JetBlue Airways said it’s weighing its options after a US judge ruled the Northeast Alliance between the carrier and American Airlines Group broke antitrust law and ordered the pair dissolve the arrangement within 30 days. JetBlue expects to make a decision regarding its next steps “soon,” CEO Robin Hayes said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on the sidelines of the IATA annual general meeting in Istanbul on Sunday. “The NEA has been fantastically successful for consumers,” Hayes said. “There’s never been more JetBlue flights out of New York and Boston. Fares in New York have risen less than anywhere else in the country. All of those point to the NEA being incredibly successful.” Hayes said the airline would “like to try and find a way of continuing with those flights, but we’ve got a lot more work.” American Airlines and JetBlue use the Northeast Alliance, struck in 2020, to coordinate flights and pool revenue, arguably allowing them to compete more effectively against United Airlines and Delta in Boston and the New York city area. The US Department of Justice initially filed a lawsuit against the alliance in 2021, calling the partnership a “de facto merger.” The government has said the deal reduces competition and could cost consumers an additional $700m a year. American Airlines said last week it would appeal the court decision.<br/>
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Aeromexico has a “comprehensive plan” to add capacity on its transborder routes as chief executive Andres Conesa grows hopeful that the long wait for the US FAA to restore Mexico’s Category 1 safety rating status is close. Mexico’s transport ministry disclosed that the International Aviation Safety Assessment Audit (IASA) carried out by FAA inspectors concluded on 2 June and that it expects a report from the FAA in the coming weeks. It comes more than two years after the FAA downgraded Mexico’s safety rating, meaning the latter’s carriers have not been able to add fresh capacity on US routes. Conesa says: ”It has taken longer than expected but finally I think all the issues have been addressed. I think the Mexican government has done a good job and has complied with all the FAA requirements to be back to Category 1, so hopefully it’s just a few weeks. We have a very comprehensive plan to add new destinations and additional frequencies that today we cannot do it because we are in Category 2,” he adds. While Conesa notes it is too late for this summer, he says that if the decision comes in July it could bring capacity back on US routes before the end of the year. ”It’s an opportunity lost,” Conesa adds. ”We have been receiving….a significant amount of planes after the [Chapter 11] restructuring. All these planes that have arrived cannot fly into to the US.” Notably that includes Boeing 737 Max jets. “The sweet spot for these planes is four to five hours, so they are ideal to serve the transborder market and we have not been able to fly them.” Aeromexico operates joint venture with Delta Air Lines and the safety downgrading also impacts their ability to codeshare on transborder routes.<br/>
Latvian airline airBaltic is in talks with Airbus (AIR.PA) to buy 30 more A220 passenger jets by exercising existing contractual options, its chief executive told Reuters. The largest Baltic airline, which has already ordered 50 of the Canadian-developed planes, also plans to add 20 new options, CEO Martin Gauss said. The move comes as the airline prepares for an initial public offering (IPO) in late 2024, for which the tentative business plan envisages up to 100 aircraft by 2030. AirBaltic is the second-largest European customer for the larger of two models of A220, the roughly 130-seat A220-300. It would focus on the same version for the new order. AirBaltic would also be interested in an option to convert some of these orders to an even larger version known as the A220-500 if Airbus went ahead with its development, Gauss said.<br/>
Airbus is closing in on a potentially record deal to sell 500 narrowbody A320-family jets to India's largest carrier, Indigo, industry sources said on Sunday. The European planemaker has emerged as front-runner for an order eclipsing Air India's historic provisional purchase of 470 jets in February, the sources said on the sidelines of an airline industry meeting in Istanbul. Airbus and Boeing are also competing in talks to sell 25 wide-body jets to the same airline, they said. IndiGo, which is already a major Airbus customer with a large number of planes on order, and the France-based planemaker both declined comment. Boeing also declined to comment.<br/>
Low-cost carriers are adding flights between Japan and the Philippines, anticipating a rapid recovery of leisure and business demand now that the Southeast Asian archipelago has significantly eased COVID-related travel restrictions. AirAsia Philippines and Jetstar Japan have already begun or resumed flights between the nations. Zipair Tokyo, a unit of Japan Airlines, in July will begin service between Narita Airport, which serves Tokyo from the neighboring prefecture of Chiba, and Manila. "To airlines, it is a cash-cow route that can expect many passengers both from the Philippines and Japan," Shingo Nishida, president and CEO of Zipair Tokyo, told Nikkei. The airline will service the route with daily flights starting July 1. A one-way ticket from Narita to Manila starts at 11,000 yen ($78). Children under the age of 6 fly for a flat rate of 5,000 yen. The LCC charges extra for luggage, meals and other services that are free on legacy airlines. Zipair expects to serve leisure and business travelers from Japan as well as passengers from the Philippines eager to visit relatives living in Japan. It also intends to do business with travelers wishing to use Narita as a transit point. Zipair thinks it is unlikely to compete for passengers with Japan Airlines, as Japan-Philippine flights are in high demand and most of the LCC's customers are younger. With about 110m inhabitants, the Philippines is Southeast Asia's second-most populous country. Its population is also expected to top Japan's within a few years. The Philippines' median age is 25.3, and its gross domestic product since the second quarter of 2021 has grown more than 6% year-on-year for eight consecutive quarters. The country's economy and middle class are expected to further expand, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority. "The Philippines' strengths lie in its demographic dividend and its high proficiency in English," Zipair's Nishida said. "I think more Filipinos will increase their presence in North America."<br/>