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United Airlines has launched a new nonstop daily service between its New York/Newark hub and Dubai International (DXB). United is the only US airline to offer non-stop flights between Dubai and the United States, flying to more destinations in the Middle East than any other US airline. The new service marks United’s return to Dubai, which the airline previously served up until 2016. The launch of the new service is part of United’s historic commercial agreement with Emirates, announced in 2022, enhancing each airline’s network and giving customers easier access to hundreds of destinations within the United States and around the world. Customers from the US flying to Dubai can travel onwards with Emirates or its sister airline flydubai to more than 100 different cities, providing more options to connect across the Middle East than ever before, whilst customers flying from Dubai to New York can take advantage of onward connections with United to over 80 destinations across the Americas.<br/>

Colombian authorities have tentatively approved Avianca’s proposed merger with bankrupt Viva Air under strict conditions following alleged antitrust violations by the legacy carrier. Aerocivil, Colombia’s civil aviation regulator, approved the deal earlier in March with a number of conditions. They include resurrecting Viva, which shut down on February 27, as its own standalone discount brand; refunding tickets for all passengers affected by the shutdown; and giving up slots at the congested Bogotá airport to competitors. Most of these are the standard fare when it comes to mitigating the impact of airline mergers that concentrate capacity in the hands of one carrier or group. But Avianca, after months of arguing its case to merge with Viva — and even offering some concessions in exchange for approval — is not simply accepting the approval and getting on with things. “We will analyze in detail the feasibility of conditioning in light of what is Viva today. That company no longer has the same capabilities in terms of route network, aircraft, and workers,” Avianca CEO Adrian Neuhauser said in a LinkedIn post following Aerocivil’s decision. The key difference appears to be the fact that Viva is not a going entity anymore. Maintaining the brand would require restarting the airline and that would likely require more capital than Avianca budgeted for— capital that Avianca may not have following its emergence from US Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring in late 2021. But the harsh conditions come into a new light given the recent revelations that Avianca may have violated Colombian antitrust law in its takeover of Viva. Numerous local media outlets have reported that, following Avianca’s purchase of Viva early last year, it installed a board loyal to its own interests at the ultra low-cost carrier despite repeated assurances that it had no say over commercial matters at the airline. Story has more.<br/>

Turkish Airlines is seeking leased engines and support from Raytheon Technologies’s Pratt & Whitney unit to repair its grounded Airbus SE A320neo aircraft ahead of the peak summer travel season, as more airlines grapple with defects on their powerplants ahead of the busiest travel season. Turkish Airlines faces “technical problems” with its Pratt GTF engines and has been forced to ground four planes, Chief Executive Officer Bilal Ekşi said in an interview at the CAPA India Aviation Summit in New Delhi last week. Long turnaround times during workshop visits and a shortage of serviceable engines are aggrevating the issue, he said. “We are talking with Pratt & Whitney very seriously on this matter,” Ekşi said. The carrier is trying to limit the grounding to the four jets and if that is achieved this summer, “we will be very lucky,” he said. Separately, Air Baltic Corp AS CEO Martin Gauss said that Pratt “could not keep the given promise again” on improved turnaround times, and it was forced to lease additional capacity starting this week in order to operate its schedule. It had previously said that a quarter of its 40 Airbus A220 jets were out of service, which had already forced it to lease jets with crews this summer. Pratt didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Carriers around the world are dealing with a shortage of engines and spare parts, especially on their latest generation workhorse narrowbody jets, which could be a major setback to the revival in air travel, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month. IndiGo, India’s biggest airline, is seeking compensation from engine makers for some 30 grounded planes, while in the US, budget carrier Spirit Airlines Inc. warned it would scale back growth plans due in part to a spate of malfunctioning turbines. Turkish Airlines is in discussions with Pratt for support as it looks for leased engines to continue uninterrupted services, Ekşi said. The airline operated a fleet of 394 Airbus and Boeing aircraft as of last year.<br/>

Asiana Airlines has set up a task-force to address regulator concerns about its merger with compatriot Korean Air, as it looks to accelerate the integration process. The carrier on 27 March says the task-force comprises 42 staff and senior executives, expanding on an existing task-force. The beefed-up task-force will be led by executives from the legal and strategic planning units, and will be supported by representatives from passenger and cargo operations, finance, as well as public relations divisions. The team is expected to collect data required by three foreign regulators – the European Union, the USA and Japan – that have yet to grant approval to the takeover. Asiana notes that the quantity of data requested has “become increasingly larger”, obliging it to expand its merger task-force to assist with meeting the requirement. It is also understood the team is separate from similar efforts by Korean Air. In November 2020, Korean Air announced it would acquire compatriot Asiana in a deal worth about W1.8t ($1.4b). While the merger has gotten regulatory approvals in jurisdictions such as Australia, the UK, Singapore, as well as China, the deal can only go through once the three remaining regulators give their approval. Korean Air had previously indicated it hopes to complete the takeover by this year.<br/>