Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris is "optimistic" the country will recover the Category 1 safety rating, which allows airlines to open new US routes, in the next six months, its CE said on Wednesday. The US FAA downgraded Mexico in May 2021, arguing that the country fell short of regulating airlines in accordance with international safety standards. "We're prepared to shift capacity to northbound routes upon Mexico's return to Category 1 status, which we remain optimistic will happen in the next six months," CEO Enrique Beltranena said in a call with analysts. The airline also sees strong demand in Central and South America, Executive Vice President Holger Blankenstein added, and expects to add new aircraft deliveries to routes in Central America. Volaris shares jumped more than 7% before the call early Wednesday, but pared gains to around 2% by midday. Since May 2021, the FAA has made several visits to Mexico and established an office there in December. Of the sticking points that need to be resolved for Mexico to recover the Category 1 rating, about half involve legislation and the other half are "systems that need to be put in place," Beltranena said.<br/>
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Collapsed Norwegian carrier Flyr’s administrator believes there will be no funds available for non-priority creditor claims, once it has addressed those with greater precedence such as wage arrears. Flyr was placed in bankruptcy by an Oslo court on 1 February. Law firm Kvale held an initial creditor meeting on 16 February, of which FlightGlobal has obtained details. Provisional accounts show Flyr made a full-year pre-tax loss of nearly NKr1.16b ($112m) for 2022, on sales of NKr1.32b. As of 9 February the airline had just over 30,500 shareholders who collectively owned more than 25.6b shares. The largest shareholders were Stadssalg with 6.4%, Nordnet Livsforsikring with 5.7%, and Ojada with 4.1%. Kvale has set an 8 March deadline for submitting claims to the estate. Processing of the estate will not be completed until the first half of 2024, at the earliest, it believes. It estimates that employees have outstanding holiday pay claims for 2022 and 2023 exceeding NKr30m ($2.9m), and that additional entitlements could bring the overall wage claim to NKr40-50m. There is “currently a prospect” that these priority claims will receive a dividend, says Kvale, although it is “uncertain whether there will be full coverage”. But it adds that, based on information it has obtained, there is “no prospect” for payment from the estate for non-priority claims, including those from passengers. At the time of the bankruptcy the airline had sold some 160,000 flights scheduled to depart before the end of October.Managing the estate has been “very labour-intensive”, Kvale says, with a “large number” of work streams having to be handled in parallel in order to gather information, cut costs and secure value. <br/>
Wizz Air has been named the worst short-haul airline by UK passengers. Passengers surveyed by consumer group Which? gave the Hungary-based carrier one star out of five for boarding experience, cabin environment and seat comfort. The budget airline’s seat pitch – the difference between two rows in standard economy – is 28 inches, two inches smaller than rival Ryanair. No more than two stars were awarded in any of the remaining categories, including value for money and cleanliness. Wizz Air operates short-haul flights from eight UK airports including Birmingham, Edinburgh, Gatwick and Luton. The airline’s overall customer score of 48% put it at the bottom of the ranking, below Ryanair (52%), Eurowings (53%) and British Airways (56%). In December, the Civil Aviation Authority said it had “significant concerns” about Wizz Air’s “unacceptable” behaviour as its passengers were far more likely to make escalated complaints than those of other carriers. The regulator also found that the airline was delaying paying money owed to passengers. Jet2.com had the highest score (80%) in the Which? research, ahead of Turkish Airlines (78%).<br/>
As part of its continued investment in the Swedish market, Ryanair will expand its operations at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, with the addition of eight new routes, a new aircraft and 30 new jobs. Ryanair has announced that it is continuing to invest heavily in the Swedish market and develop its operations at Stockholm Arlanda Airport. Two more routes and a new aircraft are now being added, while existing routes will have expanded timetables for the summer season. This means that eight new routes will have been launched since October 2022, with Ryanair now operating a total of 45 routes and 320 flights a week to and from Stockholm Arlanda Airport. “It is really gratifying that, a little over one year since it set up operations at Arlanda, Ryanair continues to strengthen its presence in the Swedish market and at Sweden’s biggest airport. The new destinations are welcome additions to the existing range of European air links on offer. They will be appreciated by our passengers this summer, no matter whether they want to fly to meet relatives and friends, seek out city experiences or sea and sun, or travel on business,” said Charlotte Ljunggren, CCO at Swedavia.<br/>
Emirates, the biggest carrier in the Middle East, is banking on a swift recovery in the aviation industry as Covid-19 travel restrictions are dismantled, with an eye on restoring its daily flight frequency from Hong Kong. The Dubai-based carrier currently operates one daily flight from the city after cutting down from four during the pandemic, according to Nasser Bahlooq, its newly-appointed area manager in Hong Kong. Recent efforts to strengthen the city’s ties with the Middle East are expected to rejuvenate business and tourism-related flows, he said.<br/>“I believe that Emirates will fly four times daily by next year,” he said in an interview. “I would like to cope with demand as soon as possible. You could expect Emirates Airlines to have four flights” if demand accelerates in early 2024, he added. China’s decision to scrap its zero-Covid policy has been pivotal in reviving the industry as the Hong Kong government abandoned costly testing and quarantine requirements. The city’s airport handled 28 times more passengers in January than a year earlier as the city fully reopened its borders. Hong Kong used to be the single biggest revenue contributor in the Far East for Emirates, commanding about 30% of its operations in the region. This was partially because of a large number of mainland Chinese travellers using Hong Kong as the regional aviation hub. Hong Kong contributes 10% to its global cargo business, Bahlooq added. A full recovery of Hong Kong’s aviation industry is only likely to take place next year, he added, amid campaigns to restore the city’s status as a regional financial and aviation hub. Until its removal, China’s strict Covid-19 curbs had impinged on the city’s role, causing an exodus of expats and capital.<br/>
Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital’s first low-cost carrier, has announced the launch of its two new routes from Abu Dhabi to Baghdad and Erbil in Iraq. The new direct flights will connect Abu Dhabi International Airport to both Baghdad International Airport and Erbil International Airport with a frequency of two flights per week starting from June 22. The airline will fly an Airbus A320 on the routes on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Adel Al Ali, Group CEO, Air Arabia, said: “We are pleased to launch Air Arabia Abu Dhabi’s first flights to Baghdad and Erbil in Iraq to further expand our growing route network from UAE’s capital. This new route underpins our commitment towards both leisure and business travellers while providing them with more travel experiences and value-added offerings across its network. At Air Arabia, we are committed to continue the expansion of our connectivity in Abu Dhabi to positively contribute to the UAE’s travel and tourism sector”.<br/>
China Southern Airlines will resume its normal schedule of direct flights from China to Azerbaijan, the company's local branch said on Wednesday. The flights between Guangzhou and Baku will resume from March, after almost a three-year suspension caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The first flights will be performed on March 13 and 20, with two weekly flights to be resumed on March 26 and carried out on Wednesdays and Sundays, the airline said.<br/>
Singapore Airlines’ budget arm Scoot will restore China flights to more than half of pre-pandemic levels by June. The airline said on Wednesday it will progressively increase its flights to China from the current 14 a week to 57. Before the pandemic, Scoot operated 107 weekly flights to China, said a spokesman. The restoration of flights comes after China reopened its borders significantly in January as it scrapped quarantine measures for overseas arrivals after nearly three years of strict pandemic restrictions. Before Covid-19 hit, China was the world’s largest source of outbound tourists, who took 170m trips and contributed US$253b to the global economy in 2019. Earlier this week, Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan stressed Singapore’s desire to see flights and other connections return to how they were before the pandemic. On his first trip to China since it relaxed its zero-Covid-19 policy, Dr Balakrishnan told his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang that there used to be 400 flights a week linking Singapore and China, while there are just 56 now. In January, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said it expects Chinese tourist arrivals in 2023 to be 30 to 60% of pre-Covid-19 numbers of about 3.6m visitors a year. However, this will largely depend on the speed at which China allows outbound travel, as well as the pace at which flights between Singapore and China resume, said STB’s assistant CE of international group Juliana Kua.<br/>
Starlux Airlines will pursue another capital increase that it hopes will raise up to TWD5b Taiwan new dollars (US$164m) in funds, which it will use “to enrich the working capital and improve the financial structure,” it announced in a Taipei Exchange filing on February 21. The airline said that its board of directors had approved the issuance of no more than 300m common shares. The issue price will be announced separately after the price is set, and the chairman - Chang Kuo-wei - has been authorised to determine whether the market conditions are favourable before triggering the process. An earlier capital increase, its sixth, raised TWD3b (US$100m) in September 2022. The move comes as the price of Starlux Airlines’ shares, which are traded on the Emerging Market of the Taipei Stock Exchange, has soared in the last two weeks. Last week, the bourse set trading restrictions on the shares because of their volatility in recent sessions. In a separate filing, on February 22, in response to a question from Taiwan’s Commercial Times, Starlux Airlines said it “will apply for a listing in April at the earliest, and it is expected to be listed at the end of this year or early next year. The goal of Starlux Airlines is currently to evaluate whether to adopt multiple listings.”<br/>