unaligned

The Moroccan government has given its go ahead for Ryanair to operate domestic flights in the country starting next summer, Morocco's tourism minister said. Ryanair will be the third airline to operate flights in the North African country, after Moroccan carrier RAM and the UAE's Air Arabia. "With the government's approval, Ryanair is launching 11 new domestic routes, connecting nine beautiful cities in Morocco: Agadir, Errachidia, Essaouira, Fez, Marrakesh, Ouarzazate, Oujda, Tangier, and Tetuan," minister Fatima Zahra Ammor said on LinkedIn. Ryanair also planned to introduce 24 new international routes, connecting Morocco to Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and Britain, she said. Moroccan officials hope increased international and domestic flights will help the country attract 17.5m tourists by 2026, up from 11m last year. In 2019, Morocco had 13m visitors.<br/>

Scandinavian budget carrier Norwegian argues that the country’s competition regulator is shifting its criteria in its assessment of the airline’s proposed acquisition of regional operator Wideroe. Norwegian says it “strongly disagrees” with regulator Konkurransetilsynet which, in November, revealed it was considering blocking the acquisition over concerns that competition would be impaired. According to the budget airline, the regulator stated – two years ago – that two competing airlines are sufficient to ensure adequate competition on a specific route. “[The regulator] has moved away from these statements,” claims Norwegian, in a formal response to Konkurransetilsynet’s preliminary opinion. Norwegian says that is not a “close” competitor with Wideroe. Of more than 400 combined routes, only two overlap “in reality”, it insists. “These routes, which are currently served by three separate airlines, represent below 1% of Norwegian’s annual ticket sales,” it adds.<br/>

British Airways is to open three Mediterranean services from London Stansted next summer, its first operations from the airport since before the pandemic. The flights will be operated by its BA Cityflyer division. CE Sean Doyle disclosed the new routes during an event at London Heathrow on 11 December. Cityflyer will commence operations to Florence, Nice and Ibiza on 18 May. The services will be flown on weekends using Embraer 190 regional jets, configured in two classes. Stansted flights will complement Cityflyer’s primary weekday operation from London City, from where it serves a network of close to 30 destinations. Cityflyer is also carrying out weekend flights from Edinburgh to San Sebastian and Olbia. “[Stansted] will become the fourth London airport to be served by the flag-carrier,” says British Airways.<br/>

Operating profits at Kazakh carrier Air Astana Group are running 11% ahead of 2022 levels after the first nine months of the year, on the back of revenue that is up one-fifth. Group revenue climbed 20%, to $900m, over the nine months to end-September. Air Astana Group, which also includes fast-growing low-cost unit FlyArystan, flew 6m passengers at a load factor of 84% over the period – increases of 12% and one percentage point, respectively, against the same period of 2022. This helped it lift operating profit by 11% to $129m, and overall profit 19% to $72m, for the first nine months of the year. Air Astana Group chief executive Peter Foster says: ”The group has continued to perform well in 2023, despite the twin headwinds of high inflation and continued issues with the Pratt & Whitney PW1100 engines on the Airbus Neo fleet. All markets have shown robust growth, and there is little indication that the strong demand which we have experienced since mid-2021 is flagging. ”The group’s Central Asian and Caucasus routes have benefited from the increased footprint of both Air Astana and FlyArystan into those countries, most of which are experiencing a significant increase in both business and leisure travel. Routes to East and South Asia have also performed well, including those to China, which are gathering pace after a slow start following the country’s reopening from Covid.”<br/>

The Mozambique Airlines company (LAM) returns to flying to Portugal after 12 years of interruption. The inaugural flight will take place on Tuesday night, the company said. The inaugural flight will depart from Lisbon, Portugal's capital, to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. The Minister of Transport and Communications Mateus Magala will preside over the official ceremony on Wednesday in Maputo. According to the statement, three weekly flights will be carried out using Boeing 777-200, with a capacity for 320 passengers. Since the opening for ticket sales, LAM has already sold around 12,000 tickets, with reservations until October 2024, according to LAM Restructuring Project Manager, Sergio Matos, quoted by Radio Mozambique, on Tuesday. In addition to the Maputo-Lisbon route, the Mozambican flag company has new routes in its portfolio that connect Maputo to different points in South Africa, especially Cape Town, according to Matos. "The reestablishment of the Mozambique Airlines flight to Portugal will boost the tourism in the country. Facilitating mobility for tourists to enter the country is the key to the development of the sector," he said.<br/>

Indian carrier SpiceJet Ltd. reported a net loss of 4.32b rupees ($52m) for the three months through September, ending a run of three-quarters of profits as more than a third of its planes were grounded. Q2 revenue fell 27% from a year earlier to 14.3b rupees, while total costs fell by the same amount to 21.6b rupees, according to a filing from the airline on Tuesday. SpiceJet also announced plans to raise 22.5b rupees through preferential shares and warrants. The board approved issuing as many as 321m shares at 50 rupees each to investors including Elara India Opportunities Fund, Aries Opportunities Fund, Mahapatra Universal Ltd., Nexus Global Fund, Prabhudas Lilladher and Resonance Opportunities Fund. The airline operates a fleet of mostly Boeing Co.’s 737 jets, 25 of which are grounded and another 40 operational. Its market share in India dropped to 5% in October from about 7% at the start of 2023, and its losses over the past five years amount to almost 55b rupees. SpiceJet is entangled in a legal dispute with Credit Suisse Group AG over outstanding payments and was given another six months in September to clear its arrears of $3m. In the three months through September, SpiceJet carried 1.59m passengers, down 21% from the previous quarter, according to India’s aviation regulator.<br/>

One of the key methods for Capital A Bhd to cap carbon dioxide emissions at 85% of 2019 levels by 2026 is to gradually replace its Airbus A320 fleet. The aircraft should be replaced with A321neo planes which emit 20%-25% less CO2 per seat, compared with an A320 while also producing less nitrogen oxide and noise, said Maybank IB Research. It said Capital A’s carbon intensity has been rising due to increased fleet age, though it is still lower than other leading low-cost carriers. Going forward, the group has set an ambitious target of capping CO2 emissions at 85% of 2019 levels by 2026. Maybank said the group’s financial year 2022 (FY22) sustainability report was refreshing. However, there is room to improve, especially on its customer loyalty and female representation on its board of directors. The group has set ambitious environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets and this exhibits its commitment to its ESG initiatives. As at end FY22, the group operated 123 Airbus A320, 29 Airbus A320neo, two Airbus A321neo and one Airbus A330ceo. It will gradually replace the entire fleet with the A321neo, which is 10%-15% more fuel efficient than the Airbus A320.<br/>