US start-up carrier Avelo Airlines plans to operate its first international flights with new routes from the East Coast of the USA to the Caribbean starting in November. Earlier this month, the ultra-low-cost carrier said it would launch on 15 November twice-weekly flights from Connecticut’s Tweed-New Haven airport to Puerto Rico’s San Juan Luis Munoz Marin International airport – its first destination outside the continental USA. “We expect the affordability and convenience of this new route will inspire a meaningful number of travellers to visit Connecticut from Puerto Rico,” CE Andrew Levy said on 1 August. The airline says it will become the “first and only airline offering non-stop service between southern Connecticut” and Puerto Rico. On 10 August, Southern California-headquartered Avelo said it also plans to connect Wilmington airport in the greater Philadelphia area to San Juan and Sarasota, Florida. The twice-weekly service to San Juan will launch 15 November, while flights from Wilmington to Sarasota will start 2 November. Both routes will be flown with the two 189-seat Boeing 737NGs Avelo has stationed at its base in Wilmington, Delaware – one of its six operational bases across the USA. “Avelo is the first airline to offer non-stop flights beyond the continental United States at [Wilmington] — the convenient, affordable and travel-friendly alternative to Philadelphia International airport,” the carrier says. With the two new routes, Avelo plans to fly to 15 cities from its base in Wilmington. <br/>
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Mexico’s new military-run airline will get a $4b investment and plans to start operations with Boeing jets, ramping up a plan by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to bolster the defense department’s business projects. The airline has initially leased 10 of Boeing’s 737-800 planes, said Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval, with three deliveries scheduled for late September and the rest for late October. Ticket sales could start as soon as September, he said. The president’s plans to start a military airline were approved by congress earlier this year as part of an aerospace reform, which could provide additional traffic to the airports built in Santa Lucia, Mexico State and Tulum, Quintana Roo during his administration. The 20 proposed routes include resort destinations such as Cancun and Los Cabos and major cities such as Monterrey and Guadalajara. The new company will be named Mexicana, after the government struck a deal with workers from the defunct Mexicana de Aviacion airline to purchase the brand. The date of the first flight has not yet been determined, he said. The carrier will only serve domestic flights at the start. Airlines in Mexico have been banned from adding new routes or frequencies to the US since May 2021, when the Federal Aviation Authority lowered the country’s safety rating to Category 2. A return to Category 1 is expected in the coming months. The military is receiving advice from Boeing and “other companies on tourism and the sale of tickets,” said Sandoval at a press briefing Thursday. “We’re still working on it,” he said. <br/>
Brazilian airline Azul on Thursday reported a narrower Q2 loss, beating market expectations, and its shares jumped almost 9% as it provided its first updates after completing a broad restructuring plan earlier this year. Sao Paulo-traded shares of Brazil's largest airline in number of flights and cities served jumped as much as 8.9% after the report, making it one of the top gainers on Brazil's Bovespa stock index, as analysts voiced optismism about the company's future.<br/>Azul posted an adjusted loss of 1.33 real per share for the three months ended in June, an improvement from the 1.77-real loss seen a year ago. The loss was less than the 1.49-real loss per share projected by analysts polled by Refinitiv, with earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) also beating expectations at 1.15b reais ($237.34m). "The EBITDA margin at 27%, despite the weak seasonality of the second quarter, signals the company is on track to continue improving its profitability in the coming quarters," analysts at Itau BBA said in a note to clients. CFO Alex Malfitani told reporters in a news conference that expectations are for an EBITDA of 6b reais or more in 2024. After inking deals in March with aircraft lessors to give them equity and tradeable debt in exchange for lower payments, the airline announced in June an exchange offer to delay the maturities of bonds expiring in 2024 and 2026 and later raised $800m in notes due 2028.<br/>
Turkish Airlines will roll-out new brand positioning for its recently spun out low-cost operation AnadoluJet in the coming weeks and hopes to have the carrier operating in its own right before next summer. The airline launched the Ankara-based low-cost unit in 2008, initially focused on domestic services in the country and operating out of airports including Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport. AnadoluJet has since grown rapidly, launching international flights in 2020 and operating a fleet of 81 aircraft as of 30 June. Turkish Airlines earlier this month completed the creation of a wholly-owned subsidiary to run the low-cost operation. The airline’s Q2 results presentation references the AJet brand, which is also the name of the newly created subsidiary, and speaking on a results call on 10 August, Turkish Airlines CFO Murat Seker said new branding would be announced shortly. ”We recently completed the incorporation and in the coming weeks we are going to announce it’s new corporate identity and its new brand repositioning,” he said. ”In the next few weeks we are going to apply to the civil aviation authority for the respective permits,” he adds. “This is a very vast change. We are not establishing a low-cost carrier from scratch, we are trying to transform an existing body with about 80 aircraft and a significant amount of staff, to a new company. ”So there are a lot of technical details we are trying to solve. But our intention is … to have AnadoluJet operate on its own self before the summer of 2024.” <br/>
Eighty-eight Ryanair flights to and from Belgium’s Charleroi airport on Aug. 14-15 have been cancelled due to a strike by the airline’s pilots based in the country, according to the airport’s website. The strike is the pilots’ third this summer, after action on July 15-16 and July 29-30, as they seek higher wages and better working conditions. <br/>
Long-running tensions between Europe’s biggest online travel companies and Ryanair are rising after the booking agents called on UK regulators to investigate the low-cost carrier’s data requirements for passengers who do not book directly through its website. A group of companies including Booking.com, Expedia and Skyscanner wrote to the UK government and regulators on Wednesday to raise concerns over Ryanair’s “invasive, unnecessary and unfair” treatment of customers. In the letter to government agencies including the Civil Aviation Authority and Information Commissioner’s Office, the companies said Ryanair forces many customers booking through third-party websites to hand over significant personal information in a complex process, including facial verification, in order to manage their booking or check-in online. “Ryanair may be breaching UK data protection rules which require data collection to be necessary and kept to a minimum, which is clearly not the case with these additional checks,” the companies said in a letter, seen by the Financial Times. The online travel companies said they “assumed” Ryanair’s “real motivation” for the checks, which are only applied to customers booking with travel agents, is to push passengers into booking directly with the airline the next time they travel. Ryanair said its goal is “solely to be able to communicate with passengers directly . . . in order to comply with our legal obligations and to allow passengers to correct their contact details so that we can meet any customer needs that may arise”. The airline said it does not have access to customers’ email addresses or payment details if they book through an online agent. This then forces the airline to verify their identities in compliance with regulatory protocols. Ryanair added that its business model is “dependent” on direct online sales to customers, and that “many” online travel agents “mis-sell” its flights, including adding mark-ups such as inflated baggage or seat fees. The claim and counter claim are the latest in a battle between Europe’s largest airline and some of the region’s leading online booking agents.<br/>
El Al on Thursday reported a narrower Q2 loss after the year-earlier period was hit with a large one-time gain and as revenue topped pre-COVID 19 levels. El Al earned a net $59m in the April-June period, versus net profit of $100m a year earlier. Excluding a large one-time gain from the sale of its frequent flier club, El Al recorded a $15m net loss in Q2 2022. Its bottomline was helped by a 29% decline in fuel costs, although salary expenses gained 37.5% in the quarter. Revenue grew 22% to $630m, above $584m in Q2 2019 before the pandemic brought harsh travel restrictions. Its load factor reached 87%, from 82% a year earlier, while El Al maintained a 23% market share at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv.<br/>
El Al Israel Airlines is in "serious" talks with planemaker Airbus to buy as many as 30 A321neo jets, El Al's CEO said on Thursday, in what would be an historic change of supplier as it looks to replace its short-haul fleet. Israel's flag carrier is also in talks with traditional supplier Boeing to buy 737 MAX aircraft, Dina Ben Tal Ganancia told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference after El Al issued quarterly results and as it celebrated 20 years of being traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange after privatisation. A decision likely would be made early in 2024, Ben Tal Ganancia said. At list prices the investment would be near $4b but El Al would likely pay far less after discounts. Since its inception in 1948, El Al has maintained an all-Boeing fleet, owing to Israel's close ties with chief ally the United States, so a break would be a significant policy change. "It is serious," Ben Tal Ganancia said of the talks with Europe's Airbus. "We're negotiating with both suppliers. They are coming back and forth to Israel to show us their business cases and we are examining them." It is normal for airlines to seek quotes from both major planemakers and the change of supplier is not guaranteed. Boeing is certain to try to defend its longstanding position at the carrier. But the A321neo, with more seats and longer range, has been steadily winning market share in the lucrative top end of the single aisle market.<br/>
New Saudi Arabian airline Riyadh Air and Spanish soccer club Atlético de Madrid announced a multi-year sponsorship agreement in a joint statement on Thursday. As part of the deal, Riyadh Air will become the main sponsor of the Spanish club. "This partnership means a great opportunity to offer better experiences to our fans around the world and I am confident that this alliance with Riyadh Air will take our club to new heights," Atlético de Madrid CEO Miguel Ángel Gil said. The statement cited Riyadh Air's CE Tony Douglas as saying "with this agreement we are once again surprising the world as we move towards our inaugural flight in 2025." The statement did not give the value of the sponsorship deal. Riyadh Air, which will start flights in 2025, is owned by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).<br/>
Pakistan’s flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines, has appointed former Air Vice Marshal Muhammad Amir Hayat as CEO for one year, a PIA spokesperson told Reuters. This week, the outgoing government said it planned to privatise loss-making PIA, which has accumulated hundreds of billions of rupees in losses and arrears. The move would be in line with an IMF deal. Hayat had been the acting CEO since April 2022, after the former CEO’s retirement. The government could have appointed Hayat as CEO for three years, but the prime minister decided to appoint him for one, said PIA spokesperson Abdullah Khan. This week, the Cabinet Committee of Privatisation also backed the hiring of a financial adviser to process transactions involving the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, an asset of PIA Investment Limited. PIA hopes to resume flights to the United Kingdom in the next three months. Services have been suspended since 2020 amid a pilot licensing scandal. Pakistan agreed to fiscal discipline plans as part of a $3b arrangement with the IMF, including the privatisation of loss-making assets.<br/>
Cebu Pacific remained in the black for a second consecutive quarter, though it has acknowledged the “significant operational headwinds” which has “tempered” its recovery and growth outlook. For the three months to 30 June, the low-cost operator posted an operating profit of Ps2.5b ($44.9m), reversing the Ps2.8b loss in the year-ago period. Revenue for the quarter rose 62% year on year to Ps22.7b as Cebu Pacific carried 29% more passengers compared to 2022. Still, the carrier notes that revenue and traffic fell below pre-pandemic levels. Revenue, for instance, was 4% down from the same quarter in pre-pandemic 2019, while passenger load factor - at 86% this year - was lower compared to the 90% in 2019. “Overall improvement in passenger business was seen year on year especially as most international destinations have eased travel restrictions since last year. Passengers, however, were still 8% below pre-pandemic levels, as short haul international travel remained well below 2019,” the airline states. It adds that it was impacted by supply chain woes, as well as weather-related issues, including a series of typhoons and tropical storms to hit the Philippines during the April-June period. Operating costs for the quarter rose 20% to Ps20.2b, driven by an increase in fleet-related and fuel costs. The carrier posted a net profit of Ps2.7b, reversing the Ps1.9b net loss in the year-ago period. This is the second quarter this year that Cebu Pacific has been profitable. For the January-March quarter, it posted an operating profit of around Ps1.2b – its first profit since the start of the pandemic more than three years ago. <br/>