bangkok Airways, in brief remarks, warns of potential challenges in the near term. It states: “Although overall tourism has recovered, the global economy still faces inflation from the Russia and Ukraine war. [We are also] closely monitoring the Monkeypox epidemic.” <br/>
Cebu Air announced on Thursday that it narrowed its net loss for Q2 of the year to P1.89b from a loss of P6.49b previously. The company saw its revenues for the period jump 336.6% to P13.97b from P3.2 in Q2 2021, its Q2 financial performance results showed. “During the second quarter of 2022, most parts of the country remained to be classified under the more relaxed alert level classification,” Cebu Air said. “As a result, the group restored almost the same level of its pre-pandemic system-wide capacity following the continuous ramp-up of its domestic and international routes,” it added. Expenses for the second quarter increased 85.3% to P16.79b from P9.06b previously. For the first half of the year, Cebu Air’s net loss amounted to P9.5b, 31.1% lower than the P13.79b net loss sustained for the six months ended on June 30, 2021. Cebu Air’s revenues for the first six months reached P20.682 billion, 250.3% higher than the P5.9b revenues generated in the same period in 2021. “The overall increase in revenues was primarily driven by significant increase in passenger volume, cargo services and flight activities as the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) restrictions already eased by March 2022,” the company said.<br/>
Alliance Airlines has said it will offer pilots new perks to join and stay with the airline after claiming overseas airlines continue to poach its staff. The airline has pledged to increase “non-monetary” incentives to boost pilot retention, as well as drive recruitment and training efforts, after “a number” of its pilots left the airline to “take roles overseas”. It comes as the industry navigates a global shortage of qualified pilots, that has seen international airlines, including Emirates and US regional carriers, add to the local problem by actively poaching Australian pilots. “These resignations [have] impacted both the training and the activity pipelines,” Alliance noted in its financial results posting for the 2022 financial year. As such, Alliance said that moving forward it would renew a “focus on increasing recruitment of pilots”, and “non-monetary incentivisation for pilots to stay with Alliance Airlines”. Alliance has rapidly expanded its E190 fleet to 24 aircraft with another nine on order.<br/>