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United Airlines announced plans on Tuesday to buy 110 new airplanes, expanding its bet that the travel business would grow in the coming years even as evidence mounts that demand for flights is weakening right now. The airline plans to buy 50 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, a twin-aisle plane, and 60 single-aisle Airbus A321neos. Deliveries will begin in five years. United did not disclose the value of the order. Based on list prices, the order would be worth at least $19b, but airlines typically negotiate steep discounts when ordering dozens of planes. The purchase builds on several large orders. United has already started to receive some of those planes, with an additional 761 expected to be delivered over the next decade, including those in Tuesday’s order. The aircraft will be used to replace and expand the airline’s aging fleet, the oldest among the four large US airlines. “I’m convinced our strategy is the right one as we continue to add new, larger aircraft to take full advantage of our growing flying opportunities both internationally and domestically,” United’s CE, Scott Kirby, said in a statement. The new, larger aircraft will help United carry more passengers without having to add more flights, which is becoming more difficult because of limited availability of airport gates and runways, insufficient staffing at air traffic control facilities, and overall congestion. In 2019, United offered about 104 seats on average per flight taking off in North America. By 2027, it expects that number to rise to more than 145, it said. Adding more seats per flight will also help the airline reduce costs. Newer planes are typically more fuel efficient than older aircraft. The airplanes in United’s new order use 20 to 25% less fuel per passenger than similar, older planes, according to Boeing and Airbus. United placed its largest aircraft order, for 270 planes, in 2021, followed by another order last year for 100 Dreamliners. Those orders allowed the airline to “secure the best possible deal terms,” Andrew Nocella, United’s CCO, said on a call with reporters.<br/>

Scandinavian airline SAS is wiping out existing shareholders as part of a rescue deal that involves bigger rival Air France-KLM and private equity firm Castlelake becoming new investors alongside the Danish state. The long-struggling airline said on Tuesday that it would receive $475mn in new equity and $700mn in convertible debt as part of the deal, taking it off the stock exchange with no payment to current shareholders and little to bondholders. Castlelake will become the biggest shareholder with a 32% stake as well as a majority owner of the convertible debt. Air France-KLM would own 20%, while the Danish government — the sole Scandinavian nation still invested in the airline — would own 26%. The Swedish government’s stake will be wiped out under the proposed deal, which SAS said did not need approval of existing shareholders. The airline will move from its current Star Alliance group to Air France-KLM’s SkyTeam as part of a transaction that it hopes will finally take it out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after more than a year. “This is a significant achievement of our transformation plan, SAS Forward,” said chair Carsten Dilling. He added that securing new capital should help “facilitate our emergence from the US Chapter 11 process”. Alex Irving, analyst at Bernstein, said SAS had missed out by not being part of a large network or global joint venture and so had been left as a “subscale airline”. He added: “Following Air France’s own remarkable turnaround, can it work the same magic on another group long challenged by restrictive unions and with low margins?” SAS has struggled for more than a decade with high costs and weak profitability and filed for bankruptcy protection last July in the US as it sought new owners after the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent stop in much of global travel pushed it over the edge.<br/>

Scandinavian carrier SAS has identified Air France-KLM, and financial firms Castlelake and Lind Invest – along with the Danish government – as participants in the successful consortium to provide investment under the company’s equity solicitation process. SAS will eventually become a member of the SkyTeam alliance, leaving its position in Star Alliance – the group of which it was a founder. The agreed investment amounts to $1.175b – comprising $475m in new unlisted equity, as well as $700m in secured convertible debt – plus $50m in refinancing. Castlelake will become the largest shareholder with around 32%, while the Danish government will have 26%, Air France-KLM will have just under 20% and Lind Invest takes about 9%. Castlelake will also have over 55% of the convertible debt, while the Danish state will have about 30%. SAS says a number of creditors will hold the equity balance of about 13.6%. SAS has been undergoing restructuring, through its ‘SAS Forward’ programme, under US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The equity solicitation had been a critical part of the restructuring. Chairman Carsten Dilling, speaking during a briefing on 3 October, said the parent company SAS AB will undergo its own re-organisation in Sweden in 2024. This will entail the probable delisting of SAS AB. “No value is expected for existing shareholders in SAS AB and only a modest recovery is expected for the holders of commercial hybrid bonds,” the company states. CE Anko van der Werff says that the airline will join SkyTeam “in due course” but says it will remain with Star “until further notice”.<br/>

The high-profile merger between South Korea’s top two air carriers is likely to meet a watershed moment later this month as Korean Air is reportedly scheduled to submit an aggressively revised version of its acquisition proposal for Asiana Airlines to the European Commission to effectively ease the regulator’s antitrust concerns. According to local reports Tuesday, Korean Air’s revised proposal will include the company's sale of the entirety of Asiana Airlines' cargo transportation business to a competing airline. The remedied proposal is also rumored to include Korean Air's decision to give up its extra airport slots, or its rights to land and take off at specific times, to foreign airlines. The four airport slots in question reportedly include Korean Air and Asiana's routine connections from Incheon to Frankfurt, Paris, Rome and Barcelona. Korean Air’s revision to its proposal plan initially submitted to the EC comes as the company aims to address the European Union antitrust regulators' concern that the merged unit could possibly dominate passenger and cargo flights connecting Korea to European cities. In June, Korean Air announced it has asked the EC for more time to prepare changes to its acquisition plan so that it could address its concerns regarding the merged unit's possible monopolization of flights connecting Korea to Europe. The EC has since announced that it will accept Korean Air’s request, and temporarily suspend their investigation into Korean Air's proposed acquisition of Asiana. Regarding the rumors of Korean Air revising its proposal plan, however, industry watchers say the revised plan, if passed by EU, will reap little benefit for both companies and hurt national competitiveness in the international aviation industry -- as the plan involves the two airlines giving up some of their most profitable businesses.<br/>