unaligned

Southwest Airlines delayed more than 1,700 flights Wednesday, the most among US carriers, after a government system outage forced US aviation authorities to halt flights nationwide for several hours. The delayed trips amounted to about 46% of Southwest’s schedule, according to data as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time from tracking service FlightAware. American Airlines Group and Delta each delayed about a third of their planned flights, while 29% of United’s schedule was affected. Southwest also canceled about 350 flights, according to FlightAware. The disruptions add to Southwest’s woes after the Dallas-based carrier canceled more than 16,000 flights during a meltdown of its network last month. Severe storms overwhelmed the company’s scheduling system, leaving thousands of travelers stranded across the US, sometimes for days.<br/>

Canadian investigators have disclosed that a runway slope would have prevented the crews of two aircraft from seeing one another during a recent incursion incident at Toronto. Transportation Safety Board of Canada states, in a newly-released bulletin, that a Caribbean Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 had been cleared for take-off from runway 15L on 21 November last year. At the same time another 737 Max 8, operated by Flair Airlines, was cleared by Toronto ground control to cross the same runway at taxiway T. This taxiway lies 9,200ft from the threshold of 15L. The tower controller realised that the crossing would lead to a loss of separation on the runway, and ordered the Caribbean 737’s crew to abort the take-off roll, which had just commenced.Despite the crew’s having received, and acknowledged, the take-off clearance, the safety board says the tower controller indicated to the crew that they had not been cleared. The Caribbean aircraft was re-cleared once the Flair jet had crossed. “From their respective positions, it would not have been possible for either aircraft to see the other, due to the geography of runway 15L, which slopes upward from each end,” the safety board states. It identifies the Caribbean and Flair aircraft involved respectively as 9Y-CAL and C-FLDX.<br/>

Irish regional carrier Emerald Airlines has named former Aer Lingus figure Keith Butler as the successor to CE Conor McCarthy. McCarthy is taking up the position of executive chairman at the airline, which emerged as the former carrier Stobart Air – which had been operating Aer Lingus Regional services – collapsed. Butler will take over as Emerald’s chief in March. His most recent role has been with aviation training and recruitment company CAE, as a managing director, but he previously served terms with Aer Lingus totalling around eight years. He held several senior management positions at the Irish flag-carrier including chief planning and strategy officer and CCO. Emerald says Butler was closely involved in developing Aer Lingus’s transatlantic business and the carrier’s Dublin hub, which is a key transit point for Emerald. McCarthy’s move to the chairmanship role will enable him to focus on strategic initiatives with partner carriers. He says Butler will bring “unmatched experience” and a “proven track record” to Emerald, which will mean he is “extremely well-positioned to lead the next chapter in [the airline’s] evolution”. Emerald operates Aer Lingus Regional services from Dublin and Belfast City, using an ATR turboprop fleet, and expects to have a network of 25 routes this summer.<br/>

Ryanair is closing its Brussels Zaventem base because of the airport's decision to increase prices from April, it said on Wednesday. Europe's largest budget airline said the airport's decision comes at a time when most European airports are reducing prices to recover traffic lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Despite recent rumours, we will not be reopening our Brussels Zaventem base in summer 2023 due to Zaventem Airport's decision to increase prices by 11% for airlines and passengers from April 2023," CE Michael O'Leary said. "However, customers can still book Ryanair's low fares on 12 Zaventem routes that will continue to operate to/from Brussels Zaventem for S23 on aircraft based outside Belgium." Belgian press agency Belga, which first reported the news quoting local union ACV Puls, said Ryanair's move puts 59 jobs at risk. The Irish airline, which operates two aircraft out of Brussels Airport, did not mention any impact on jobs. Ryanair also operates 17 airplanes out of Belgium's Charleroi airport, south of Brussels, which it said will be unaffected by its Zaventem decision.<br/>

An Irish lessor that sold 10 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to Russia's flagship carrier Aeroflot last year was a local subsidiary of state controlled Russian development bank VEB, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. State-controlled Aeroflot announced on Dec. 30 that it had bought 10 Boeing 777-300ER long-haul planes it previously leased from an Irish company, which it refused to name. The carrier said the planes have been leased by Aeroflot since 2013 and 2014 and they were leased under a finance lease deal, which means that the lessee receives ownership rights to the asset after paying the entire amount, as opposed to a more typical deal when ownership stays with the lessor. Aeroflot and VEB-Leasing, a part of VEB Group, did not immediately respond to requests for comments. According to the list of Russian aircraft published by flight tracking website FlightRadar24 and to the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority (BCAA), Aeroflot had been operating 22 Boeing 777s in March last year, 10 of which it owned itself and 10 of which it leased from Russian and Chinese lessors. Aeroflot said in December that it will continue to work on further aircraft buyouts in order to maintain its fleet of foreign-made aircraft. After Moscow started what it calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine, the West responded with unprecedented sanctions, banning Western companies from working with Russian airlines, most of which operate Western passenger jets, and forced lessors to cancel contracts with them.<br/>

The arrival of another low-cost Vietnamese carrier to Australia this year should help to push down international fares to the South-East Asian destination. Vietjet will use Melbourne as its launching pad into the Australian market, with services between Melbourne and Ho Chi Minh City commencing from April. It will become the fourth carrier to fly the Melbourne-Ho Chi Minh route, with the added competition good news for budget-conscious flyers. Melbourne Airport CE Lorie Argus said: "The fact that it's going to be the fourth carrier now flying [to] Ho Chi Minh City out of Melbourne … that can do nothing but be a great outcome for the traveller, for the competition that that will bring to the market." Although bookings are not yet open, Argus said she expected to see competitive airfares on the route. Vietjet will initially operate three return non-stop flights a week between Melbourne and the Vietnamese city, with plans to ramp up to daily services by December 2024. The airline will fly an Airbus A330 on the route. Argus said Vietnam is an important growth market for Australia, with Vietjet's arrival in Melbourne to push seat capacity to the country to 153% of pre-pandemic levels.<br/>

Australia’s Regional Express has reported a profit increase for domestic jet operations, as it expects its regional operations to turn profitable imminently. Rex says its jet operations are expected to report a pre-tax profit of around A$2.8m ($1.94m) for November, according to unaudited accounts. “This makes November the third consecutive month that the domestic jet operations have been overall profitable,” the carrier adds in a 11 January statement. Rex operates a fleet of seven Boeing 737-800s, flying domestic trunk routes on Australia’s east coast. The disclosure comes as Rex prepares to mark its full year of jet operations. The airline first launched jet operations in March 2021, but a series of lockdowns in parts of Australia forced the airline to suspend them. As for its regional operations, Rex says it is making a pre-tax of loss of less than A$200,000, but that operations remain cash-flow positive. The airline, which operates 61 Saab 340s, again blamed arch-rival Qantas - and its “predatory actions” in the regional market - for the loss forecast. “The company believes that the regional Saab operations will return to monthly overall profitability in the current quarter,” states Rex. It reiterates its previous forecast that it will return to profitability for the current financial year, which ends 30 June. At the release of its financial results for the year to 30 June, where it widened its losses, Rex had said it was “cautiously optimistic” of returning to profitability in the current financial year.<br/>