Three former Spirit Airlines employees were charged this week with a scheme to profit off passengers looking to get cheaper flights. The indictment from the US attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania alleges that two Pennsylvania-based reservation agents and their supervisor would encourage travelers to book cheap future flights, then alter their reservation to a more expensive flight for free without charging the airline's change fee. Instead, the indictment says, the agents would charge customers a "commission" via CashApp and pocket those funds. Between December 2017 and August 2018, the indictment says the fraud cost the airline more than $238,000 in fees for more than 1,700 flights. “As alleged, these defendants used access and privileges granted by virtue of their employment to cheat the airline reservation system and skim money off the top for themselves,” said U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero said. Although the indictment does not specifically mention Spirit Airlines, it does say that the three people charged with the scheme worked for "a major US airline headquartered in Florida." <br/>
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The next airline hoping to pose a threat to the country's Air Canada-WestJet duopoly has landed its inaugural flight. Canada Jetlines' first flight departed out of Toronto Pearson International Airport Thursday morning and arrived in Calgary International Airport to speeches and a ribbon cutting ceremony. The new startup airline, headquartered in Mississauga, Ont., is offering service between Toronto's Pearson International Airport and Calgary International Airport twice weekly. Canada Jetlines bills itself as an "all-Canadian, value-focused leisure carrier." While Toronto-Calgary is its only scheduled route right now, the company's chief commercial offer, Duncan Bureau, said the airline plans to service the leisure market both domestically and trans border with flights to the Caribbean and the Americas. The airline currently has one Airbus A320 and a second to join in December, with plans to expand the fleet to 15 Airbus A320s by 2025 at a rate of five aircrafts per year, said Bureau. Canada Jetlines is the country's newest, but not first, airline to emerge in the wake of the pandemic. Edmonton-based Flair Airlines has been aggressively expanding in the last year and a half, and now serves 36 airports with 85 routes and a fleet of 18 aircraft. Calgary-based Lynx, formerly known as Enerjet, launched last spring and said at the time it hoped to operate nearly 90 flights a week on nine routes by June, all within Canada. WestJet also operates its own subsidiary low-fare airline, Swoop, which launched in 2018 and offers service to destinations in Canada, the US, Mexico and the Caribbean. While these competitors operate under a low-cost, no-frills model, Canada Jetlines aims to differentiate itself with service to the premium leisure market, said Bureau.<br/>
Icelandair is entering a strategic arrangement with Air Greenland to explore co-operation on the two airlines’ networks. Services operated by Icelandair to Greenland are being transferred to the main Reykjavik Keflavik hub from the downtown Reykjavik airport. This will enable better connections between Air Greenland flights to Iceland, and international Icelandair flights to European and North American destinations. Icelandair says both carriers see “common opportunities” in the linking of their networks. “We will benefit from Air Greenland’s local knowledge and investment in infrastructure in Greenland and Air Greenland will benefit from our comprehensive sales and distribution network in Europe and North America,” says chief executive Bogi Nils Bogason. Air Greenland operates a regional network largely in the west of the territory, as well as services to Iceland and Denmark. “We see increased co-operation as strategically beneficial for Greenland, as the connection to Icelandair’s many international routes will create better accessibility for Greenland and provide better opportunities for business and leisure travellers to easily reach Greenland,” says the airline’s chief, Jacob Nitter Sorensen. “Residents will find it easier to get out into the world, and the world will find it easier to get to Greenland.”<br/>
United Arab Emirates-listed carrier Air Arabia and Sudanese conglomerate DAL Group have partnered to form a new airline based in Sudan’s main Khartoum airport, they said on Thursday. The low-cost airline would represent the first such investment by a foreign airliner in a carrier serving Sudan. Air Arabia Sudan will follow the same model as other Air Arabia joint ventures, including ones in Morocco, Pakistan, and Egypt, the Sharjah-headquartered company said. “Work on securing the relevant approvals and licenses is scheduled to commence shortly,” the statement said. The airline will operate a fleet of new Airbus A320 aircraft. DAL Group, one of Sudan’s largest companies, is active in the food and beverage, agriculture, automobile, mining, and other sectors. Earlier this year, Chairman Osama Daoud Abdellatif told Reuters the group had entered a partnership with Abu Dhabi Ports to build a new port along Sudan’s Red Sea coast.<br/>
Airbus won a deal to supply 40 jets worth around $4.8b at list prices to a unit of China Southern Airlines, cementing its lead in one of the world’s biggest aviation markets at the expense of Boeing. Xiamen Air, an all-Boeing operator, agreed to buy the A320neo-series narrowbodies for delivery from 2024 to 2027, according to a statement Thursday. The price is expected to be subject to customary discounts. It’s another coup for Airbus, which notched a deal worth $37b for the same kind of jets from four Chinese airlines in July. That deal marked China’s first major jetliner orders in three years and decisively boosted Airbus’s sales tally for this year after it lost out on orders to Boeing in 2021. Boeing has historically counted China Southern as its biggest customer in the region, but business slowed for the US manufacturer in the wake of fatal crashes of its best-selling 737 Max and rising political tensions between Washington and Beijing. Airbus also operates a local A320 assembly line in Tianjin, giving it a further advantage in the key market.<br/>
Japan will see an “explosive” recovery in inbound visitors after the expected lifting of COVID-related visa restrictions, Peach Aviation’s CEO said on Thursday, as the yen’s plunge makes travelling the most affordable in decades. However, the slide in the Japanese currency - which hit a fresh 24-year low against the dollar on Thursday, prompting the government to intervene - could lead to the low-cost airline subsidiary of ANA Holdings Inc raising prices, chief executive Takeaki Mori added. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is widely expected to announce later on Thursday a further easing of Japan’s COVID-19 infection border controls, which Mori said will be key to fostering a recovery in the nation’s travel sector. “I think demand will see an explosive return back to life from the moment the Japanese government eases entry restrictions further,” Mori said Thursday. Japan has maintained some of the strictest border measures among major economies over the course of the pandemic, effectively blocking entry to visitors for two years until it started a gradual reopening in June. Yen weakness will also make Japan a more affordable destination for travellers, Mori said. As the yen slides and inflation pressures mount, Peach may have to follow competitors in raising prices, he added however. For now, the company’s airplane lease fees are hedged against weakness in Japan’s currency, but the outlook from next year is less certain, he said. “We are wondering what to do about hedging in the next fiscal year and beyond,” Mori said. “The depreciation of the yen has led to very high fuel prices, which has a very big impact because it makes up the bulk of our costs.” <br/>