JetBlue Airways pilots have approved a contract extension that comes with 21.5% raises over the next 18 months as the industry reverses slow progress in labor deals during a pilot shortage. JetBlue last year reached a deal to acquire budget carrier Spirit Airlines. That airline’s pilots approved a new two-year contract that their union estimated to be worth around $463 million. If the merger isn’t approved by regulators, the union will go back into contract negotiations with the airline. “We entered into these negotiations recognizing that mergers take time and our pilots couldn’t wait for the compensation improvements they have earned,” Capt. Chris Kenney, who chairs the JetBlue arm of the Air Line Pilots Association, said in a statement. 95% of JetBlue’s pilots participated in the vote and 75% of them approved the contract, ALPA said. Many negotiations between airlines and labor unions have been fraught as pilots seek higher pay and better schedules after the pandemic slump gave way to a travel boom. A shortage of aviators and high demand from airlines large and small have also limited airlines’ ability to grow.<br/>
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WestJet has cancelled its flights between three Canadian cities and Europe for this summer. Previously, WestJet offered direct flights from Halifax to London Gatwick, Dublin, Glasgow and Paris during the summer months. WestJet's transatlantic service to Europe has also been suspended from Vancouver and Toronto. It's unclear what airports WestJet flies to in Europe from those two cities. In a news release on Monday, the airline said the suspension was temporary, but also that it will look at resuming transatlantic service in 2024. A spokesperson for WestJet said the suspensions are due to "compounding factors such as staffing levels across the industry, inflation and deploying our aircraft to meet the demand of our guests while enabling us to re-position our investments to better serve Canadians for years to come." WestJet said tickets for the summer 2023 European routes from Halifax were never made available for sale. The airline said it was planning to enhance service in Canada, including between Halifax and Western Canada. In a statement to CBC News, Halifax Stanfield International Airport said it was "disappointed WestJet won't be back this summer ... but we understand they are dealing with capacity challenges not a lack of interest or support in serving this market."<br/>
Loss-making Norwegian airline Flyr said on Monday it had failed to raise the cash it needs from shareholders and other potential investors, leaving it in a "critical short-term liquidity situation". Flyr's share price, already weakened by the budget carrier's financial woes, fell 78% in early trade to an all-time low of 0.0015 Norwegian crowns. While the board continues to explore "feasible alternatives" to secure its continued operation, the potential solutions could wipe out the remaining value of its existing shareholders, the carrier said. Flyr in November said raising cash was vital for the company to survive the winter season and prepare for a ramp-up in spring and summer of 2023, but it was only able to raise about half the required cash at the time. The company said it had tried in recent days to secure funding of 330m Norwegian crowns ($33.27m) but the effort failed. "Market conditions and continued uncertainty with regards to airline travel and earnings through 2023 have deterred investors from committing capital for the required period of time," Flyr said. The company, whose rivals include Norwegian Air and SAS, said on Oct. 4 it would make heavy spending cuts to preserve cash during the winter, including furloughs, and put non-profitable routes on hold.<br/>
Ryanair on Monday posted its largest after-tax profit for the October-December quarter and said bookings for Easter and summer flights in recent weeks were “very robust”, boosted by demand from Asian travelers and a strong US dollar. “Bookings are showing no signs of recession at this point in time,” CFO Neil Sorahan said. “We had record bookings in week two and week three of January, very robust demand into Easter and the summer without fare stimulation,” he said. Last week, rivals Wizz Air and EasyJet also reported strong summer bookings. Ryanair, Europe’s largest by passenger numbers, said it had earned E211m in the three months ended Dec. 31, Q3 of its financial year. The after-tax profit numbers compared with a forecast of E200m in a company poll of analysts and its previous record of E106m in the final three months of 2017. Sorahan would not reiterate a forecast made earlier in the month by CE Michael O’Leary that fares were likely to post annual high-single-digit percentage growth in the coming summer, saying only that he was “encouraged by bookings at this point.” Ryanair reiterated its Jan. 4 forecast of an after-tax profit of between E1.325b and E1.425b for the year through March 31. That was an upgrade of an earlier forecast of E1b-1.2b. “There is always a danger that the market is disappointed if it gets what it expects,” Goodbody stockbrokers said in a note. Demand weakness in the United Kingdom reported earlier in January has disappeared and may have been due to transport strikes in the country, O’Leary said in a video presentation. “With Asian tourists now returning and a strong US dollar encouraging Americans to explore Europe, we’re seeing robust demand,” O’Leary said.<br/>
Europe’s Ryanair delivered another exceptionally strong financial result during the October-to-December quarter, helped by flying with higher capacity than it did in 2019. Its operating margin reached 7%, topping the 5% it achieved in the same quarter of 2019, prior to the Covid crisis. Last week, rival EasyJet disclosed a negative 8% operating margin for the same three months of 2022. Wizz Air’s figure was negative 17%. The December quarter is generally a sluggish one for demand within Europe. In the preceding quarter of 2022 (July-September), which includes the busy summer holiday season, Ryanair’s operating margin was 35%. The low-cost airline, based in Dublin, did say it would lose money in the current January-to-March quarter, which does not include the Easter holiday this year. Higher labor costs are a factor as well. But calendar year Q1 losses will likely prove immaterial. More importantly, bookings for the Easter holiday and the summer tourist season appear strong, just as they were during the winter holidays last quarter. Fares are up, competitors are retreating, and Ryanair is gaining market share in key markets like Italy, Poland, Spain, and its home market Ireland. Ryanair is flying more capacity now than it was prior to Covid, enabled in part by a decision to retain planes and crews during even the depths of the downturn. Its growth has helped keep unit costs roughly where they were before Covid, thanks to economies of scale. Also helping on the cost side are its new Boeing MAX jets. The airline remains concerned that it won’t get as many more of these as it wants before the peak summer, due to Boeing’s production bottlenecks. Ryanair ended 2022 with 84 MAX-8200s, out of a total fleet of 523 planes. Twenty eight of these were Airbus narrowbodies.<br/>
Long-haul carrier Emirates successfully flew a Boeing 777 on a test flight Monday with one of its two engines entirely powered by so-called sustainable aviation fuel. This comes as carriers worldwide try to lessen their carbon footprint. Flight 2646 flew for just under an hour over the coastline of the United Arab Emirates, after taking off from Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, and heading out into the Persian Gulf before circling to land. The second of the plane’s General Electric Co. engines ran on conventional jet fuel for safety. “This flight is a milestone moment for Emirates and a positive step for our industry as we work collectively to address one of our biggest challenges — reducing our carbon footprint,” said Adel al-Redha, Emirates’ COO. Emirates, a state-owned airline under Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, described the sustainable fuel as a blend “that mirrored the qualities of jet fuel.” It included fuel from Neste, a Finnish firm, and Virent, a Madison, Wisconsin-based company. Virent describes itself as using plant-based sugars to make the compounds needed for sustainable jet fuel, while Neste’s fuel comes from vegetable oils and animal fats. Those fuels reduce the release of heat-trapping carbon dioxide typically burned off by engines in flight. Aviation releases only one-sixth the amount of carbon dioxide produced by cars and trucks, according to World Resources Institute, a nonprofit research group based in Washington. However, airplanes are used by far fewer people per day — meaning aviation is a higher per-capita source of greenhouse-gas emissions. <br/>
Japan long-haul, low-cost carrier Zipair Tokyo has signed up for SpaceX’s Starlink service to provide onboard internet to its passengers. The Japan Airlines unit is the first carrier in the Asia-Pacific to sign up with the service. “Once integrated, all Zipair passengers will be able to seamlessly connect to Starlink’s high-speed, low-latency network anytime onboard – enabling real-time video conferencing, streaming, and gaming for all passengers,” says SpaceX vice president Jonathan Hofeller. “As the first Asian airline to implement Starlink, Zipair is setting a new standard for in-flight connectivity, and we’re excited to work with the company to provide this modern in-flight connectivity experience.” Starlink uses a constellation of satellites in low-Earth orbit to provide global Internet coverage. Zipair adds that itself and SpaceX are conducting an engineering review and a certification process related to the Starlink installation. Cirium fleets data indicates that Zipair operates four Boeing 787-8s, with an additional -8 on order. From its base at Tokyo Narita, it operates to Bangkok, Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Jose, Singapore, and Seoul. “We are committed to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in air travel and are excited to be a part of that future,” says Zipair president Shingo Nishida. “We believe that our work with SpaceX is very important to increase the speed of in-flight Internet communications and achieve a new standard in the industry.”<br/>
Now that Covid is “officially over,” so is AirAsia superapp’s ambitions of being a lifestyle superapp. AirAsia will now be killing its other operations in the superapp to focus on what Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia parent company Capital A, calls its bread and butter — travel. “Travel has returned in full force, and I can officially declare that, in my opinion, Covid is over for AirAsia, so we will be going back to selling travel through the superapp,” Fernandes said. He said the company through its superapp business had offered a whole lot of products and services during Covid just to keep the turnover going. “But then we are not a Grab or a Gojek, we are a Traveloka,” Fernandes said, promptly adding, “And perhaps a little bit of Grab and Gojek.” Calling himself a Robin Hood against e-commerce companies like Shopee, Foodpanda and the “big boys,” Fernandes had in 2021 talked about bringing the airline’s underdog mentality to the building of a “low-cost unicorn” of Asian superapps. Fernandes also said that he is trying to get all his 204 aircraft to fly by May. “With all 204 planes flying and ferrying around 90 million passengers, the dynamics of the AirAsia superapp will change tremendously,” he said.<br/>
A new Australian budget airline, Bonza, launched its first flight Tuesday, promising cheap tickets, onboard craft beer, snags (sausages) and a relaxed approach to crew uniforms. Branding itself as a down-to-earth Aussie airline and the nation's only independent low-cost carrier, Bonza named its first three Boeing 737-8 MAX planes Shazza, Bazza and Sheila. Tickets, which can only be booked on the airline's mobile app, are priced from Aus$49-79 (US$35-56) -- too cheap to be profitable according to one analyst. The inaugural flight took off from Bonza's base in Queensland's Sunshine Coast to the Whitsunday Islands in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef. Bonza CE Tim Jordan marked the Sunshine Coast launch by addressing the media in sneakers, purple socks, dark shorts and a floral short-sleeve shirt. "We're about the many and not the few. We are about visiting friends and relatives and that's our focus," Jordan told Channel Nine news. "That's good for stimulating competition across the country." Bonza, brandishing a slogan "Here for Allstralia" and backed by US investment firm 777 Partners, said it planned to serve 17 mostly regional destinations. It boasts a purple-themed mix-and-match crew uniform including sneakers, T-shirts, and shorts, and no rules on hairstyles, lipstick or tattoos. The onboard menu includes craft beer, no-alcohol beer, and "snag in a bag" -- a sausage in a bread roll. But despite a rebound in air travel demand since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bonza may face significant headwinds. The airline is likely doomed unless it changes its business plan, said aviation analyst Neil Hansford of Strategic Aviation Solutions.<br/>