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A JetBlue pilot had to take “evasive action” while landing at Boston’s Logan International Airport when another aircraft crossed an intersecting runway, the FAA said. The close call occurred at about 7 p.m. Monday when the pilot of a Learjet 60 took off without clearance as a JetBlue flight was preparing to land on an intersecting runway, according to the FAA’s preliminary review. The FAA is investigating just how close the two aircraft came, but flight data tracking service Flightradar24 said Tuesday that a preliminary analysis put the aircraft approximately 530 feet (160 meters) apart. An air traffic controller instructed the pilot of the Learjet to line up and wait on one runway while the JetBlue flight landed on another, the FAA said. “The Learjet pilot read back the instructions clearly but began a takeoff roll instead,” the FAA said. “The pilot of the JetBlue aircraft took evasive action and initiated a climb-out as the Learjet crossed the intersection.” The FAA did not disclose any additional information. The close call at Logan is the latest near miss involving commercial aircraft in the past few months. <br/>

Struggling low-cost airline Viva Air has suspended its operations in Colombia and Peru, leaving thousands of passengers stranded Tuesday in airports with little support. The airline, owned by the same group that owns Ryanair, said in a statement late Monday that it grounded its flights after the latest delay by Colombian authorities in approving the airline’s requested merger with Avianca, Colombia’s main carrier. Earlier this month Viva had grounded five of its planes and suspended dozens of flights. Viva said it has given the Colombian government plenty of evidence of its dire financial situation and that it can continue only if it merges with the larger airline. “But the Colombian government’s decision jeopardizes the future of low-cost airlines in Colombia and threatens the jobs of 5,000 people,” the statement said. Viva and Avianca last year requested a permit from Colombia’s aviation authority to merge their companies, but deal has faced obstacles from government regulators who fear it could restrict competition in the airline market. Last month, Viva had a 20% share of Colombia’s air passenger market, while Avianca controlled about 40%. Viva was founded in 2009, and ran flights to Colombia’s largest cities, as well flights to Peru, Mexico, Argentina and Florida. In Peru, Viva’s subsidiary, Viva Air Peru, also ran domestic flights to cities like Cuzco.<br/>

Startup budget airline Norse Atlantic Airways is betting that a significant expansion of transatlantic flights from London will deliver it profits after posting a loss for its first year of operations. The Oslo-based carrier expects a profit in the second half of 2023 driven by the launch of six new routes between London Gatwick and the US beginning in May. The new routes will be operated by Norse’s new UK-based subsidiary, Norse Atlantic UK. The airline launched in June 2022, initially flying to four US destinations — Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, New York JFK, and Orlando — from Oslo and Berlin. It also opened a JFK route from London Gatwick. “As we enter into our first full summer season in 2023 the initial substantial investments that were necessary to launch Norse Atlantic Airways operations, and subsequently establish our UK-based airline, will have created a strong and sustainable company, ready to swiftly seize on new opportunities and navigate through an unpredictable global economic environment,” Norse CEO Bjorn Tore Larsen said. Airlines forecast a busy summer travel period across the North Atlantic. In January, United Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella said they expect “record” revenues in the market this summer. Others, including Air France, Iberia, and JetBlue Airways, are adding new flights to take advantage of the demand. And Norse’s own forward bookings give it confidence in turning a profit during the six months that begin in July. Still, despite the growth, industry capacity between the U.S. and Europe for the peak June-to-August period will be down roughly 3 percent compared to 2019, according to Diio by Cirium schedules.Norse’s expansion, which has not been loaded in schedules yet, includes three new destinations: Boston, San Francisco, and Washington Dulles. The airline will serve the markets nonstop from Gatwick, as well as add a new flight to Los Angeles from London with the four routes beginning between June and September. Norse previously unveiled new nonstops between London Gatwick and both Fort Lauderdale and Orlando that begin in May.<br/>

Eastar Jet, a Korean low-cost carrier, said Tuesday it will resume flights later this month as it has received an air operator certificate from the transport ministry. Eastar, a China-focused carrier, has suspended most of its flights on domestic and international routes since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its AOC became ineffective in May that year. The budget carrier plans to resume services, starting with flights on the Gimpo-Jeju route later this month, the company said. The carrier currently has three B737-800 chartered planes, sharply down from 23 aircraft before the pandemic hit the airline industry three years ago. The 23 planes served a total of 38 domestic and international routes before the pandemic. Eastar applied for court receivership in January 2021 as it had failed to find a strategic investor since July 2020, when Jeju Air, the country's biggest budget carrier, scrapped its plan to acquire Eastar amid the pandemic. In November 2021, local property developer Sung Jung Company acquired the entire stake in Eastar through a rights issue following the carrier's overall stock cancellation worth 48.5b won ($40m). Sung Jung injected 112b won into Eastar.<br/>

High airfares are here to stay as airlines take advantage of the post-pandemic travel boom to lock in higher charges, Capital A CE Tony Fernandes said. “The fare environment is very good,” Fernandes said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday from the sidelines of the Aviation Festival Asia in Singapore. “I think airlines have always underpriced their product. People are getting a little bit of a shock because they see prices a bit higher, but really we’ve been behind the curve on that as an industry.” Airlines around the world have pushed up fares as demand outstrips supply following rapid rebound in travel after years of pandemic-era restrictions and as carriers struggle to get planes back in the sky. “It’s not high prices, it’s real prices,” Fernandes said. “I think the fares you’re seeing now are really what you should have seen in 2019 as well.” “After not having traveled for three years, peoples’ value of travel has also gone up,” he added. “If you don’t have it for three years, you see how important it was.” AirAsia will have its entire fleet of more than 200 planes back in service a year earlier than initially planned, Fernandes said. “The main obstacle for us has been getting our planes back into service, and bringing 204 planes back is no mean feat,” he said. “And what was initially predicted to be finished by May of next year we’ll do by May of this year.”<br/>

Virgin Australia is to focus on a significant international ramp-up in the coming year, with the airline also seeing strong inbound travel demand from Chinese travellers. Airline commercial chief Dave Emerson, who was speaking at the Aviation Festival Asia in Singapore on 28 February, said the airline “can probably grow” 50% in capacity by the 2024 fiscal year, which ends 30 June 2024. “We still have a lot of growth there,” says Emerson, who notes that traffic to and from Japan will play a “big part”, alongside an expansion of its Pacific Islands network. The airline is marking its return to the Japanese market in June with daily flights between Cairns and Tokyo Haneda, operated by newly-delivered Boeing 737 Max 8s. Emerson says the airline is also seeing healthy demand in inbound traffic from codeshare partnerships. Virgin Australia has codeshare agreements with airlines like United Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways. “We are almost at the same volume pre-Covid of international passengers [from codeshare partnerships] flying domestic with us, and we actually see that going past, so we’re quite bullish,” says Emerson. Chinese inbound demand, in particular, is set for a significant increase in the coming months, following Beijing’s decision to drop most of its ‘zero-Covid’ restrictions in January. Virgin Australia does not fly to China, but taps on its airline partners for feeder traffic. Emerson says in February, demand is only at about 30% pre-pandemic levels, but is forecast to be around 70% by mid-year. The airline hopes to grow the number of international airline partners in the near-term, though Emerson declines to state which airlines it is looking to work with. <br/>