Demand for leisure travel and a shift in working behaviour pushed Brazilian airline Azul’s Q3 revenue to a new record, yet the company still lost R$1.65b ($308m) in the period. Now, the Sao Paulo-headquartered airline is gearing up for the busy Southern Hemisphere summer travel season. The carrier said on 11 November that its operating revenue during the three months ending on 30 September reached an all-time record for the second consecutive quarter, at R$4.4b. That is 61% more than the R$2.7b the company posted in the same quarter last year and 44% more than in the same three months during pre-pandemic 2019. The third quarter was the fourth consecutive three-month period in which Azul’s revenue exceeded pre-pandemic levels, the airline says. It’s third-quarter capacity was 6.5% higher than last year, and load factor reached 82%. “This performance was a direct result of the strong demand environment, which we expect to continue given the positive trends for economic activity and employment in Brazil,” says chief executive John Rodgerson. “Brazilians seem to be benefiting from more flexible work arrangements, enabling a higher number of leisure trips.” Leisure demand has been higher than 2019 levels for 14 consecutive months, Azul adds. The airline’s costs rose 54% to R$4b during the period, largely due to increasing jet fuel expenses. The company paid an average of R$6.05 per litre of fuel during the third quarter, more than double the amount in 2019. The price of fuel is not expected to fall soon.<br/>
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Dubai state-owned airline Emirates swung to a record profit of 4b dirhams ($1.09b) in H1 of of its 2022/2023 financial year, buoyed by strong demand and the easing and removal of pandemic restrictions across the world. The flag carrier reported a loss of 5.8b dirhams the year earlier. Revenues for six months to Sept. 30 jumped 131% to 50.1b dirhams, Emirates Group, which includes the airline and other units, said in a statement on Thursday. "The airline’s strong turnaround performance is driven by strong passenger demand for international travel across markets." The Group said its employee headcount increased by 10% to 93,893 staff as both the airline and the group's airport services subsidiary dnata, "have embarked on targeted recruitment drives to support their future requirements".<br/>
A Middle East Airlines passenger plane bound from Jordan to Beirut was hit by a stray bullet while landing in Beirut on Thursday, with no injuries reported, MEA Chairman Mohamad El-Hout said. Hout told Reuters that seven to eight stationary planes are hit by stray bullets shot from areas neighbouring Beirut airport each year, but Wednesday's incident was the first time this had occurred while a plane was moving. Celebratory gunfire is a common occurrence in Lebanon, where gun ownership is widespread and weapons are fired to mark speeches by politicians and the release of official exam results, among other events. "These practices of shooting in the air in Lebanon must be stopped ... it is a source of danger to air traffic and the airport," Hout said. Lebanese lawmaker Paula Yacoubian was on the flight and shared images on her Twitter page appearing to show a hole in the fuselage of the plane. She said she was sitting in seat 2F when the incident occurred "right above my head".<br/>
Greece found nothing suspicious on an Emirates plane which was flying to New York from Greece and was forced to return to Athens International Airport after a security alert, police said on Thursday. Greek authorities were tipped off by US authorities about a "suspicious" passenger and just after 2000 GMT the plane, escorted by two fighter jets, landed back at the Eleftherios Venizelos airport in Athens for security checks, police sources said. Police said the plane was ordered to fly back to Athens as part of an information inquiry but following checks on the passengers and the plane, they did not find the person the information was about or anything else suspicious. Earlier on Thursday, another Emirates flight to Dubai was not allowed to take off from Eleftherios Venizelos and all passengers were thoroughly checked also for security concerns but nothing suspicious was found, police sources added.<br/>
A faulty automatic engine throttle system that was not properly monitored by pilots led to a deadly January 2021 crash of a Sriwijaya 737-500 jet, Indonesia's air accident investigator KNKT said in a final report on Thursday. The crash into the Java Sea after take-off from Jakarta, which killed all 62 people on board, was Indonesia's third major commercial plane crash in just over six years and shone a spotlight on its poor air safety record. Problems with the autothrottle system that automatically controls engine power had been reported 65 times in the 26-year-old jet's maintenance logs since 2013 and were still unresolved before the accident, the agency said in its 202-page report. A working autothrottle is not required for a plane to be dispatched because pilots can control the thrust levers manually. However, KNKT said in this case they did not appear to have closely monitored the asymmetrical thrust situation involving the left engine throttle lever moving back to as low as 34% speed after takeoff while the right lever stayed in its original climb setting at about 92%. "There were several indications available that the pilots could have checked to identify the aircraft anomalies, such as engine parameters, thrust levers position, and roll angle," the agency said, adding that complacency and confirmation bias may have been a factor in the poor monitoring. Sriwijaya did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Boeing, the manufacturer of the 737-500 jet, declined to comment.<br/>
Boeing said Thursday that Japan's Skymark Airlines plans to add up to 12 737 MAX airplanes to its fleet. Skymark will order four airplanes, including the 737 MAX-8 and 737 MAX-10 variants, with options for two additional jets, while it will lease six 737 MAX-8s to its fleet, Boeing said in a statement.<br/>