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Brazilian investigators are probing a runway excursion involving a LATAM Airlines Airbus A321 during landing at Florianopolis on 12 July. The aircraft, operated by LATAM’s Brazilian division, had been conducting the LA3300 service from Sao Paulo but suffered a “lateral deviation” after landing on runway 32, according to the airline. All 172 passengers and seven crew members safely disembarked the twinjet after it came to rest. The incident occurred at about 09:20. Meteorological data from the airport indicates heavy rain and thunderstorms, as well as reduced visibility, at the time. Surveillance video captured the event, showing the aircraft sliding off the left side of the runway at relatively slow speed. It came to rest perpendicular to the runway axis with its nose-wheel on rough ground. The extent of damage to the jet has yet to be confirmed. Florianopolis’s operator has identified the aircraft as PT-MXM, an International Aero Engines V2500-powered airframe, delivered new to the carrier in early 2014. After recovery equipment arrived, personnel began work at around 22:00 to remove the aircraft which had been blocking runway 14/32 and forced the closure of the airport. This has resulted in flight disruption at Florianopolis at least until early on 13 July. At least 66 flights have been cancelled, according to the airport operator. “All causes of this incident will be officially disclosed by the competent authorities, with which the company is co-ordinating,” says LATAM. “The company adopts all technical and operational measures necessary to guarantee a safe operation for everyone.” Florianopolis airport is managed by Zurich Airport Brasil, which states that it is working to ensure the airport re-opens as soon as possible.<br/>

Turkey’s Pegasus Airlines ordered 36 additional Airbus A321neo planes, Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) announced on Thursday. The delivery of the A321neos is not expected to take place until the end of 2029, the KAP statement said. <br/>

Air Baltic saw its highest-ever first-half revenue this year, according to guidance released on 13 July. The Latvia-based carrier said preliminary revenue was E285m for the January-June period, marking a 49% rise from the same period in 2022 and a 30% increase from its 2019 result. It did not provide any guidance on profitability. The revenue increase comes despite passengers numbers of 2m being down on the 2.2m carried in the same period of 2019, reflecting the industry-wide trend of strong yields. Versus 2022, passenger numbers were up 52% from 1.3m. “The first half of 2023 has surpassed our expectations, driving Air Baltic towards strong commercial performance,” says CE Martin Gauss. “We have been recording a strong summer season so far, with each passing month showcasing improvements with an upward trend.” Air Baltic retains its target to achieve E700m in full-year revenue, Gauss says, by carrying 4.4m passengers. Alongside its operations from the Baltic states and a one-aircraft base in the Finnish city of Tampere, the state-owned carrier is wet-leasing out at least 14 of its 40 or so Airbus A220-300s for the current summer season, including to Lufthansa Group. Gauss told FlightGlobal in April that the Baltic countries would accommodate around 40 A220-sized jets by end-2025 – some 10 fewer than it identified before the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Non-Baltic bases and the wet-leasing out of capacity have therefore become integral to Air Baltic’s strategy. Air Baltic is due to release its full first-half financial earnings on 9 August.<br/>

Nigerian authorities have suspended the Boeing 737 operations of Max Air over safety concerns with the carrier. The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority says the suspension takes “immediate effect”. Max Air’s fleet includes six 737s – a mix of -300s and -400s – alongside Boeing 747-400s and a 777-200, according to Cirium. The regulator states that its decision is based on “several” occurrences involving 737s operated by the Kano-based airline. These include the loss of a main landing-gear wheel during a flight to Abuja on 7 May. According to the Civil Aviation Authority, three other incidents occurred within a week in early July. They comprised a fuel contamination event, resulting in auxiliary power unit shutdown at Yola, a duct overheat indication which led to a return to Abuja, and an aborted take-off from Kano owing to high exhaust-gas temperature indications. Max Air is to undergo an audit after the authority assigned a team of inspectors to the carrier. The authority adds: “The result of the audit on Max Air must be satisfactory before the airline would be allowed to further operate the aircraft type.”<br/>

Jazeera Airways, Kuwait’s leading low cost airline has now started direct flights to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad. By adding Islamabad to its growing list of destinations, Jazeera now flies to three cities in the country, including Karachi and Lahore. One way fares to Islamabad will be KD49 while a return ticket will be priced at KD99. Islamabad, also known as the ‘Green City’ is a well-planned, structured and cosmopolitan city; it is also the cleanest and greenest in the country, filled with interesting tourist attractions. This includes the Faisal Mosque, South Asia’s largest mosque, Daman-i-Koh, Margalla Zoo, Pakistan Monument, Shakarparian, Lok Virsa Museum and the Rawal lake view point. The popular hill station Murree is a short drive away from Islamabad as are Abbottabad and Bhurban. There are close to 130,000 Pakistani nationals living in Kuwait. By connecting directly to Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore, Jazeera Airways offers these expats convenient and affordable flights to visit their home country, the airline said. <br/>

Akasa Air, India’s newest airline, is planning to add up to 800 new workers by the end of this fiscal year as it prepares to start international services, CEO Vinay Dube told Bloomberg News. The low-cost carrier, which began flying commercially in 2022, is considering expanding its network to the Middle East, Southeast Asia and other parts of South Asia — Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, keeping single-class configuration on the routes, Dube said in an interview Thursday. Akasa, meaning sky, employs about 3,000 people and controls 4.9% of India’s aviation market, where competition is fierce and many airlines have failed. The graveyard includes former tycoon Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. and Jet Airways India Ltd. Right now, Go Airlines India Ltd. isn’t flying as it battles insolvency, and SpiceJet Ltd. is also under pressure after a spate of losses. Covid caused chaos for carriers in India, and elsewhere, but travel demand is rebounding strongly. International traffic to and from India should grow at an annual rate of 13% over the next 10 years, up from 8% historically, with Indian airlines increasing their share “significantly,” HSBC analysts including Achal Kumar and Ali Naqvi wrote in a note Thursday. Passenger traffic in India is above pre-pandemic levels despite fares being 30% higher, they said. Akasa isn’t alone in stepping up hiring efforts — market leader IndiGo and Air India plan to recruit thousands more staff, and both have blockbuster orders for hundreds of aircraft from Airbus and Boeing. Dube is finalizing an order for narrowbody jets that he says will be in triple figures in terms of number of planes, with an announcement likely before the end of the year. Akasa ordered four more Boeing 737-8 aircraft last month, increasing its order book to 76 jets to be delivered by March 2027. Akasa will receive its 20th Boeing in a few days, meeting the government’s minimum fleet requirement for a carrier to start overseas operations, Dube said. He said the airline is “well capitalized,” dismissing concerns about funding after the death of billionaire founder Rakesh Jhunjhunwala in August.<br/>

Distressed Indonesian carrier Sriwijaya Air won approval from creditors to restructure debt in a court-assisted process, the latest example of how the Covid crisis continues to reverberate even as travel bounces back. The agreement, reached at a Jakarta court, involves as much as 7.3t rupiah ($488m) of debt, with maturities between 8 and 15 years, the airline’s lawyers said in a statement Wednesday. Under the plan, Sriwijaya will seek new strategic investment and it may include an initial public offering. “This can reduce financial debt by around 80%,” the airline’s financial consultant Noprian Fadli at Triple B Advisory said. The development highlights how the pandemic continues to occupy airlines and lenders after the slump in travel caused debt to mount. Flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia also went through a $9.8b debt restructuring in 2022. Garuda took over Sriwijaya’s operations in 2018 to expedite its debt restructuring, but the agreement ended within a year. Sriwijaya owed Garuda about $37m as of the end of March. Covid’s impact on travel piled further pressure on Sriwijaya, as did a crash in January 2021, when all 62 people on board a domestic flight were killed. Air travel has recovered fast since Covid restrictions were lifted. Latest figures from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines show international passenger traffic in the region was up 193% in May from a year earlier.<br/>

Bonza will axe five routes servicing regional Australia due to low patronage months after launching, as the fledgling budget carrier laments a series of bird strikes for hampering its reliability. There was also more encouraging news in an open letter to customers released on Thursday – demand for flights from the Sunshine Coast to Albury and Melbourne’s Avalon airport, as well as between Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport and Port Macquarie, has been so strong that Bonza will add an additional flight each week on these routes. From 1 August Bonza’s network will be cut from 27 routes to 22, when services are discontinued from its Sunshine Coast base to Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie and Tamworth. The network adjustment means Bonza will no longer service Coffs Harbour – the flight to the Sunshine Coast is now the only service offered from that airport. Bonza – which launched in January – will also cease flights between Cairns and Mackay, and Toowoomba and Whitsunday Coast. Frequencies will be reduced on other routes. Customers booked on affected routes will be issued refunds or offered an alternate flight with Bonza “depending on their scenario”. Carly Povey, Bonza’s CCO, noted that demand for some routes from the Sunshine Coast and from Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport had been so strong that the airline will consider further services in the future. She said the Albury to Sunshine Coast route had been the airline’s “shining star”, with half of all flights in June 100% full. Launching flights out of Sydney airport remains a goal of the airport, but Povey echoed CE Tim Jordan’s comments that access to meaningful slots at the airport meant expansion was not yet tenable. Povey said the decision to consolidate its network had been made “potentially a bit earlier” than planned but a range of misfortunes had meant the airline needed to act to reduce flight cancellations.<br/>