Lenders to India's Go First, which is under bankruptcy protection, have approved interim funding of 4.50b rupees ($54.9m) to resume operations and restart the airline, two banking sources said. Go First was granted bankruptcy protection on May 10. Reuters reported last week that the airline has sought 4b-6b rupees in additional funds from banks. "This interim funding does not come with collateral, it will be a part of the insolvency cost and will be given priority over other dues," said one of the bankers. The promoters, however, have indicated that they do not intend to infuse more funds into the airline, the second banker said. Both bankers did not wish to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media. The Go First bankruptcy filing lists Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank and Deutsche Bank among its creditors, to which the airline owes a total of 65.21b rupees. Now that lenders have given funding approval, the ball is in the aviation watchdog's court to make checks and approve the airline's business plan, both the bankers said. The company's resolution professional will have to handle that process, they added. Lessors of Go First have locked horns with the airline and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to reclaim its planes for missed payments, with requests to the watchdog to allow repossession. Go First plans to operate 78 daily flights with 22 aircraft, as per the company's revival plan presented to lenders last week.<br/>
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Malaysia's newest low-cost carrier MYAirline Sdn Bhd is set to spread its wings to the international route with its first flight to Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday (June 28). MYAirline CEO Rayner Teo said the airline would operate in two airports in Bangkok, with the operation at Suvarnabhumi Airport to on June 28 and at Don Mueang International Airport on July 1. "We are the first Malaysian carrier that actually operates in two different airports in Bangkok. We will be starting with one flight per day and progressively to four flights per day,” he told a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 2 here, today in conjunction with the airline’s success in hitting the 1mn passenger milestone earlier this month. Since its inaugural flight on 1 Dec last year, MYAirline has connected Kuala Lumpur to various popular destinations including Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Kota Bharu, Langkawi, Penang, Sibu, Tawau and Miri. Teo said MYAirline received the certificate of airworthiness today for its eighth aircraft which will be used to serve the Bangkok routes.<br/>
Australia’s Regional Express expects to post an annual loss, in a sobering about-face from its optimism of returning to profitability earlier this year, as it blames supply chain “shocks” as well as a decline in business travel demand. The operator now expects to report a loss of around A$35m ($23.4m) for the year ending 30 June, lower than the pre-tax statutory loss of A$68m in the year-ago period. It also compares to the loss of A$16.5m the airline reported in the July-December period. “The global shortage of pilots and engineers, along with supply chain shocks post-Covid have disrupted Rex’s network, forcing Rex to make significant reductions to its flight schedules over the last couple of months to match the need for aircraft, pilot and engineers to what is available,” the airline says in a 20 June disclosure. It also acknowledges that the business travel - which it once said was a revenue opportunity - had “significantly reduced” in May and June, noting that the “exponential increases” in airfares had “exhausted” corporate travel budgets. The reversal follows months of “cautiously optimistic” forecasts of a full-year profit. Though Rex did not disclose its profit forecast, its mainline jet operations had been profitable for several months since September 2022. The airline first operating Boeing 737-800s on mainline domestic routes in 2021, but pandemic restrictions in Australia scuppered operations and Rex only fully resumed flights in February 2022. And while it had been loss-making in the six months to 31 December 2022, Rex was expected to “make up for the accumulated losses…to emerge profitably overall for the entire [financial year]”. In its latest earnings forecast, Rex says it “remains optimistic” for a group pre-tax profit in the year to 30 June 2024, citing the “continued expansion” of its jet operations, as well as opportunities in the resources charter segment. <br/>