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United Airlines plans to make it easier for customers to earn elite status through co-branded Chase credit cards, the latest airline to tweak its lucrative frequent flyer program to reward big spenders. The airline isn’t changing overall requirements for elite frequent flyer status next year, a first for the carrier since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, United said Thursday that in 2024, it will reward customers with 25 qualifying points for every $500 they spend on co-branded cards. Currently, customers get 500 points for every $12,000 spent. The carrier will also lift caps on credit card spending that can qualify toward elite status. Travelers need 5,000 qualifying points plus four flights to get to silver status, the lowest level, or have a combination of flights and points. Airlines reward their elites with perks such as free upgrades, when available; earlier boarding; and other perks. But ranks of elite frequent flyers have surged in recent years as travelers continued to spend during the Covid-19 pandemic and airlines allowed them to hold on to their tier status even if they weren’t flying. That has challenged airlines to keep their programs both exclusive and reasonably attainable and angered elites who are jostling alongside fellow travelers for upgrades or airport lounge access. Delta Air Lines in September said elite status would be awarded solely on spend — instead of a combination of flights and spending — though last month it walked back some planned changes to its SkyMiles program and lounge access limits after customer complaints.<br/>

United Airlines has applied to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to operate daily nonstop flights to Tokyo’s Haneda airport from Bush Intercontinental airport in Houston, intending to acquire slots vacated by Delta Air Lines earlier this year. The Chicago-based carrier said on 9 November it intends to be the first US carrier to connect the two airports with nonstop flights. “Between its steadily growing population and its booming energy and innovation sectors, the Houston area has transformed into a critical hub for both business and leisure travel,” says Patrick Quayle, senior vice-president of global network planning and alliances at United. “If awarded by the DOT, this new service will enhance travel options to Tokyo Haneda for consumers across the southern United States, and strengthen the economic partnership between Japan and more than 240 affiliated businesses in the greater Houston area.” Delta lost slots at Haneda after it told the DOT in September it would not begin flying from Portland to Haneda by the DOT’s deadline of 29 October. The airline also flies nonstop to Haneda from Atlanta, Detroit, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Seattle. The slots are specific to departure airports in the USA. Delta in early May asked the DOT to relax the rules due to a “fundamentally changed” demand environment following the Covid-19 pandemic. It requested carriers be allowed to “use up to two of their slots to serve Haneda from” any US airport. The DOT rejected that request in June, saying, “Allowing carriers to now select at their discretion a different US gateway would defeat the department’s rationale for selection of the existing carriers and gateways over other competing applicants and would undermine the department’s public interest determinations.”<br/>

In light of recent accessibility shortfalls, Air Canada has apologized and pledged to speed up its previously announced three-year accessibility plan. Ottawa summoned the airline last week following several events involving passengers with disabilities, including Canada’s chief accessibility officer and one man who had to drag himself off a plane in Las Vegas due to a lack of assistance. Air Canada representatives met with the federal transport and diversity, inclusion and persons with disabilities ministers on Thursday morning. “The first thing we told Air Canada was that was unacceptable what happened and they agree with us,” said Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez. “We told them that they need a clear plan on the short term and long term. We're going to meet again in December to see how things improve.” In the meeting, Air Canada notified the ministers of its plan to introduce immediate measures that update its boarding process, training and the way mobility aids are stored, while introducing an app feature that will allow passengers to track their wheelchairs in storage. “We just would like to apologize to any customers that we've let down. We know that we need to do better,” said Tom Stevens, Air Canada’s vice-president of customer experience and operation strategy. “That accessibility plan has been built with consultation with advocacy groups, with our own customers and external consultants to ensure that we're getting at the challenging areas that our customers need us to improve in.” Stevens added that the airline does not provide service to customers with accessibility needs “because we have to,” but rather “because we want to.”<br/>

A US bankruptcy court ruled on Thursday that Scandinavian airline SAS can receive a loan next week of $450m from investment firm Castlelake, boosting the carrier's effort to complete its restructuring. The loan to SAS will paid out between Nov. 15-17, the court was told by lawyers representing the airline, giving the company vital funds to repay existing debtor-in-possession financing from Apollo Global Management. Long-struggling SAS, which in 2022 sought bankruptcy protection, last month announced that Air France-KLM and US investment firm Castlelake would become new major shareholders alongside the Danish state and Lind Invest. SAS last week said it had secured an agreement with the consortium for restructuring aid of 13.2b Swedish crowns ($1.21b), with the Castlelake loan set to refinance the Apollo debt. The New York bankruptcy court is expected to hold a final hearing on the restructuring plan on Nov. 21.<br/>

Singapore Airlines is bullish about India’s long-term prospects and feels its 49% stake in Vistara positioned it well for an evolving Indian airline market. SIA Group CE Goh Choon Phong says that India has for some time been key to the carrier’s long-term vision, pointing to the sheer scale of the world’s most populous nation, with 1.4b people. “India is a huge, huge market,” says Goh. “It is fast growing; it’s going to be the third largest economy in the world and is already the third biggest travel market in the world. Our investment in India allowed us to participate directly in the growth of India.” Goh made the remarks at a 9 November media roundtable at SIA’s training facility following the release of the airline’s interim results for the six months to 30 September. Growing passenger traffic propelled the group to an operating profit of S$1.55b ($1.4b), up 26% year on year. SIA’s 49% stake in Vistara is set to become a 25.1% stake in fellow Star Alliance member Air India following the pending merger between the two airlines, a deal expected to complete by March 2024. SIA’s partner in Vistara, Tata Group, acquired Air India from New Delhi in early 2022, and set about merging the two full-service airlines, as well as its low-cost units Air India Express and AirAsia India.<br/>

Turkish Airlines has struck deals to lease a further 20 narrowbodies and one widebody as it aims to secure capacity to meet its near-term growth ambitions. The Star Alliance carrier has been working on an order for 400 narrowbodies and 200 widebodies as it looks to double its fleet to more than 800 aircraft over the next decade. It had initially hoped to finalise that deal this summer, but completion has been complicated by challenges securing delivery slots at Airbus and Boeing and current engine supply issues. Against that backdrop the airline has turned to the lessor market to ensure it meets its growth targets while it continues negotiations on the wider order. The Istanbul-based carrier last month agreed to lease 25 Boeing 737 Max 8s and three Boeing 787-9s from lessor AerCap for delivery from next year through until 2026. It has now disclosed commitments for 20 more narrowbodies for delivery from between Q4 2024 and Q1 2026. Specifically it is taking 10 narrowbodies from DAE Capital, deliveries of which will run over Q4 next year and Q1 2025. It will also take four narrowbodies from Jackson Square Aviation in q1 2025 and six from CDB Aviation Lease Finance for delivering from q1 2025 to Q1 2026. Turkish Airlines, which operates current and next-generations narrowbodies from both Airbus and Boeing, has not disclosed which narrowbodies it it is taking. The airline is also adding leasing a further widebody from CDB for delivery in Q2 next year. Under its fleet plan Turkish Airlines, which will end this year with a fleet of around 440 aircraft, expects to add around 40 aircraft in 2024 and between 40 and 50 in 2025.<br/>

Thai Airways International Pcl reported a fourth-straight quarterly profit as passenger numbers continued to improve in the wake of Covid, with extra impetus coming from travelers from China. Net income for the three months through September was 1.54b baht ($43m), rebounding from a loss of 4.79b baht a year earlier, the airline said in an exchange filing Friday. Passenger numbers hit 3.27m, up 22% from the same quarter last year, when Thailand had just started to ease Covid travel restrictions. Despite being a low season for tourism, visitor numbers from China rose 13% from the previous quarter to 1.05m, according to government data. However, Europe and China bookings for the typically busy winter season have been “weaker than expected” as the economic slowdown has impacted demand from those key markets, Piyasvasti Amranand, chairman of the airline’s debt rehabilitation administrator, said at a press briefing. Thai Air posted losses every year bar two since 2013 and filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020. Most creditors agreed to extend terms and cut some interest repayments as part of a rehabilitation plan, and the carrier plans to exit from its court-supervised debt restructuring earlier than scheduled in late 2024. <br/>

Thai Airways International PCL faulted Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc for an alleged refusal to offer more favorable terms on aircraft engines, threatening to take its business elsewhere as the carrier prepares to place an order in coming weeks. Speaking in an interview in Singapore at the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines annual meeting, CEO Chai Eamsiri said Rolls-Royce should reconsider its hard stance. The airline is already a Rolls-Royce customer for its Boeing Co. 787 and Airbus A350 widebody jets, and Eamsiri said the Bangkok-based carrier plans to buy new aircraft by the end of the month. “You should never play hard to your customer,” Eamsiri said in the interview. “If you play hard, you may win in the short term but lose for the long term.” Under new CEO Tufan Erginbilgic, Rolls-Royce has taken a much tougher approach to pricing as it focuses on profit. The company was previously willing to offer steep discounts to win business, hoping to then make a profit through long-term service contracts. Erginbilgic, by contrast, has signaled he’s prepared to miss out on some deals as he seeks to put Rolls-Royce on a more stable financial footing. A Rolls-Royce spokeswoman said the company always looks for “win-win solutions” with customers to build long-term, sustainable relationships and that “their success is at the heart of everything we do.” Thai Airways has suffered reliability issues with its Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine powering the 787, a problem that has affected that particular model since before the pandemic. That’s left the airline with at least one 787 grounded on a constant basis, Eamsiri said. The CEO said Rolls-Royce should be more flexible in their terms, and that as a customer he can choose alternatives. While the A350 is a Rolls-Royce-only aircraft, the 787 also comes with an engine built by General Electric Co., which is the more popular variant for that jet. <br/>

The aviation industry as a whole, and not just Singapore Airlines (SIA), has priced airfares high as air travel continues to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, said the national carrier’s CE Goh Choon Phong. Asked whether prices for flight tickets have peaked, he pointed to softening passenger yields – a proxy for airfares – as rival airlines have added more capacity. He said SIA does not set its prices in isolation. Instead, it looks at what competitors offering similar products are doing – comparing similar non-stop flights, for instance – and ensures that the price disparity is not too big. “We have always said that pricing is a function of demand and supply, and it is, even during this whole Covid-19 period... Going forward, it’s the same,” he told the media on Wednesday during a wide-ranging interview after his company posted record earnings for the first half of its financial year from April to September. For the first half of financial year 2023/24, SIA Group’s passenger yield was 10.8 cents per passenger-km, down from 11.8 cents for the whole of financial year 2022/23 and 13.6 cents for FY21/22. Passenger yield is a measure representing the average fare paid by a passenger for each kilometre flown. In comparison, the group’s passenger yield for financial year 2019/20 was 9.1c per passenger-km. SIA Group, which includes low-cost carrier Scoot, reported a first-half net profit of $1.44b, up 55% from $927m for the same period a year ago.<br/>

Air New Zealand has claimed another gong for the year, being named the best overall airline in the South Pacific. The airline took the region’s top honour in the APEX (Airline Passenger Experience Association) Best in Airline Awards for 2024, which were announced at a ceremony in Singapore on Thursday evening. Air New Zealand won the same award last year. The awards are based on passenger feedback, with more than 1m flights across 600 airlines rated using a five-star scale. “We’re proud to represent our region showcasing the best of Aotearoa food and beverage onboard and welcoming all of our customers as friends with our unmatched Kiwi service,” said Air New Zealand general manager short haul Jeremy O’Brien. “I’d like to acknowledge all of our staff for the manaaki they demonstrate to our customers. This award is recognition of them.” While Air New Zealand was deemed to provide the best overall passenger experience in the region, other airlines took out the individual categories for best cabin service, entertainment, food and beverage, seat comfort and wi-fi.<br/>