Southwest Airlines pilots voted nearly unanimously to authorize a strike, a sign of frustration over what they view as a lack of progress in contract negotiations. Leaders of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association called an early end to voting after 98% of pilots at the Dallas-based carrier cast ballots, with 99% of those voting in favor. The airline has more than 10,000 aviators. While the vote doesn’t mean pilots will strike immediately, it gives union leaders approval to call for a walkout if one is authorized by the National Mediation Board. That can only occur after a multi-phase process outlined in the Railway Labor Act, which governs airline labor relations. “This is a historic day, not only for our pilots, but for Southwest Airlines,” Casey Murray, union president, said in a statement. “The lack of leadership and the unwillingness to address the failures of our organization have led us to this point.” The airline said in a separate statement that negotiations are continuing and it is not deterred by the union’s vote. The latest development will have no impact on Southwest’s scheduled operations. “Our negotiating team continues to bargain in good faith and work toward reaching a new agreement to reward our pilots,” Adam Carlisle, the company’s vice president of labor relations, said in the statement.<br/>
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Aer Lingus regional pilots began voting on a possible strike on Thursday, accusing their employer of failing to enter collective bargaining talks. Members of the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (IALPA), affiliated to trade union Fórsa, at Emerald Airlines, which flies Aer Lingus’s regional network, have been seeking to meet management to discuss pay and working conditions. Owen Kelly, IALPA principal officer, confirmed that the union was “balloting for industrial action, up to and including strike action” so pilots could send Emerald a clear message. “The company does not recognise the trade union as the representative negotiating body for its pilots,” he said. Voting began on Thursday and will continue until May 18th, raising the possibility that the union could serve strike notice on the airline ahead of the June bank holiday weekend. IALPA officer Daniel Langan said Emerald’s refusal to engage with the union had surprised pilots.<br/>
Air Baltic improved its revenue performance and significantly cut its net loss in Q1 2023, as the business saw positive outcomes from its mixture of own-brand flying and deals to operate capacity for other carriers. Its strongest-ever Q1 revenue helped it to a net loss of E11.4m, the airline said on 11 May, a reduction from losses of E37.4m and E30.9m in the same three months of 2022 and 2019 respectively. “The first quarter of 2023 has surpassed our expectations, driving Air Baltic towards strong commercial performance and sustained profitability,” says CE Martin Gauss, adding that the carrier is on track to launch its long-discussed IPO in 2024. The results came amid the impact of the war in Ukraine, which started to weigh on demand for travel to and from the Baltic region just as the airline was emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic last year. The carrier adjusted its business model in response to that challenge, and has since been wet-leasing a significant proportion of its Airbus A220-300 fleet to other airlines. That shift in focus helped it to first-quarter revenue of E105m, which was some 75% up on last year and 39% higher than its 2019 result. The record income – which it had already detailed in April – was achieved despite passenger numbers of 770,000 being 6% down against 2019. Its load factor of 71% in Q1 was almost 10 percentage points higher than pre-Covid levels. Air Baltic is targeting full-year revenue of E700m on passenger numbers of around 4.4m, it reiterates. That would compare favourably with revenue of E503m in 2019, on passenger numbers of 5.0m. Some 14 of Air Baltic’s 41 A220s are wet-leased to other carriers for the current summer season.<br/>
Long-haul carrier Emirates saw its most-profit year ever in 2022, earning $2.9b after bouncing back from the coronavirus pandemic shutting down global aviation, the airline announced Thursday. The carrier’s revival comes as Dubai, which owns the airline, has seen property prices skyrocket and people flood into the city-state in the United Arab Emirates as it lifted pandemic restrictions quickly and welcomed Russians fleeing Moscow’s war on Ukraine. Emirates’ annual report put revenue for the carrier at $29b in 2022, up 81% from 2021′s figures of $16b. That drastic swing comes after the airline reported a $1.1b loss in 2021. The city-state, one of seven hereditarily ruled, autocratic sheikhdoms that make up the UAE, provided Emirates some $4b in a bailout in the depths of the pandemic. Even today as travel has bounced back, the carrier still has some of its double-decker Airbus A380s still parked, awaiting mechanics to be able to fly again. “We had anticipated the strong return of travel, and as the last travel restrictions lifted and triggered a tide of demand, we were ready to expand our operations quickly and safely to serve our customers,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the chairman and CE of Emirates. The report said Emirates has repaid just over $2b in other loans taken from financial institutions during the pandemic, putting the total loan amount from outside of the government at $4.7b. The overall Emirates Group, which includes travel company dnata, as well as food, beverage and leisure holdings, reported profits of nearly $3b off revenues of $32.6b. The overall group declared a dividend to its owner, the sovereign wealth fund Investment Corporation of Dubai, of $1.2b.<br/>
Emirates airline said on Thursday it had committed $200m to a research fund focusing on reducing the impact of fossil fuels in commercial aviation, because hitting net zero emissions targets would not be possible with currently available options. Emirates President Tim Clark said the biggest impediment for airlines in reducing their environmental impact was currently fuel. "It's clear that with the current pathways available to airlines in terms of emissions reduction, our industry won't be able to hit net zero targets in the prescribed timeline," Clark said.The funds will be disbursed over three years and the Dubai-based airline will identify partnerships with organisations working on fuel and energy technologies, it said. Clark said Emirates would use environmentally responsible practices until other fuel solutions were found, including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) where feasible. <br/>
Iraqi Airways has indicated that it will receive its first Boeing 787 at the end of May. The airline has been co-ordinating the introduction of the twinjet with the US airframer, and states that it is completing discussions on technical and operational preparations. Iraqi Airways has 10 787s on order, an agreement firmed by the country’s government in 2009. The initial twinjet – fitted with General Electric GEnx powerplants – is a 787-8, registered YI-ATC. Iraqi Airways has been narrowing down dates for the delivery, and says the first jet is “scheduled to join the national carrier’s fleet at the end of May”. Boeing has recently been delivering the initial 737 Max jets which the Baghdad-based airline has on order.<br/>
Go Airlines (India) needs to raise funds to resume operations, its newly appointed resolution professional told employees of the troubled low cost carrier on Thursday, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. Recently rebranded as Go First, India's fourth largest carrier was granted bankruptcy protection on Wednesday by a tribunal in New Delhi. The tribunal also appointed Abhilash Lal of the consultancy firm Alvarez & Marsal as its interim resolution professional to oversee the company's affairs and revive the airline's business within six months. "We're working on a very tight schedule, we have to get the business back running... We have to raise the funds to do it," the source quoted Lal as telling employees in a virtual townhall meeting. Aircraft lessors have also stepped up pressure on the airline, with requests made to the aviation regulator to return about 40 Go First planes after rental payments were missed, but the bankruptcy court has imposed a moratorium on any recoveries. Lal said that his oversight won't impact daily operations and the top executive roles will not be changed while the company continues as a going concern, according to the source, who was not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified. The airline has said its financial woes are due to "faulty" Pratt & Whitney engines that grounded about half its 54 Airbus A320neos. The US engine maker, part of Raytheon Technologies, has said that Go First's allegations were "without merit".<br/>
Lenders to Go Airlines will classify their loans to the company as "non performing" in the current quarter, but are hopeful that the collateral backing the credit would reduce the amount of haircut they have to take, two banking sources said on Thursday. The low-cost carrier was granted bankruptcy protection by a company court on Wednesday, which also halted repossession of planes by lessors. "As per norms, the account will have to be declared a non-performing asset in the current quarter, and that will be done," one of the bankers said. "The account will also have to be provided for." The bankers did not wish to be named because they are not authorised to speak to media. The Indian central bank's rules for handling substandard assets says banks have to provision for at least 15% of total outstanding loans on secured assets in the first 12 months. The Go First bankruptcy filing lists Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank and Deutsche Bank among its financial creditors, which are owed 65.21b rupees ($797.38m) in total. Central Bank of India has some of the largest exposures to the airline, of 13.05b rupees at the end of March, or 0.91% of total advances, with an additional 6.82b sanctioned under a government-backed emergency credit guarantee scheme. Total debt under the consortium's lending was worth 26.50b rupees, extended by the three Indian banks, as per a court filing. A piece of land owned by the promoters of Go First, documentation for which were in order, acts as a collateral for that amount, the second banker said.<br/>
The world's second largest aircraft lessor, SMBC Aviation Capital, has warned that India's decision to block leasing firms from reclaiming Go First planes will jolt the market and spark a confidence crisis, legal papers show. SMBC, along with firms such as Jackson Square Aviation and Bank of China Aviation, raised the alarm after a tribunal gave Go Airlines (India) Ltd bankruptcy protection to allow it to revive itself, but barred lessors from repossessing planes. A boom in traffic in the world's third-biggest aviation market prompted record jet orders but two major airline failures, of Kingfisher Airlines in 2012 and Jet Airways in 2019, have taken some of the shine off the market. "Lessors and international aircraft owners see India as a risky jurisdiction for aircraft leasing," after the failures of Jet and Kingfisher, SMBC told the tribunal ahead of a hearing on Friday where it seeks to quash Go First's bankruptcy protection. "The admission of the petition (seeking protection) will further shake confidence of the international aviation industry," it added in a filing to the tribunal that has not been made public but was reviewed by Reuters. India is a critical market for lessors, in which sale-and-leaseback deals accounted for 75% of plane deliveries from 2018 to 2022, compared with a global average of 35%, data from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows. Go First and SMBC, which also called the Indian airline's insolvency filing a "smokescreen" to defraud creditors and lessors, did not respond to a request for comment. The lessors' anger comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi touts India's emergence as an aviation powerhouse.<br/>
Indian low-cost carrier SpiceJet says it has no plans to file for insolvency, as it continues to reactivate grounded aircraft. “There is absolutely no question of filing for insolvency,” says SpiceJet chairman and managing director Ajay Singh. “Any rumour regarding the same is completely baseless. We are focused firmly on reviving our grounded fleet and getting more and more planes back into the air.” Singh adds that the company is using $50m from the Indian government’s Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme as well as internal funds to reactivate grounded jets. On 3 May, SpiceJet announced that it would return 25 aircraft to the air. Singh’s remarks come amid continued troubles at Go First, which has reportedly secured bankruptcy protection, and which has extended its grounding until 19 May – Go First stopped flying in 2 May, citing challenges related to the serviceability of the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engines that power its A320neos. Go First’s lessors have initiated a string of de-registration requests with India’s aviation regulator that cover Airbus narrowbodies on lease with the beleaguered carrier. Media reports suggest that IndiGo, and the Tata Group – owner of Air India, Vistara, Air India Express, and AirAsia India – are very interested in obtaining aircraft that are de-registered from Go First. Singh appears to allude to the Go First situation in his remarks: “We have a great relationship with all our partners. Our lessors have supported us through the thick and thin and continue to do so and we are grateful for their support and confidence.” IndiGo’s strategic heft as India’s largest carriers, as well as Tata’s ambitious plans for its stable of carriers, are seen as putting relentless pressure on India’s smaller airlines, such as Go First and SpiceJet. <br/>
Direct flights between Edinburgh and China are to resume this summer after almost four years. Hainan Airlines will operate flights twice-weekly between Scotland's busiest airport and Beijing from 26 June until 8 October. The last direct service, also operated by Hainan Airlines, was cancelled in late 2019 due to the Covid pandemic. Edinburgh Airport said it would be the only direct link between Scotland and China when the route starts next month. The resumption of the service is seen as a strong indicator of the Scottish appeal for Chinese tourists and students. Airport CE Gordon Dewar described it as "fantastic news". He said: "This important connectivity will provide a boost to Scotland's universities and tourism industry, open up a wealth of new business opportunities, and enable better access to other parts of the world." Transport Minister Kevin Stewart also welcomed the announcement. He said: "This direct connectivity is great news for people and businesses in both Scotland and China, building strong links for business and exports, as well as making it easier for visitors and students to come and experience Scotland."<br/>