Air Canada Thursday raised its full-year forecast for core profit, citing a stronger-than-anticipated demand environment and lower-than-expected fuel costs. Shares of Canada's largest carrier rose 10% on Friday. Easing restrictions spurred international travel demand, helping carriers to mitigate cost pressures even as rising inflation is making leisure activities more expensive. Despite a looming recession, major North American carriers remain confident of filling up seats on planes due to a constrained capacity and a shift in consumer expenditure to services from goods. Air Canada said on Thursday it expects 2023 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) at about $3.5 - $4.0b, up from prior outlook of about $2.5 - $3.0b. The carrier added it expects its 2023 capacity to increase by about 23% from a year earlier to hit 90% of pre-pandemic levels, but down from 24% forecast earlier. Airlines are having to temper their capacity expectations for the year due to delivery delays from planemakers Boeing and Airbus.<br/>
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After Go First grounded its aircraft, international carrier Lufthansa announced on Thursday that it would be temporarily grounding a third of its Airbus A220 fleet in Zurich, Switzerland, citing issues with Pratt & Whitney engines. "Lufthansa temporarily grounds a third of its Airbus A220 fleet in Zurich due to issues with Pratt & Whitney engines," Lufthansa said Thursday. Headquartered in the US, Pratt and Whitney is a major player in designing, manufacturing, and servicing aircraft engines. Go First Airways on Tuesday informed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that all its flights would remain canceled on May 3 and May 4. Now it said the services would remain canceled till May 9. "Go First is facing [a] financial crunch due to non-supply of engines by US-based jet engines manufacturer Pratt and Whitney (P&W) that has forced grounding more than 50 percent planes," an official with the airline had told ANI. The DGCA has meanwhile examined Go First's response and issued an order to the carrier to process their refunds to passengers. Go First and Indigo are two Indian carriers that depend on Pratt and Whitney engines, and reportedly both airlines have been facing issues.<br/>
She’s a big job, giving a new look to eight Q300 aircraft, but the Airbus team in Blenheim are kitted out for it. Air New Zealand’s last aircraft in the teal blue Pacific Wave livery from the early 2000 will gain a new black and white paint job over the next four months. The teal was a nod to the airline’s 80-plus years of history, starting with the creation of what was then Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL), that has since become Air New Zealand. The aircraft will go through a strip and repaint process led by the airline’s engineering and maintenance teams, and supported by Airbus in New Zealand, at its facilities in Blenheim. Air New Zealand’s group general manager of engineering and maintenance Brett Daley said the Airbus facility was normally used to repaint military planes, but provided the perfect location to repaint the smaller turboprop aircraft. “We’re really excited about this opportunity to work with Airbus on the repainting of these planes which help connect our customers to the regions - from Hokitika, Gisborne, Napier, Rotorua, Whangarei and beyond. It’s fantastic to have the capability to do this in our own backyard. It is the first time the aircraft have been fully stripped and repainted in New Zealand and Air New Zealand has used these facilities. The aircraft were previously painted offshore in Australia.”<br/>