US discounter Avelo Airlines is planning to add a second Boeing 737NG to its base at Delaware’s Wilmington airport – and nine new non-stop routes. California-headquartered Avelo said on 20 April that the expansion raises its total of non-stop routes from the airport in New Castle County to 14 – “the largest number… ever offered” there. Avelo has flown more than 25,000 passengers from Wilmington since launching service there in February and is “pleased with the enthusiastic reception”, says chief executive Andrew Levy. “Based on this initial customer response to our first five Florida routes, we are excited to bring Wilmington these nine new routes to several of our most popular East Coast destinations.” The ultra-low-cost carrier (ULCC) is set to connect Wilmington to Charleston (South Carolina), Daytona Beach (Florida), Greenville (South Carolina), Melbourne (Florida), Myrtle Beach (South Carolina), Nashville (Tennessee), Raleigh-Durham (North Carolina), Savannah (Georgia) and Wilmington (North Carolina). All of the flights are scheduled to begin in late June. The start-up carrier initially based one 149-seat 737-700 to connect Wilmington to five Florida cities – Orlando, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and West Palm Beach. Earlier this month, Avelo replaced the jet with an 189-seat Boeing 737-800, and the carrier plans to add a second 737-800 on 22 June. Avelo’s expansion in Delaware is the latest example of local and state governments embracing ULCCs that provide point-to-point service to underutilised airports. Delaware governor John Carney noted that Avelo is “providing passengers from our region with an affordable and convenient way to travel”. With some 500 regional jets parked across the country due to the ongoing pilot shortage and supply chain issues, airlines are “upgauging” to aircraft with greater capacity and mid-sized cities are turning to narrowbody operators such as Avelo, Breeze Airways and newcomer Red Way – which plans to launch operations in June from its base in Lincoln, Nebraska.<br/>
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Eurowings CEO Jens Bischof expects flight prices at the Lufthansa subsidiary to increase further due to rising fuel, personnel and airport costs, according to a report on Friday by Germany’s Funke media group. “Flying for a taxi price is no longer possible,” Bischof was quoted as saying by Funke, adding that flights would be around 20% more expensive in the holiday seasons this year than in 2022. Demand for air travel is above the level of the pandemic years, though business bookings are still 20% lower. <br/>
Low-cost carrier Wizz Air has launched a flight subscription program, opting for the same platform that Alaska Airlines uses. The European airline has partnered with Caravelo, a company that builds subscription platforms for airlines. They claim the program, called MultiPass, is a first for Europe. It will initially be available for six months for the Italian and Polish markets. Passengers will be able to fly domestic Italy and international Poland routes, booking up until five days before departure. For a fixed monthly fee, the subscribers can choose between one way or round-trip flights, and can also customize their plan with ancillaries. Caravelo partnered with Alaska Airlines for its Flight Pass in February last year, while Frontier Airlines also recently launched its own, called GoWild! Barcelona-based Caravelo also raised $3m in funding in July last year. “In the past year, the industry has finally woken up to the power of subscriptions,” CEO Inaki Uriz said at the time.<br/>
El Al controlling shareholder Kenny Rozenberg has successfully completed an offer to purchase, increasing his stake from 44.95% to 49.95%. The offer to purchase was completed at the third attempt at NIS 4.20 per share. Among those selling shares were the state, which reduced its holding from 11.80% to 10.13% and former controlling shareholders the Borowitz family, which reduced its stake through Knafaim Holdings from 6.19% to 5.24%. Rozenberg became El Al's controlling shareholder in 2020 after investing NIS 360m as part of a TASE offering conducted to save the airline from collapsing during the Covid pandemic. Subsequently Rozenberg injected a further NIS 166m into El Al for additional shares and extended the $70m owner's loan. To date, Rozenberg has lost hundreds of millions of shekels on the investment. But he is banking on the current booking boom in the tourism industry continuing with El Al reporting its biggest quarterly profit since 2015 in Q4 2022.<br/>
Taiwan's Starlux Airlines is pushing Airbus to speed up deliveries as it seeks to expand its routes beyond Asia to keep up with booming post-pandemic demand, the carrier's chief executive said. Starlux, Taiwan's newest full-service airline, launched its first flights in 2020 and serves destinations including Tokyo, Bangkok, Macau, Hanoi and Singapore. The all-Airbus operator competes against the island's long-established carriers China Airlines and Eva Airways, which are expanding and updating their own fleets with Boeing 787s. Starlux took delivery of the first of 18 A350s in October as it expands operations to long-haul routes from Taipei, starting with Los Angeles next week. The airline, which also operates the A330neo, expects to receive five widebody jets next year, but that is not enough to keep pace with strong post-pandemic demand, CEO Glenn Chai told Reuters at the company's headquarters in Taipei. "We have been pushing Airbus to provide the aircraft as soon as possible, but their production rate is not able at the moment to return to pre-pandemic levels," he said. North America is the focus for now with Starlux launching San Francisco before the end of the year, Chai added. The airline is targeting transit passengers given the small size of its domestic market. "New York is a must - it's the largest city in North America, but it depends on aircraft deliveries," he said. "The headache for us is Airbus can't hand them over." Airbus said it was in "direct contact with all our customers" but declined to comment on talks with individual airlines. The planemaker has reaffirmed production targets for 2024 and beyond.<br/>