New flights between the Isle of Man and the UK will operate from the end of October, airline Flybe has announced. The new schedule will see five flights a week between Isle of Man Airport and London Heathrow and six to and from George Best Belfast City. It marks a return to the island by the rejuvenated airline, which went into administration in 2020 before being bought out. Gary Cobb, director of the island's airport, welcomed the new routes. He said the expansion to the Isle of Man showed "the continued strength of the recovery to the aviation industry and passenger volumes to our airport". "We believe these routes will add choice and flexibility of which can only be of benefit to the Island - something which I know is welcomed, based on customer feedback," he added. Flybe CE Dave Pflieger said the routes were part of an "enhanced winter schedule" that reflected "the expansion of our fleet and network within Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but also into Europe".<br/>
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India's air safety watchdog on Wednesday said it was extending a restriction on Indian budget carrier SpiceJet Ltd's flight departures until Oct. 29. The airline will be allowed to fly only 50% of scheduled departures until then.<br/>
Following the Stock Exchange of Thailand warning of a possible delisting, Nok Air is ramping up its restructuring efforts. The new strategies, announced in a September 16 filing to the SET, go beyond the steps agreed to under the court-supervised business rehabilitation process that the airline is currently working through. Nok Air CEO Wutthiphum Jurangkool said in the filing that a fresh focus on capital restructuring, debt restructuring, and some operational changes would avoid the possibility of delisting and deliver better value for shareholders, including parent company Thai Airways International (TG, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi). "The Company has plans for capital restructuring by increasing the capital according to the rehabilitation plan to ensure that the Company’s business will resume efficiently and get the most benefit, which will drive the shareholder equity to become greater than zero," said the CEO. The debt restructuring process will now include an "improvement of fleet and type of aircraft utilization," with a bigger focus on international routes to target larger revenues, including opening a new route to Taipei Taoyuan and unspecified cities in India by the end of 2022. Frequencies on existing international sectors to Ho Chi Minh City and Yangon are also increasing. Presently, between 85%-90% of Nok's passengers are Thai locals, a customer base the CEO wants to broaden.<br/>
AirAsia’s recent five million free seat promotion has seen 500,000 seats sold in just 48 hours, marking its record-breaking sale with the highest number of seats sold daily since the onset of COVID-19. Capital A Bhd, the low-cost airline operator, said value seekers have been snapping up free seats by the minute to their favourite short-haul destinations with the likes of Langkawi, Penang and Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia. It said among the most popular overseas choices included Phuket, Krabi and Chiang Mai in Thailand, Bali in Indonesia and Cebu in the Philippines. CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said the record-breaking sale, achieved via traditional media, surpassed the airline’s pre-COVID daily sales record of 230,000 in January 2020. Group chief commercial officer Karen Chan said the strong demand reflected a positive outlook for the company going forward. "We’re thrilled to see such strong demand for travel post-COVID and we’re confident this is only the start. We’re in the business of making dreams come true and it is worth every effort when we see our planes filled with wanderlust and excited passengers once again.”<br/>