One of the hardest things to figure out about cutting greenhouse gas emissions has been what to do about aviation, since most commercial jets are too heavy to fly under electric power with today’s technology. But United Airlines is beginning to provide a picture of how electric planes will be part of its future and a key to remaking the way travelers think about aviation as a choice for shorter distance routes. The nation’s No. 3 carrier has a contract to buy electric 30-seat planes from startup Heart Aerospace, which Heart said it plans to introduce in 2028. In a twist, United’s plan is not to replace big jets, but to focus the new planes on regional service. The airline is also preparing to introduce eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) craft to do local transport like taking passengers from central cities to airports. The idea is less to shift how fliers behave than to convince small-city residents who now drive on trips of 250 miles or less to take a plane instead, Mike Leskinen, United’s vice president of corporate development and president of its United Ventures investing arm, said at the CNBC ESG Impact earlier this month. If it works, it opens up a new market for carriers like United, especially outside major metropolitan areas. “There’s absolutely a lot of hurdles to clear but aerospace development cycles are measured in decades and you have to get started now,” Leskinen said. “We cannot continue doing and operating our business the way we do. It is imperative that we change it and the way we’re going to change it is through investing in technology.” Story has more.<br/>
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Air Canada shares rose to the highest level in more than four months after the company reported revenue and operating earnings that easily beat analysts’ estimates. Canada’s largest air carrier is slowly recovering from the pandemic. The company recorded its first operating profit since 2019, and its net loss narrowed to C$508m ($373m) in Q3, from a C$640m loss a year earlier. Air Canada rose as much as 5.1% to C$20.28 in Toronto on Friday, the highest since June. Passenger revenue was about 94% of 2019 levels. Strong demand has caught the airline industry by surprise, and Air Canada and the country’s major airports faced severe labor shortages during the summer travel season, causing a high number of delays and canceled flights. “We continue to step up, train, and are applying lessons learned during the summer to elevate our customer service,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Rousseau told analysts. The easing of Covid-19 restrictions -- Canada has dropped most of those rules, including masking on airplanes -- is helping to encourage travel. Advance ticket sales were at 95% of 2019 levels during the quarter. Chief Commercial Officer Lucie Guillemette said yields and average fares are holding, despite concerns about recession and a recent rise in virus cases. Leisure bookings may even exceed levels of three years ago, Guillemette said, though business travel still lags. More consumers appear to be combining leisure and business trips, she said. “Will we ever return to 2019 levels for pure corporate the way we knew it?” Guillemette asked. “We’ll have to wait to see, but there’s no doubt we are seeing a new type of business traffic.”<br/>
Polish national airline LOT on Friday asked a US judge to declare it was a crime victim in the Boeing 737 MAX criminal case, a move that could make the airline eligible for significant compensation. US District Judge Reed O'Connor in Texas ruled last week that people killed in two Boeing 737 MAX crashes are legally “crime victims.” He will determine what remedies should be imposed. LOT argued it should have the same rights in the case as victims' families. LOT said it had at least $250m in damages related to the 14 737 MAX aircraft it owned and leased at the time of the grounding. The US Justice Department on Friday asked O'Connor to give the government until Nov. 11 to file a memo about remedies. Boeing's best-selling 737 MAX was grounded worldwide in March 2019 for 20 months after two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people. The Justice Department in 2021 reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing over a fraud conspiracy charge related to the plane’s flawed design, The settlement included a fine of $243.6m, compensation to airlines of $1.77b and a $500m fund for crash victims. In December, some victims' relatives argued the Justice Department violated their rights when it struck that agreement with Boeing and asked O’Connor to rescind Boeing’s immunity from criminal prosecution. LOT also asked the court to require that the Justice deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing be reopened to "increase the amount that Boeing is required to pay its customers."<br/>
Air France-KLM said it could be interested in taking a stake in Portuguese flag carrier TAP SA as the government in Lisbon seeks an industry backer for an airline it was forced to rescue during the coronavirus crisis. CE Officer Ben Smith said Friday that the Franco-Dutch group would “definitely engage on a formal basis” with a view to some sort of “partnership or ownership” should TAP, as Transportes Aereos Portugueses is known, become available. “If the right circumstances are in place, we’re interested,” Smith told Bloomberg Television. “Consolidation is key for us, especially in Europe. The Iberian peninsula we’ve studied for many years.” Portuguese Infrastructure Minister Pedro Nuno Santos said on Oct. 19 that TAP needed to combine with a “large aviation group” in order to be viable after suffering a net loss of E1.6b last year. The government has provided the carrier with E2.55b in aid. TAP’s chief attraction to potential airline investors lies in its services to Brazil, of which it’s the biggest European provider, though a previous sale in 2015 attracted little European interest, coming down to two Latin American bidders. Portugal ultimately agreed to sell a 61% stake to a group led by Brazilian-American entrepreneur David Neeleman, the founder of JetBlue Airways Corp. and Brazilian carrier Azul. A left-leaning government subsequently reclaimed a majority holding before Neeleman exited altogether during the Covid pandemic.<br/>
Two of China’s biggest airlines posted steep third-quarter losses on Friday as the country’s stringent zero-COVID policy reduced domestic demand and kept international flights at a tiny fraction of pre-pandemic levels. Air China and China Southern Airlines reported a combined 14.8b yuan ($2.04b) Q3 loss, taking their total losses this year to 45.7b yuan. The Q4 outlook remains dim after a lacklustre week-long National Day holiday in October that saw the number of trips fall 18.2% from last year, according to government data. The government advised citizens to stay put during the holiday, a popular domestic and international travel period before the pandemic, to curb the spread of COVID-19, even though case numbers in China are small by global standards. Air China, the country’s flagship carrier, reported a Q3 loss of 8.7b yuan, narrower than a loss of 10.5b yuan in Q2 when the country experienced major travel disruptions, including a lockdown in Shanghai. China Southern Airlines posted a Q3 loss of 6.1b yuan, better than a 7.0b yuan loss in the previous quarter. Rival Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines is scheduled to report earnings on Sunday. The three state-owned airlines are resuming some international routes this month after the government in May requested an increase to facilitate travel by staff members at international companies. The Civil Aviation Administration of China said on Wednesday that international flights would double for the October-March winter schedule season relative to the prior year to 840 one-way flights per week.<br/>
Japan's ANA Holdings aims to boost group operating profit to a record 200b yen ($1.4b) in fiscal 2025, counting on a rebound in travel demand and growth outside its mainstay airline business to escape a pandemic slump. The figure would beat ANA's all-time high of 165 billion yen, set in fiscal 2018. The carrier targets group sales of 2 trillion yen and a 10% operating profit margin for fiscal 2025, setting a specific time frame for what had been a vaguer medium-term goal. The targets are expected to come alongside first-half earnings due out Monday, followed by a detailed medium-term plan from the All Nippon Airways parent within the fiscal year. On top of attracting more passengers, ANA will seek to widen profit margins through streamlining. The carrier plans to eliminate self-service check-in kiosks for domestic flights by fiscal 2023, switching mainly to online check-in. Payroll in its ANA brand will be cut to 29,000 by the end of March 2026, down by 9,000 employees from March 2021. Diversification is part of the group's strategy as well. ANA seeks to double revenue from other operations to 400b yen by fiscal 2019. As cash flow improves, the carrier plans to pay down interest-bearing debt, which doubled from pre-coronavirus levels to 1.7t yen at the end of June. But headwinds may loom. The IATA predicts that worldwide passenger numbers will rebound past pre-pandemic levels in 2024. But some industry watchers see business travel -- a strength of the All Nippon Airways brand -- staying depressed due to the rise in remote work, and a cooling global economy is expected to dent demand as well.<br/>