Senator Elizabeth Warren urged federal airline regulators to block JetBlue Airways Corp.’s proposed merger with Spirit Airlines by invoking a rarely used authority from the 1950s to argue that the $3.8 billion deal isn’t “consistent with the public interest.” In a letter to Transportation Department Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said the agency could use its authority over airline certification transfers to stop the merger. She contends that the elimination of Spirit, a low-cost carrier, would likely lead to higher airline ticket prices, particularly in places where Spirit and JetBlue overlap. Although the Transportation Department is the primary regulator for the airline industry, it generally defers to the Justice Department to decide whether airline mergers pass muster on US antitrust law. The Justice Department must go to court to prove that competition would be harmed by a merger. The DOT, however, can just decide that the merger is not in the public interest, an authority it has had since the Federal Aviation Administration was created in 1958. “DOT has the statutory authority to block mergers that it determines are inconsistent with the public interest at the agency level without having to go to court -- a significant advantage over DOJ -- and you have an enormous opportunity to protect consumers nationwide by using this authority aggressively,” Warren wrote. <br/>
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Southwest said Thursday that corporate travel is recovering more slowly than the airline had expected, although that is offset by continuing strong demand from leisure travelers even after the end of the traditional summer vacation season. Southwest said revenue from “managed” business travel in the quarter ending Sept. 30 will be down 26% to 28% from 2019 levels. That’s a retreat from Southwest’s earlier forecast of a 17% to 21% decline, which the airline attributed to “softer” last-minute business-travel bookings since late July. The Dallas-based airline said, however, that business travel has picked up after Labor Day -- as it usually does -- echoing similar comments by Delta Air Lines on Wednesday. Southwest caters mostly to leisure travelers but has been making a big push to attract more corporate business, putting it in more direct competition with American, Delta and United. Southwest offered the Q3 commentary in a securities filing that generally repeated previous forecasts, including that overall revenue will be about 10% higher than the same period in 2019. Southwest said it had a good Labor Day weekend and revenue is still trending higher than in 2019. “Although early in the booking curve, the company continues to experience strong revenue trends in fourth quarter 2022,” it said.<br/>
Canadian discount start-up airline Canada Jetlines has applied to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for authority to fly to the USA. The Vancouver-based leisure carrier, which has not yet launched revenue flights, is “developing relationships with Melbourne-Orlando and Sarasota Bradenton International airports for Florida service”, it says in a 13 September filing. Orlando and Sarasota are among several Florida destinations popular with Canadian tourists during the northern hemisphere’s winter. Thousands of tourists, also known as “snowbirds”, flock to the warmer climate between November and April. The carrier, which has pushed back its launch several times, now says it will begin revenue service on 22 September, with flights between its base in Toronto and Calgary International airport. It had previously planned to begin flying to Winnipeg and Moncton, New Brunswick, in early August, but delayed the start from 15 August to 29 August, and now to end-September. According to Cirium fleets data, the carrier has just one airframe, an 11-year-old Airbus A320 formerly operated by Colombian flag carrier Avianca and Turkey’s Pegasus. Jetlines has said it aims to acquire four more 737s annually starting in 2023, with plans to have 25 jets in 2025. <br/>
Aer Lingus has confirmed that last weekend’s IT systems outage which led to the cancellation of more than 50 of its flights in and out of Dublin Airport was caused by construction workers hitting a fibre-optic cable in the UK. The airline has a contract with a cloud services provider to host the network on its core operations IT system. The cloud provider is hosted by a UK internet service provider (ISP). Aer Lingus says “unrelated construction work” hit one of the ISP’s cables, knocking out Aer Lingus’s “core operational and customer system” for 10 hours until the cable was repaired at 5.30pm last Saturday. A back-up system should have kicked in to keep its systems online, says the airline. However, “a component failed in the back-up”. “This should not have happened and our supplier has apologised,” said Aer Lingus. When asked if it would seek compensation from the company involved, the airline responded that it was currently “engaging with the supplier regarding the consequences of the outage”.<br/>
Jeju Air, South Korea's leading budget carrier, said Sunday it has signed an initial pact with an Indonesian provincial government for a partnership to open a new route between the two countries. Jeju Air has signed a memorandum of understanding with North Sulawesi Province to explore opportunities to offer flights to the Southeast Asian country, the company said in a statement. The Indonesian government aims to develop new tourism sites to attract travelers from around the world under the "10 New Bali's" policy. Jeju Air plans to support increasing routes with B737-8s, which will be delivered from next year through 2027. It ordered 40 B737-8s, formerly called the B737 MAX, for 5 trillion won ($4 billion). The budget carrier used to operate 45 B737-800NG chartered planes on 87 routes, including six domestic routes, before the pandemic. The number of planes has fallen to 39. Jeju Air is targeting to turn around next year as eased virus restrictions unleash pent-up travel demand. The low-cost carrier posted net losses for three consecutive years through 2021 amid the pandemic. The addition of a new route and planes will also help put Jeju Air back on track though it depends on how much travel demand will recover later this year, Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae said in June. <br/>