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LATAM Airlines Group has completed its financial restructuring and has exited bankruptcy proceedings. The Santiago-based carrier said on 3 November that it emerges from the more than two-year process “with over $2.2b of liquidity, approximately $3.6b less debt on its balance sheet (equivalent to a 35% debt reduction from the pre-filing period) and the support of key incumbent and new shareholders”. “Today marks an important milestone for LATAM and our stakeholders,” says Roberto Alvo, LATAM’s chief executive. “We are pleased that we have completed a significant transformation and emerged from our financial restructuring process with a strengthened financial position and a renewed commitment to operational excellence.” LATAM is the last of three Latin American airlines to complete the process, following Colombia’s Avianca and Aeromexico. All three carriers voluntarily filed for protection under the US Chapter 11 bankruptcy scheme in mid-2020, as the rapidly spreading Covid-19 global pandemic caused chaos across the industry. Avianca emerged from Chapter 11 December 2021, and Aeromexico in March this year. In June, a US court approved LATAM’s restructuring plan, which included a $5.4b financing package backed by major shareholders – such as Delta Air Lines, Qatar Airways and Grupo Cueto – as well as key creditors, prompting the group to predict an exit from Chapter 11 in the second half of 2022. The carrier notes that it now operates the “most extensive network in South America”. In October it flew to 144 destinations in 22 countries and expects to end the year at “more than 85%” of pre-pandemic capacity as measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs). In 2021 and 2022, the airline added 10 new destinations in Brazil and plans to operate 36 new routes by 2023, it says. It expects to exceed pre-crisis revenue next year as well. <br/>

Loss-making airline Flyr plans to raise up to 530m Norwegian crowns ($50.73m) in new equity to alleviate a "very strained financial situation", the Norway-based carrier said on Thursday. The company, whose rivals include Norwegian Air and SAS, said on Oct. 4 it would implement heavy spending cuts to preserve cash during the winter, including furloughs, and that non-profitable routes were put on hold. The new shares will be sold at just 0.01 crown each, a 96% discount to Wednesday's closing price, reflecting the company's near-term liquidity needs, challenging capital market conditions and investor feedback, Flyr said. "By implementing these measures, we will be well positioned to ramp-up with full force for the coming spring and summer," board Chair Erik Braathen said. The share issue comes in the form of an institutional offering of 430m crowns and a further 100m for other investors. Braathen's private investment company will invest 10m crowns in the share issue.<br/>

Dubai's Emirates has suspended flights to Nigeria for the second time since September citing an inability to repatriate funds from Africa's biggest economy, the airline said on Thursday. Nigeria is facing severe dollar shortages, forcing many citizens and business to seek forex on the black market, where the naira currency has progressively weakened. An Emirates spokesperson said the airline had attended several meetings with the Nigerian government and proposed ways to clear a backlog of blocked funds. "This included the repatriation and receipt of at least 80% of our remaining blocked funds by the end of October 2022, in addition to providing a guaranteed mechanism to avoid future repatriation accumulation challenges and delays," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Under these extraordinary circumstances Emirates had no option but to suspend flights to/from Nigeria from 29 October 2022 to mitigate against further losses moving forward." A spokesman for Nigerian aviation ministry could not be immediately reached for comment. Emirates did not say how much it was owed in Nigeria but the airline resumed flights in September after the Nigerian central bank released $265m to airlines to settle outstanding ticket sales. Nigeria, which gets roughly 90% of its foreign exchange from oil, is struggling to produce due to pipeline theft and years of underinvestment.<br/>

Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. is seeking additional operating slots at London’s Heathrow Airport as the carrier looks to add more routes to the US and Asia with the arrival of new jets from Airbus. The airline, which narrowly avoided collapse during a funding squeeze at the height of the coronavirus crisis, is seeking takeoff and landing positions at Europe’s busiest hub as the fleet expands from 37 aircraft to 46 in 2025, Chief Executive Officer Shai Weiss said in an interview. A number of new routes are under consideration, focused on locations where Virgin can tap links with partners, Weiss said on the carrier’s first flight from London to Tampa Bay, Florida. That could include more cities in the US, which the UK firm serves in a joint venture with part-owner Delta. Virgin is also looking at destinations in Asia, where it recently agreed to a code-share deal with IndiGo, India’s largest airline. Virgin already serves Delhi and Mumbai and is looking at how its decision to join the SkyTeam global alliance next year could enhance route options. Flights to Seoul, home base of founding member Korean Air Lines Co., are among those under consideration. The US and Caribbean, which account for about 70% of Virgin’s business, will remain the company’s primary focus, according to Weiss. The carrier had a more global network before he became CEO in 2019, but it was largely untenable, he said.<br/>

In the clearest sign yet of aviation’s changing culture, the Virgin Atlantic owner Sir Richard Branson has said he will almost certainly no longer be “turning girls upside down”, signalling an end to a long-established fixture of the airline’s flight promotion. Branson, who turned 72 in July, said he still remained physically capable of “picking up ladies” – traditionally along the wing of a landed Virgin jumbo jet – but that “times have moved on”. In Tampa, Florida, to promote the first direct service from Heathrow, the entrepreneur jetskied across the bay alone, admitting to onlookers that once he would have had someone behind him for the ride. The razzmatazz around Branson’s appearance at Tampa International airport on Thursday, standing on the steps of the arriving Virgin Atlantic plane and in a Tampa Bay Buccaneers American football shirt, remained low-key compared to the sexed-up appearances of old. In 2005, in one of his most tabloid-friendly promotional stunts, Branson carried and upended an underdressed Pamela Anderson on the wing of a Virgin jumbo at New York’s JFK airport. Others who donned the regulation red skimpy attire and high heels to strike acrobatic poses with Branson at airports include the British supermodel Kate Moss, brandished aloft by the billionaire at Heathrow in 2009. Another famous “wing walk” saw Branson, then 59, carry the burlesque star Dita Von Teese across a Virgin jumbo in Las Vegas in 2010.<br/>

Lao Airways has released details of its winter schedule on its Facebook page confirming it has resumed flights on regional routes from Vientiane and Luang Prabang. The national airline said the winter timetable responded to signs that domestic and international tourism was “resuming after suspending flights for years due to the Covid-19 outbreak. However, the airline’s website has no timetable, schedules or flight network details (the routenet graphic is outdated pre-Covid). You are directed to the website’s standard booking engine page, where you insert your dates and destination and hope for a match. On its Facebook page, the airline says it resumed flights effective 30 October on the route Vientiane – Luang Prabang – Xieng Mai every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Flights on the Luang Prabang – Hanoi route operate every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The Luang Prabang – Pakse route returns with flights every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday since 1 November. <br/>

Vietjet has resumed more direct services from Vietnam to Taiwan (China) in response to the travel demand, offering numerous promotional tickets. From November onwards, flights from Hanoi and HCM City will take travellers to Kaohsiung, the second largest city of Taiwan, which owns various beautiful tourist attractions including busy night markets and a vivid bay area, Vietjet said in a statement. The HCM City-Kaohsiung route operates three weekly flights and will increase to four weekly flights from Dec 16. Service between Hanoi and Kaohsiung operates twice weekly flights and will increase to daily flights from Dec 16. In addition, the airline also offers frequent flights during the week for routes from Hanoi, HCM City to Taipei. It also plans to soon resume flights from Vietnam to Taichung and Tainan to meet the rising demand prior to the New Year and Lunar New Year.<br/>

Australia’s Jetstar has commenced operations from Sydney to Seoul Incheon, the first in a series of newly-launched flights between Australia and South Korea. A 3 November statement from Jetstar says it will operate three flights a week with its Boeing 787-9s. Seoul Incheon will be the low-cost carrier’s third North Asian city, after Tokyo and Osaka. The airline adds: “The new route recognises the increasing popularity of South Korea as a must-see destination for Australians as well as the enduring popularity of Sydney for South Korean travellers.” With the launch of flights to Seoul, Jetstar pips South Korea’s T’way Air to be the first low-cost operator to fly between the two countries. In mid-October, T’way announced it would begin operations between Seoul and Sydney from 23 December, marking its foray into the long-haul market. It will will use its high-density A330s, which seat 347 passengers, for its flights. Jetstar parent Qantas is also set to begin Seoul operations from 10 December, deploying its Airbus A330s on flights to the South Korean capital. The launch marks the flag carrier’s return to the South Korean market after a hiatus of nearly 15 years. Presently, only Korean Air and Asiana Airlines fly between Sydney and Seoul. According to Cirium schedules data, Korean Air has five flights a week, also operated by A330s, while Asiana – which will soon be merged into Korean Air – flies five times a week with 777s.<br/>