The parent of Canadian carrier Air Transat lost C$29.2m ($21.9m) during its fiscal Q2 of 2023 as demand for its “primary niche” of leisure travel remained steady. For comparison, Montreal-based Transat AT lost C$98.3m during the same three months ending 30 April of last year. The company reported its Q2 results on 8 June, saying it generated C$870m in revenue during the period. That is up from $358m in the same period last year, during which Air Transat had cancelled nearly 30% of its scheduled flights amid emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Transat says it executed “continuous improvement in its operational efficiency throughout the quarter”, adding that a “high volume of activity is driving prices up”. Air Transat has already sold 60% of its anticipated capacity in the upcoming Northern Hemisphere summer travel season. “Air Transat will deploy for the summer a capacity representing 89% of its 2019 level, with Europe comprising 80% of the activity, leveraging the most-profitable routes for Transat,” says Transat CE Annick Guerard. The airline’s load factor for summer 2023 remains 2.6 percentage points lower than in summer 2019, but Air Transat anticipates that will be offset by strong demand and higher ticket prices. Like many operators of Airbus A320neo-family aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engines, Air Transat has been feeling the effect of extended maintenance lead times and shortages of parts and spare engines. “We do feel the impact with the Pratt engines,” Guerard says. “We are putting in place a series of actions to protect our operation this summer and next winter, like leasing additional engines and planning for additional backups within the operation.”<br/>
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Faroese carrier Atlantic Airways, which is tentatively venturing into transatlantic operations, is to build on its co-operation with Icelandair, as the Icelandic carrier expands to serve the Faroe Islands. Atlantic Airways is extending its network to feature a transatlantic service to New York’s Stewart airport in August. The airline plans to use Airbus A320neos to operate the route from Vagar airport, which serves the Faroese capital Torshavn. Icelandair is opening its own link to Torshavn from May to October next year, with five to six weekly flights from Reykjavik’s Keflavik airport. “We have noticed great interest from our customers across the world in visiting [the Faroe Islands],” says CE Bogi Nils Bogason. Atlantic Airways, which already operates to Keflavik, has signed a letter of intent to broaden its co-operation with Icelandair. “The two companies see great opportunities in offering their customers convenient connections between the Faroe Islands and Icelandair destinations in Europe and North America,” Icelandair states.<br/>Atlantic Airways chief Johanna a Bergi says the US market is a driver behind the agreement. “American tourists are an important and growing segment in the Faroe Islands,” she states. “This [letter of intent] paves the way for even closer connectivity to Iceland and Icelandair’s extensive network of routes to the USA and Europe.”<br/>
Low-cost European carrier Wizz Air expects to return to profit this year as the post-pandemic rebound in travel gathers pace and the group puts a series of setbacks behind it. The airline’s expectations of making a profit in the year to March 2024 contrast with the previous financial year, when it faced several problems, including a decision to abandon fuel hedges that backfired when the war in Ukraine sent prices up sharply. The fuel price exposure was a substantial contributor to the carrier’s net loss for the year to March 31 of E535m. With comprehensive currency and fuel hedges now in place, the Budapest-based group said on Thursday that it expected to report a net profit for the current financial year of between E350m and E450m. Wizz Air has expanded aggressively since it was founded almost 20 years ago, making it a competitor to Ryanair in Europe’s low-cost market. Referring to the lack of hedging, CE József Váradi said its fuel costs in the first half of its last financial year had been “totally down to the market” and that the market “was not paying a favour to us”. He attributed the expected turnround from the E535m loss to profits of E350m to E450m to three factors. Váradi said that of the roughly €1bn improvement he expected cost efficiencies to generate €400mn, a further €200mn to come from better use of the airline’s fleet and crew and about €400mn from having fuel and currency hedges in place. “I’m very confident in the performance of the airline financially as a result of all the operational changes and investments we’ve made,” Váradi said. Like other low-cost airlines, Wizz is investing in the latest generation of single-aisle, fuel-efficient aircraft. During the current financial year, it is expecting to receive 42 Airbus A321neo aircraft, with new, fuel-efficient engines. It intends to hand back to lessors 16 smaller A320s with older engines.<br/>
Air Montenegro has increased its fleet to four aircraft, with the addition of an Embraer 190 regional jet. The aircraft will complement two E195 and an Airbus A320 and enhance the carrier’s capacity for the summer season. Air Montenegro has come under new leadership with the appointment of former Adria Airways head Mark Anzur as its CE. The E190 – configured with 104 seats – is wet-leased from Ukrainian carrier Windrose Airlines, and was formerly operated by Ukraine International Airlines prior to the Russian conflict. Air Montenegro says the aircraft gives the carrier an overall seat capacity of 500, and its looking to transport nearly 500,000 passengers this year. It is operating a network of 16 destinations from Podgorica and Tivat. “The current state of capacity sales, flight occupancy and the average sales tariff confirm the belief that this will be a record year in the national carrier’s business,” the airline says. “Bearing in mind that the high tourist season is ahead of us…we believe that the introduction of the fourth aircraft is very important.” Air Montenegro emerged in mid-2021 as a successor to former flag-carrier Montenegro Airlines. Anzur, who has disclosed that he took over as CE in June, was formerly a senior figure at Irish regional operator Stobart Air.<br/>
Aeroflot has unveiled plans to launch direct flights between Khabarovsk and Phuket, Thailand. Scheduled to take off on 9 July 2023, the airline will operate the twice weekly flights with wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft. On Sundays, flight SU0643 is scheduled to depart from Khabarovsk (KHV) at 11:15, arriving in Phuket (HKT), Thailand at 15:25. On Tuesdays, Flight SU0656 is set to leave Khabarovsk at 13:00 and arrive in Phuket at 17:45. From Phuket, flight SU0657, is slated to leave on Tuesdays at 20:30 and arrive in Khabarovsk at 06:45 the following day. On Saturdays, flight SU0642 is timed to leave Phuket at 22:25, arriving in Khabarovsk at 08:35 the following day. The airline will also resume services to Bangkok from Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok from 7 July, as part of Aeroflot’s new international flight programme enabling travel to some of the word's most popular leisure destinations without going through Moscow.<br/>
El Al has secured regulatory approval to operate dedicated freighters from the Israeli civil aviation authority, as it awaits its first converted aircraft. The extension to its commercial licence gives the airline the right to transport freight using all-cargo aircraft until 5 June next year. El Al had disclosed last October that the regulator was intending to cancel the airline’s freighter authorisation because it did not have the minimum of two cargo aircraft in its fleet. With a planned amendment to the regulation reducing this minimum requirement to a single aircraft, El Al opted to acquire a Boeing 737-800 converted freighter. The airline recently stated that the introduction of this freighter, through a dry-lease arrangement, has been held up for a few months by validation procedures. But it states that it obtained an amendment to its commercial licence from the civil aviation authority on 7 June granting the carrier the all-cargo aircraft rights. “[El Al] is continuing the validation procedure so that, upon completion, it will be able to provide cargo transportation services using cargo aircraft on a regular basis,” it adds.<br/>
India's SpiceJet said on Thursday that FTAI Aviation would lease it up to 20 engines, the first few of which the low-cost carrier would use to reactivate some of its grounded fleet over the next 2-3 months. The partnership with the US-based engine services provider "will reduce maintenance expense and minimise aircraft downtime, enhancing the airline's overall performance," Spicejet said in a statement. The Gurugram-based airline said last month it had begun to revive 25 of its grounded fleet using its own money and a $50m line of credit through an Indian government scheme it secured. SpiceJet had also said there were no plans to file for insolvency, quelling fears of a spillover after rival Go Airlines (India) filed for voluntary bankruptcy.<br/>
Fly91 will become the first airline to be headquartered at the greenfield Goa Mopa Airport when it starts operations, tentatively scheduled for later this year, after it secures its air operator's certificate (AOC). As previously reported, Fly91 aims to link Goa with second and third-tier airports around India, tapping into the Indian government's UDAN-RCS subsidised regional flying scheme. Founder and Kingfisher Airlines (Mumbai International) alumni Manoj Chacko said he plans to launch flights with a pair of ATR72-600s, building up to six aircraft within the first 12 months. Developed by GMR Airports Limited under a build-operate-transfer model, the INR30b rupee (US$363.5m) Goa Mopa Airport only opened in December 2022. The airport offers a user-friendly alternative to Goa Dabolim, a single runway joint military/civilian facility where military traffic enjoys priority.<br/>