Chilean carrier LATAM will restart its service between Melbourne and Santiago on 1 September, restoring flights between Victoria and South America for the first time post-COVID. The airline will fly three weekly services on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, with flights to Santiago departing Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday as LA804 and flights to Melbourne operating Monday, Wednesday and Friday as LA805. “There has been a huge demand for travel to the region, and we are thrilled to be able to meet the needs of travellers, starting with over 900 seats a week on our Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft,” said Chris Ellis, country manager – Oceania, LATAM Airlines. “For the past year, we have been building our capacity in Sydney, and it’s a pleasure to be taking up residence again in Melbourne Airport as we expand our footprint in Australia. LATAM has the largest network in Latin America with connections to 144 destinations, including some of the greatest bucket list destinations in the world.” Lorie Argus, CEO of Melbourne Airport, has welcomed the resumption of the Melbourne-Santiago service, saying the airport is “very excited” to have LATAM back.<br/>
unaligned
Canada Jetlines has pressed pause on its domestic routes as the upstart airline refocuses on sun destinations and leasing its planes, but says it plans to resume in-country flights come fall. The carrier quietly halted its twice-weekly return trips between Toronto and Vancouver and Toronto and Calgary in January after launching commercial operations in September. In their place, it signed a pair of so-called wet leases, where the lessor furnishes the aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) for another airline. "When we had an opportunity to operate an ACMI lease, that guaranteed revenue and guaranteed hours. From a business perspective, it makes sense for us to take the ACMI lease," said CFO Duncan Bureau. "This is very common across airlines around the world," he said in an interview Tuesday. Canada Jetlines also continues to offer two return flights per week from Toronto's Pearson airport to Las Vegas and to Cancun, Mexico. The company's two Airbus A220 jetliners work both of those routes as well as the wet lease. It signed one wet lease agreement that ran from the winter holidays into March, and a second one with a different carrier that lasts from March until Sept. 5, Bureau said. He did not disclose the airlines. The Toronto-based company plans to resume flights from Toronto to Calgary and Vancouver starting this fall, with the aim of receiving three more deliveries of the 174-seat A220s by year's end. “We'll add more planes, which will give us the ability to operate into key gateways like Calgary and Vancouver," Bureau said. "We’re extremely bullish on both markets."<br/>
The saga over pilot licenses recently reignited in Pakistan’s parliament amid concerns that flight crews have begun to leave the national carrier over hefty taxes levied on their income. According to a Senate press release, 15 pilots have recently departed Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), potentially jeopardizing the chances of a sustainable talent pipeline. PIA has petitioned the country’s supreme court in an effort to hire young males. Pilot certification became a contentious issue for Pakistan in June 2020, following remarks made before the National Assembly during a preliminary result hearing on PIA Flight 8303, which crashed in Karachi in May. Speaking with lawmakers, aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan claimed that of Pakistan’s 860 pilots, 262 had fake licenses. The allegations provoked intense political and media controversy and rippled across the industry, with many, including the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA), questioning the validity of the minister’s statements. The International Federation of Air Line Pilots Association called the comments “on the brink of being reckless.” The PCAA Standing Committee on Aviation said it would create a subcommittee to probe the matter in detail. <br/>
"If I was Jesus Christ," said AirAsia co-founder Tony Fernandes, not a trace of a smile on his face, "it would be the second coming." Even for a man known for his showmanship and what might politely be termed a strong sense of self-worth, it is a fairly astonishing remark. Still, there's no denying that budget carrier AirAsia, which Fernandes mortgaged his house to start in 2001, had a close brush with mortality when air travel collapsed during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Now the flamboyant, 58-year-old Malaysian tycoon says business is booming as tourism throughout the region roars back. Airlines in the Asia-Pacific region ferried 34.1m international passengers in January and February alone, compared to 5.2m in the same two months of 2022. That period included China's unexpected early reopening in time for Lunar New Year -- peak season for Chinese and Southeast Asian tourists. In late March, Fernandes signed agreements in London to lease 15 new Airbus A321neos to cope with the soaring demand -- he said the airline is selling almost 90% of all available seats. Fernandes signed options for another 15 planes at the same time, he said. Meanwhile, Capital A, AirAsia's parent company, logged its first quarter in the black since the beginning of the pandemic, reporting a net profit of 172m ringgit ($39m) for the last quarter of 2022. The decision to lease new planes came despite AirAsia having only about 70% of its 200 planes in service. The remaining jetliners, having been mothballed during COVID, are at various stages in the process of being returned to airworthiness. In an interview with Nikkei Asia, Fernandes said the full complement is expected to be in service by July or August, six months ahead of earlier projections.<br/>