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A Hawaiian Airlines flight from New York to Honolulu was delayed by more than 30 hours this week, leaving passengers stuck. Crews reported an odor during a cabin check before the flight’s Tuesday departure from John F. Kennedy International Airport, which prompted a maintenance inspection of the plane, a Hawaiian spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The odor was caused by an oil leak in the aircraft’s auxiliary power unit. “Troubleshooting of the issue continued into yesterday morning, causing our flight crews to exceed their maximum number of legally allowed duty hours and requiring them to return to the hotel for rest,” the spokesperson added. The flight, originally scheduled to leave at 10 a.m. ET Tuesday departed New York shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday. The Hawaiian spokesperson told USA TODAY that the airline was “unable to rebook passengers on alternate flights” because there were no seats available with other carriers via JFK, and that staffing on the ramp at the airport impacted the carrier’s ability to get flyers’ luggage from the plane. The airline offered affected customers meal vouchers and $1,000 travel credits, they added. Hotel accommodations at JFK were limited but provided upon availability. “The safety of our guests and employees is our highest priority and we deeply apologize for the inconvenience,” the spokesperson said. The incident follows another lengthy delay on a Hawaiian flight from Las Vegas to Honolulu, which took off 26 hours after its scheduled departure time over the weekend.<br/>

North American tourists thronging the streets of Europe's top destinations are set to fuel healthy earnings for airlines this quarter and onwards as they enjoy travelling after long pandemic lockdowns, analysts and aviation executives said. With Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, British Airways-owner IAG and others due to report in the coming weeks, analysts are watching to see how much - and for how long - European carriers will benefit from this US demand. A renewed desire to travel has already sent bookings at US carriers soaring, despite rising living costs. Delta posted the highest quarterly earnings in its history in the June quarter, helped by a 65% jump in revenue from transatlantic flights. Travel website Kayak said searches for travel to Europe are up 55% from a year ago. While demand tends to slow down after the summer, US airline executives say bookings are extending into the autumn season. Analysts see a boost for European carriers as well. "The greatest upside should be at IAG. As with other network carriers, it benefits from high demand on the North Atlantic (routes)," said Alex Irving, an analyst at Bernstein. "However, the supply picture is also the most improved." Virgin Atlantic's commercial chief Juha Jarvinen said it is seeing "record monthly revenues, as consumers choose to spend on experiences over goods".<br/>

Icelandair Group is confident in its expectations for a full-year net profit, after the strongest second quarter in seven years. The company has disclosed a profit of $13.7m for the period, on strong unit revenues. Icelandair Group transported 1.2m passengers over the three months to 30 June, with a load factor of 83.6%. It says demand on North American routes has been particularly strong. Icelandair Group acknowledges that the quarter was affected by one-off costs associated with the need to lease extra aircraft in June, owing to capacity shortage arising from delays in maintenance. CE Bogi Nils Bogason adds that the cargo operation “remained challenging”, but he is optimistic that the company will “turn it around within the next few months”.<br/>Bogason says the second-quarter performance has been assisted by lower fuel costs arising from the fleet modernisation through which Icelandair introduced Boeing 737 Max jets. “The prospects for the second half of the year remain favourable with continued strong bookings,” he adds. “Demand for flights to and from Iceland has been strong over the past months. Capacity through Keflavik airport has also increased sharply, to 20% above pre-Covid levels this summer, and even more into next winter. This development is expected to impact yields and revenue growth in some markets in the second half of the year. However, we are well equipped to adapt to market conditions at any given time.”<br/>

EasyJet has forecast record profits this summer thanks to high ticket prices and strong demand for travel, but warned its performance was dependent on negotiating “unprecedented” air traffic control disruption. The low-cost airline on Thursday reported record pre-tax profits of GBP203m for the three months to the end of June, up from a GBP114m loss a year earlier. EasyJet is the first major European airline to report this quarter, with carriers across the region expected to report strong earnings following a boom in demand for flying that has been virtually untouched by the weak economy. EasyJet said it expected to generate “another record” pre-tax profit in the current quarter ending in September, but cautioned that its guidance was subject to its operations navigating “challenging conditions” caused by “unprecedented” air traffic control disruption. Last week easyJet announced plans to cancel 1,700 flights this summer — about 2% of its overall schedule — because of air traffic control issues. The skies over Europe are congested because of the closure of around 20% of the region’s airspace following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while the air traffic control industry has also seen some staff shortages and strikes. “We are absolutely focused on mitigating the impact of the challenging external environment on our customers and flying them on their well-earned holidays,” said chief executive Johan Lundgren. Lundgren said he did not expect to be forced to cancel another wave of flights, unless the situation “deteriorated” further. While air traffic delays are a concern, airlines and airports have largely fixed the staff shortages that caused sweeping disruption across Europe last year, and easyJet said it was “fully crewed”. Lundgren said the scorching heatwaves hitting large parts of Europe did “not seem to be a deterrent” to holidaymakers, and had not affected bookings.<br/>

Britain's easyJet would be prepared to change its routes if heatwaves change holiday habits in the years to come, the airline's chief executive Johan Lundgren said on Thursday. His comments came as the airline reported record Q3 results on the back of strong travel demand even as temperatures soared across southern Europe in recent weeks. A report by the European Travel Commission showed that tourists were taking more of an interest in travelling to more northern locales to dodge heatwaves and were booking fewer holidays to the Mediterranean in the peak summer months. Lundgren said the airline had the flexibility to change routes based on demand, even from one year to another. "So, I don't assume that this is going to be a big issue for us," he continued. This summer's record temperatures hadn't impacted easyJet's customers so far, he added, and hadn't deterred travellers from going to their usual sunny holiday spots. <br/>

Ryanair said on Thursday it plans to base up to 30 new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft at Ukraine's three main airports and fly over 5m passengers a year when fighting eventually ends. The airline's statement came as Ryanair CE Michael O'Leary met Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration Oleksandr Kubrakov in Kyiv and visited Boryspil international airport, 30km east of the capital. The Irish company, which was Ukraine's second largest airline before Russia's invasion, plans to expand from just serving Kharkiv and Kherson to operating 600 weekly flights connecting the three main airports of Kyiv, Lviv and Odesa to over 20 European capitals. It also plans to open daily domestic flights between the three cities as soon as those airports are able to handle them and double the number of seats to, from and within Ukraine to over 10m within five years. Ryanair said the 30 new jets it plans to base in Kyiv, Lviv and Odesa will be worth over $3b. Ryanair sealed a multibillion-dollar deal for as many as 300 new Boeing jets in May. "Ryanair has committed to returning with low fare flights to and from Ukraine within 8 weeks of the reopening of Ukraine air space," O'Leary, who has previously pledged to return quickly to Ukraine once the conflict has ended, said in the statement.<br/>