More than 10,000 flights cancelled over the Christmas holiday, chaos at airports across America: Southwest Airlines found itself in the hot seat Tuesday as the airline behind the lion's share of the weather-linked travel mayhem. The Dallas-based, domestic-focused carrier, which has historically enjoyed a strong reputation with consumers, drew withering expletive-filled rebukes on social media, where labor leaders also highlighted horror stories from stranded airline employees. "It's a complete meltdown," said Mike Sage, who had planned to fly back to Florida on Monday after visiting Connecticut to tend to his kayaking business. After Southwest's phone and Internet system "collapsed," Sage drove to the airport, waited in line for two hours and finally obtained a replacement ticket for Saturday from Southwest. But it came with a warning, Sage recounted to AFP. "When (the attendant) handed me the ticket, she looked me in the eyes and said: 'If I were you, I would not count on this flight either. I would book with another airline. We have crews stranded all over, pilots sleeping on the floor in airports.'" At issue is Southwest's performance in the wake of a brutal winter storm that began ahead of Christmas, wreaking havoc with holiday travel networks and causing some 50 fatalities. But while operations had largely returned to normal at American Airlines and United Airlines by Tuesday, Southwest canceled more than 2,500 flights, or nearly two-thirds of planned departures, according to tracking website FlightAware. That's on top of some 8,150 flights canceled over the prior five-day stretch, according to the website.<br/>
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Southwest Airlines CE Bob Jordan spoke publicly for the first time about the company’s widespread operational difficulties during the busy end-of-year holiday travel period, promising that the airline’s passengers and employees will “never again face what’s happening right now”. “Cities with large numbers of scheduled flights simultaneously froze as record bitter cold brought challenges for all airlines,” Jordan said in a 27 December video posted to the airline’s website and on social media. “Our network is highly complex, and the operation of the airline counts on all the pieces – especially aircraft and crews – remaining in motion.” As a result of the winter storm that pummelled much of the Midwest and Northeast USA over the weekend, Southwest’s fleet and crews were out of position “in dozens of locations”, he said. “We reached a decision point to significantly reduce our flying to catch up.”<br/>The airline was forced to cancel and delay thousands of flights across its network. As of 16:45 Pacific Time on 27 December, Southwest had cancelled 2,666 flights and delayed a further 943, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.com. The airline has also pre-emptively cancelled more than 4,200 flights in the coming two days, so far. The Southwest Airlines Pilot Association says the airline’s antiquated scheduling software is largely to blame for the operational failures, which have resulted in parked aircraft and stranded thousands of Southwest flight crews and hundreds of thousands of holiday air travelers.<br/>
Italy’s antitrust regulator said on Tuesday it opened an inquiry into possible price-fixing for flights in and out of Sicily by airlines including Ryanair , Wizz Air and easyJet. The probe follows a complaint by consumer group Codacons, which alleged “a specific collusive will” of airlines to raise prices for domestic flights to and from Sicily during the Christmas holidays, the regulator said in its weekly bulletin. The complaint also targeted state-owned ITA Airways, the successor of former flagship carrier Alitalia, it added. The cost of flights is particularly sensitive in Sicily, whose many natives who live and work in northern or central Italy typically wish to travel back to the island to spend Christmas with family and friends. The antitrust authority said its inquiry would come to an end by Dec. 31, 2023.<br/>
The Romanian state has taken over Blue Air, confiscating a 75% stake in the dormant carrier - just as media reports revealed one month ago that it would. “We have taken over the shares, the takeover has been completed, and now we are trying to form a new board of directors. The people who are now on the board have not resigned yet, but they will,” said Daniel Geantă, head of the Authority for the Administration of State Assets (Autoritatea pentru Administrarea Activelor Statului - AAAS), told the Romanian-language news site Economica.net. “It’s that delivery-reception period and we have had problems accessing the documents, and there are small delays due to the fact that the documents we requested are not being made available to us,” he added. The state institution is requiring the closure of the airline’s financial statements and employment contracts, as well as a statement of debts and creditors, and soon the AAAS will embark on a full audit of the company. Blue Air accumulated debts of over E230m (US$244m), including a US$65m six-year loan from state-owned export-import bank EximBank in late 2020 to assist it during the pandemic. For that state aid, the shareholders pledged 75% of the shares, according to Economica.net. “We cannot be responsible, as a public institution, for what happened until we can say we have taken over the company,” Geantă said.<br/>
A director of the now defunct East-West Airlines (India) was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment last week for a fraudulent1990s fuel deal. Faisal Wahid was the airline's director of marketing and operations and faced Mumbai's Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) criminal court on December 20, 2022. East-West Airlines (not to be confused with the also now defunct Australian carrier of the same name - East-West Airlines (Australia) - or start-up East West Airlines (Syrian Arab Republic) in Syria) commenced domestic air passenger operations in 1992, only to fold in 1996. The airline gained a degree of notoriety after its managing director, Thakiyudeen Wahid, was murdered by gunmen near East-West's Mumbai office in 1995. Twenty-six years after the airline's demise, the CBI Court found Faisal and a Vijaya Bank official guilty of defrauding the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd of INR17.3m rupees (USD209,432) using fraudulent drafts of demand. The racket involved faxing copies of the demand drafts to the oil company, which then provided the fuel. East-West then cancelled the order and never provided the oil company with the original demand draft, per the proper process. According to the court, this occurred five times with the cooperation of a bank official, Jayanand Shetty, who did not debit the fuel cost from the airline's accounts.<br/>
Air India Express and AirAsia India are considering ways to unify their operations to offer improved customer services ahead of their planned merger, PTI has reported citing an unnamed official. Indian conglomerate Tata Group owns both the carriers, which are expected to be merged by the end of next year. Following the completion of the merger, the consolidated entity will be known as Air India Express. Last month, Air India revealed that an operational review process was being carried out to integrate AirAsia India with Air India Express. Data from India’s corporate affairs ministry shows that AirAsia India’s name has been changed to AIX Connect. According to the official, the name of the budget carrier has been changed in the wake of its integration process. As part of the process, both the carriers are trying to create common platforms, including using a single website, social media accounts and call centre, to help their customers.<br/>
Local airlines expect the recovery momentum to continue next year, as the industry is better positioned to weather potential external headwinds. “We are on track to restore our flights to 90% of pre-pandemic levels,” Philippine Airlines said. PAL, which completed its voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings last year, saw its financial performance significantly improve. It posted a P6.8b attributable profit in the first nine months of 2022, a turnaround from the P21.8b net loss a year ago. For 2023, PAL plans to reinforce its position as the Philippines’ only full-service network airline by restoring its network to mainland China, once it reopens to international travel. The flag carrier also plans to expand its code-sharing and interline partnerships with other airlines to give PAL passengers access to more overseas destinations and better connections. PAL said it also aims to sustain and grow its cargo business in order to tap opportunities in the air freight market. At the same time, the Lucio Tan-led airline targets to continue its digital transformation by introducing new products for customers and better in-house systems to boost efficiency. The flag carrier noted that the Civil Aeronautics Board’s (CAB) move to lower the applicable fuel surcharge for domestic and international flights to Level 7 in January 2023, from Level 8 implemented in November and December, will “increase travel appetite and boost air travel.”<br/>
Indonesia AirAsia plans to have all its aircraft back in the air in 2023 and add additional planes to the fleet. CEO Veranita Yosephine Sinaga and corporate secretary Leon Ruben outlined the 2023 strategy at a December 21, 2022, shareholder’s briefing. The airline presently has 16 of its 23 aircraft operational. Sinaga said capacity had increased “tremendously” throughout 2022. Asked about the seven planes still parked, she said “efforts are being made to resume operations soon… we are quite confident that we can recover overall in the next few months.” The airline exclusively operates A320-200s and, according to ch-aviation schedules data, currently has a 3.44% market share in Indonesia (measured by seat capacity). However, discounting domestic routes where the airline had historically lagged behind its local competitors, Indonesia AirAsia is offering the most seats of any airline on routes in and out of Indonesia, with a 12.9% market share. Sinaga acknowledged the advantages this international market segment dominance gives the low-cost carrier and told shareholders more engagement with tourist authorities and marketing boards in Indonesia could help drive more domestic traffic.<br/>