unaligned

Sun Country Airlines reports earning $7.6m during q3 as CE Jude Bricker cited the lack of pilots upgrading to captain as a persistent problem. In comparison, the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based carrier earned $10.7m in Q3 2022. Sun Country said on 7 November that revenue during the three months ending in September reached $249m – a company record for Q3. That was 12% higher than the previous year’s quarterly total revenue of $222m. ”Due to captain availability, we flew about 3,500 fewer block hours in the third quarter – mostly in July – than the demand environment would have supported with our fleet and the fuel price input,” Bricker says. “We continue to see staffing levels improve, but more slowly than we would like.” The captain bottleneck has caused the all-Boeing 737 operator to tweak its fleet expansion plans. “As growth has moderated based on pilot staffing, we have decided to lease out two additional aircraft that were scheduled to enter our fleet” in tQ4, Bricker says. ”This will delay into service two 737-800s until the first quarter of 2025.” The leisure and charter carrier has been grappling with the captain upgrade issue for several months, lamenting a lack of pilot instructors and first officers willing to upgrade to captain. “For a year now, the issue has not been hiring pilots,” Bricker says. ”And the issue has not been pilot attrition. The issue has been on the upgrade front… We don’t see a shortage of pilot availability at this point.” Compared with last year, the carrier flew 14% more block hours during q3. Executives say boosting aircraft utilisation will be a priority in the months ahead, as Sun Country’s average daily aircraft utilisation was 6.6h during the quarter. <br/>

British carrier Virgin Atlantic, which resumed its flights between London Heathrow and Dubai last week, on Monday said it would ramp up to a daily service next year to cash in on growing demand for leisure tourism between the two cities. It launched a seasonal winter service on October 30, operating four flights a week and plans to increase it to daily service from October 2024 to March 2025. Owned by billionaire Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic last operated flights to Dubai in March 2019. London-Dubai is one of the busiest air routes and was ranked the fourth busiest global air route in 2022 with over 2.697m seats, according to OAG data. It was also the second busiest route for Dubai Airport after Jeddah. As aviation continues to recover at an exponential pace, airlines are launching new routes. Air India, Air Canada, Cyprus Airways, Maldives-based Beond and many other airlines have added Dubai to their growing list of new destinations as the emirate strengthens its position as a global aviation hub.<br/>

Madagascar Airlines has declared that its financial situation is “critical” and it intends to implement urgent measures including withdrawing long-haul services and focusing on its domestic network. The carrier emerged in April last year, in the post-pandemic period, but accumulated losses of $25m over the course of nine months in 2022, and states that it expects “approximately the same” for this year. Madagascar Airlines adds that its debt has “significantly worsened”, reaching $36m in the space of 18 months. It attributes the losses to the airline’s attempt to maintain a long-haul operation through wet-lease arrangements, as well as the high price of fuel. The combination of the wet-lease expenditure and the cost of fuel has resulted in monthly losses of $2.8m, it states. “This situation had the effect of triggering a vicious circle,” it adds. “Heavy operating losses on long-haul quickly dried up the company’s cash-flow, leading to the impossibility of paying our suppliers – including for parts and maintenance equipment.” The resulting delays in maintenance have forced a “large part” of the ATR turboprop fleet to become unavailable, it adds: “This operational fragility has caused…numerous delays [and] cancellations.” Madagascar Airlines says an “immediate halt” to the “untenable situation” – including a “temporary” suspension of economically-unviable European long-haul flights – is required. The airline will maintain an international codeshare with French operator Corsair.<br/>

Israeli leisure carrier Israir has effectively halved its operational fleet as part of its response to the air transport disruption triggered by the Israel-Gaza conflict. The airline says it had been operating nine aircraft before the conflict began on 7 October, but has reduced this to “three or four”, states CE Uri Sirkis. Sirkis says the airline has returned three leased aircraft, reducing monthly expenditure by more than $2m, and transferred another to its Cypriot-based maintenance centre in order to start immediate work on the airframe. It is also negotiating to bring forward an engine overhaul. The maintenance activities were scheduled to take place next year, but starting them early will save operating costs, and enable the carrier to operate its fleet “at full power” when the crisis ends, adds Sirkis. Two aircraft have been parked at Ramon airport as part of a risk-management exercise to reduce the possibility of damage from the conflict. Sirkis states that Israir has reacted to the situation by making “far-reaching changes” to its schedule, and claims its passenger numbers have fallen by only 5% compared with October last year. Israir has shifted from a tourism-focused network to one intended to transport people returning to, or seeking to leave, the country – carrying over 60,000 passengers on rescue flights during October, out of a total of 90,000. The airline has also revised its activity plans for the 2024 season. It expects to operate to around 35 destinations, six of them new, compensating for areas which have become the subject of travel warnings. Sirkis identifies Turkey as a region where Israir has experienced a “steep drop” in demand. Israir has transported some 930,000 passengers since the beginning of 2023 and Sirkis says he is “optimistic” that it will achieve its target of 1m for the full year.<br/>

Kuwaiti budget carrier Jazeera Airways’ net profit halved during Q3, to just under KD7m ($22.7m). The carrier’s revenues dipped slightly to KD61m despite a 28% rise in passenger numbers to 1.38m for the three months to 30 September. Jazeera expanded its fleet with the introduction of two additional aircraft, taking its total to 22. Over Q3 the airline also extended its network to 64 destinations with new services from Kuwait to Tehran and Islamabad. Chairman Marwan Boodai says the airline has been subject to a “tough regulatory, geopolitical and regional landscape”. “While depressed yields due to overcapacity remain a challenge, we are well placed to leverage our low cost-base to maintain margins and create value for our shareholders,” he says. Jazeera Airways managed to generate net profit of KD13.3m for the first nine months of the year – down from the previous KD20.8m – on a near-13% rise in revenues to KD159m. It adds that the outlook for the remainder of the year “remains positive” despite the yield pressure.<br/>

Belavia, the Belarus flag carrier, has been operating while restricted by sanctions for more than two years but remains financially stable, according to its CEO. The airline was hit by sanctions stemming from the actions of the Minsk Government in 2021, including the forced landing of a Ryanair jet, which were later extended when President Lukashenko supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The European Union banned Russian and Belarusian planes from its airspace, which severely restricted Bealvia’s route options. The airline has pivoted heavily towards former Soviet states and the Middle East. The anti-war sanctions have restricted trade with companies in Russia and Belarus, which has created stock issues for Belavia. Although the airline operates Boeing and Embraer jets, sanctions mean the companies have stopped servicing and parts supplies. This has both increased costs for the airline and forced it to look elsewhere for its next fleet upgrade. Belavia CEO Igor Cherginets said: “We are preparing agreements with United Aircraft Corporation for the purchase of MS-21 and Superjet New.” But before the renewal can be finalised, spares and repair costs have escalated. <br/>

Indigo stood by its capacity growth forecasts for the year on Tuesday even as it expects to ground more than 30 planes in Q4 due to issues related to its Pratt & Whitney engines. The country's biggest airline is on an aggressive expansion spree to cater to a boom in air travel and has been growing its capacity by 25% in the last few quarters. That has helped it mitigate capacity constraints arising from the grounding of planes including about 40 aircraft for older issues. The mitigation measures include leasing new planes and extending agreements, especially to offset disruption from new engine problems. IndiGo, which operated 334 planes as of Sept. 30, has retained 14 of its older Airbus A320ceo, extended leases on 36 other aircraft and is taking 11 additional aircraft on lease starting November. It is also leasing 12 more A320ceos from the secondary market starting January, IndiGo's CFO, Gaurav Negi, said on an earnings call on Friday.<br/>