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Southwest Airlines is working on a series of updates and upgrades to its technology to avoid a repeat of the operational disruption the airline suffered in late December, a top executive said on Monday. CIO Lauren Woods told Reuters that the carrier is working on improvements to its crew scheduling technology, and looking to upgrade flight management system as well as buy "right" de-icing equipment, among other things. The Dallas-based carrier's technology has been in focus ever since it suffered an operational meltdown that resulted in almost 17,000 flight cancellations around the Christmas holiday last year, disrupting travel plans for two million customers. Southwest has been attributing the breakdown in service to a "historic" winter storm, both in size and scale, which caused frozen jet bridges and icy aircraft engines.It, however, has acknowledged that technology issues were a factor and plans to spend $1.3b this year on technology investments, upgrades, and system maintenance. Woods, who was named Southwest's new CIO about two weeks back, has been tasked with managing the investments. "December was a moment in time in our 51-year history and we're going to get through this," She said. "We're going to continue to make really smart business decisions including our technology investment."<br/>

WestJet announced a multitude of new American and domestic routes on Monday, and one of them will fly between the Oil Capital of Canada and the Forest City. According to a press release, WestJet announced 20 new U.S. and Canadian destinations on Monday, designed to “further provide guests with extensive opportunities to seamlessly and affordably travel across Canada.” One of the new routes will operate from Edmonton to London. The route will operate twice weekly on Mondays and Fridays during the peak season beginning on May 19. In addition, a previously announced route from London to Calgary beginning in June will also see increased service, with the addition of a red eye flight, according to a release from London International Airport. "We are thrilled to be introducing new direct service between London and Edmonton and providing the city with an additional non-stop option to connect to Calgary this summer,” said John Weatherill, WestJet chief commercial officer. "We are entering into an exciting chapter of growth at the WestJet Group and we are committed to providing vital domestic route options between Eastern and Western Canada to support travel demand across the country.” Departure time out of Edmonton will be 10:45 a.m. with an arrival in London of 2:52 p.m. "WestJet continues to invest in our market and is adding additional service non-stop from London to Edmonton, along with increasing their frequency to Calgary this summer season," said Scott McFadzean, president and CEO of London International Airport. “This is great news for London and the surrounding area, as we continue to give our passengers more options for exciting destinations across the country.”<br/>

Virgin Atlantic Airways will this summer end flights to Pakistan that the UK carrier began operating during the pandemic. The airline will end its London Heathrow-Lahore service at the start of May, while its London-Islamabad flight will cease on 9 July. Virgin launched flights from Manchester and Heathrow to Pakistan in December 2020, as the airline’s US-focussed network remained heavily disrupted by pandemic restrictions. But the airline has steadily rebuilt its transatlantic programme, adding routes to Austin and Tampa. It also plans to restore its London-Shanghai service from May, following China’s easing of Covid restrictions. ”As we continue to ramp up our flying programme in 2023, we’ve taken the opportunity to review our entire network and decided to make a few changes,” the airline says. “Following this review, it is with regret that we’ve taken the difficult decision to suspend our services between London Heathrow and Pakistan. Since commencing operations in December 2020, we have been proud to offer choice for customers travelling between London and Manchester in the UK, and Islamabad and Lahore in Pakistan. During that time, we have also provided important cargo capacity, as well as delivering vital medical supplies.” The airline suspended its Manchester service to Islamabad this winter. Virgin, which is set to shortly join the SkyTeam alliance, has also outlined plans to serve the Maldives and Turks and Caicos later this year. British Airways also launched a Lahore service from Heathrow after the pandemic, but ended the route last year. The Oneworld carrier also serves Islamabad from Heathrow.<br/>

Start-up African carrier Eswatini Air is aiming to commence services before the end of March, in time for the summer schedule. The airline – which will be based in the state formerly known as Swaziland – is being set up by Royal Eswatini National Airways Corporation. It says that it has secured approval for an air operator’s certificate and claims to be making “tremendous progress” towards obtaining the documentation needed to open routes to various destinations. These include a foreign operator permit for Zimbabwe, while a similar permit for South Africa is being sought. The corporation has applied for landing slots at Harare, Johannesburg and Cape Town. “We expect to have everything regarding that smoothed out very soon,” it states, adding that it will publish schedules and fare pricing once the procedures are complete. Eswatini Air has been granted the IATA designator code ‘RN’ and the ICAO code ‘SZL’. It has not fixed a date for initial services but says it intends to begin operations at the beginning of the summer season on 26 March. “We have seen it fit to break our launch into three phases,” says the company. “We envisage starting with one destination and the two others will be added after an interim period of less than one month.” It says a fourth destination will subsequently be added in the third phase, but it has yet to finalise the dates and the introduction sequence for its destinations. “While we finalise the processes, we have embarked on the recruitment of required personnel and training is underway for them to be ready by the launch date,” the company states. Eswatini Air has previously indicated that it will operate a pair of Embraer ERJ-145s, and that it will extend its network to Durban. Cirium fleets data indicates the company has obtained a pair of ex-Hop aircraft – originally delivered in 1998 and 1999 – and registered them locally last year.<br/>

Air Arabia posted a record profit for 2022 as strong demand and expansion into new markets helped the low-cost operator surpass pre-pandemic passenger levels. The pan-Arabian airline group more than doubled its profit to reach Dhs1.2b ($327m) last year, beating the roughly Dhs1b profit it made in 2019. Its Q4 profit of Dhs356m was down a quarter against the same period in 2021. Revenue climbed 65% on 2021 to reach Dhs5.2b, again outstripping pre-crisis highs. The strong financial performance was driving by a near doubling in passenger numbers compared to 2021. Air Arabia’s passenger volumes climbed from 6.8m to 12.8m last year, at a load factor of 80%. Air Arabia chairman Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammad Al Thani says: “The remarkable operational and financial performance reflect the carrier’s robust business model, its management team, as well as its discerning growth strategy. Although the year 2022 continued be challenging, the aviation industry has begun returning to normality as airlines and airports worldwide witnessed faster recovery following the drop in demand cause by the pandemic”. “Air Arabia Group maintained its robust growth in 2022 by increasing its fleet size and adding new routes across its global network while launching the operations of its latest joint venture airlines in Armenia and Pakistan.” Air Arabia, which took delivery of 10 Airbus narrowbodies in 2022 to end the year with 68 jets, launched its Armenian joint venture Fly Arna in June. It followed this by starting operations with a Pakistan unit Fly Jinnah in October. It is also in the process of launching a Khartoum-based unit, Air Arabia Sudan. “While airlines continue navigating various challenges this year, we are confident of the fundamentals of the aviation sector and the underlying demand for affordable air travel,” says Al Thani.<br/>

Jeju Air, South Korea’s largest low-cost carrier, will start operating flights between Laos and Korea from April 20 this year. The company stated that flights will commence after three years of suspension due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Jeju Air plans to resume services on its Incheon to Vientiane, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh routes. In 2019, the budget carrier operated eight routes to five Vietnamese cities namely Danang, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, and Phu Quoc. However, most of the routes were suspended in early 2020 when the Covid pandemic adversely affected the airline industry.<br/>