unaligned

American Airlines’ regional subsidiary Envoy Air plans to add 19 Embraer regional jets – eight Embraer 175s and 11 E170s – to its fleet, with deliveries expected to begin this year. The Irving, Texas-based regional carrier disclosed the planned fleet expansion on 3 January, noting that the incoming E-Jets will bring Envoy’s total fleet to 169 aircraft – 126 E175s and 43 E170s. The airline tells FlightGlobal that the ”announcement represents a combination of Embraer 175 and 170 aircraft from other carriers and newly-manufactured Embraer 175 deliveries expected in the fourth quarter of 2024”. Cirium fleets data show Envoy currently has 137 aircraft – all E170s or E175s – in service. “This measured, sustainable success is a direct outcome of Envoy’s commitment to safety, quality and cost,” says Pedro Fabregas, Envoy’s chief executive. The carrier operated 119 aircraft at the end of 2022 and has since aggressively added aircraft to its already-massive E-Jet fleet. In June, it retired the last of its 50-seat ERJ-145s. Envoy did not disclose the cost of its latest aircraft acquisition plan. In October, American ordered four E175s for its Envoy subsidiary – a deal worth $231m at list prices, Embraer said at the time. The carrier flies to some 160 cities in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. <br/>

Argentine state-owned carrier Aerolineas Argentinas has named its chief commercial officer Fabian Lombardo as its new president and chief executive, succeeding Pablo Ceriani. The Buenos Aires-based airline said its board approved the promotion on 26 December. Lombardo has already assumed the CEO role. Lombardo began his professional career at now-defunct Varig, where he held multiple executive positions, including those involving revenue and route management. He also worked at Brazil’s Gol and Azul, as well as TAP Portugal, and arrived at Aerolineas in 2013, the company says. Aerolineas also said on 29 December that it carried about 13.8m passengers in 2023, a record, exceeding even pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, the airline carried just less than 13m customers. “In the domestic market, almost 11,000,000 passengers were transported, while the regional flight network contributed 1,800,000 passengers,” the company says. Most flights were conducted to Brazil – traditionally a favourite vacation destination for Argentines. The airline’s load factor last year was 84%. “We worked hard to reach this figure: From the commercial side, increasing offers where we saw that there are business opportunities, and from the operational side, being efficient and providing high-quality service,” Lombardo says. On the New Year’s weekend, Aerolíneas Argentinas said it would transport about 191,000 customers, with the most popular destinations being Bariloche, Ushuaia, El Calafate, Iguazu, Cordoba, Mendoza, Salta, Rio de Janeiro, Tucuman and Sao Paulo.<br/>

Charter and wet-lease specialist Avion Express is moving closer to establishing a division in Brazil, commencing the process to obtain an air operator’s certificate. Avion Express had disclosed in May last year that it wanted to set up a Brazilian charter division. It states that it will start with five to 10 aircraft – using part of its European fleet – and commence operations in the fourth quarter of this year. The company aims to scale-up the new carrier, named Avion Express Brasil, to 25 aircraft by 2027-28. “While [Avion Express] has firmly established itself in Europe, our strategic focus now extends to other markets,” says CE Darius Kajokas. These targets include Latin America and southeast Asia, he says. Kajokas claims wet-lease would be a “rather novel concept” for the Brazilian market, which has around 100m annual passengers, adding that the market is “counter-cyclical” to that in Europe. “Our services will create additional tools for local Brazilian airlines and tour operators to reach higher operational efficiencies throughout the year,” he says. Kajokas also cites Brazilian regulatory efforts to “facilitate and speed up” certification processes.<br/>

Ryanair has said it will reduce its fares and warned of empty seats on its aircraft after several leading online ticket agents “suddenly” stopped selling the low-cost carrier’s flights. The announcement follows years of tension between Ryanair and online agents, whom the airline has branded “pirates” and accused of overcharging customers by taking a commission on flights and additions to bookings such as luggage or seat reservations. In the update on Wednesday, Ryanair said that in early December “most of the larger” travel agent sites, including Booking.com, Kayak and Kiwi, had suddenly removed its flights from sale. All three companies did not comment. Ryanair said it expected the changes to lead to a small number of extra empty seats on its flights in December and January, and added that it had lowered fares to encourage more people on to its planes. But the airline added that it did not anticipate a “material” impact on its forecast for passenger numbers or profit in its current financial year, which ends in March. Shares fell almost 4% in early afternoon trading on Wednesday, slightly outstripping the losses of rival European airlines. Analysts at broker Davy said the announcement represented “short-term turbulence” for the airline, but that it did not see a hit to profits. Ryanair said the travel agents’ decision to stop selling flights was “welcome”, and that their sales “only account for a small fraction of Ryanair’s bookings”. Ryanair has long tussled with online travel agents, which prevent it from dealing directly with its customers. CE Michael O’Leary has characterised these online agents as “overcharging scam artists” for adding their own fees to the airline’s prices, and Ryanair has previously complained that travel agents have provided incorrect passenger information to the airline. The agents have in turn complained about Ryanair’s treatment of their customers, which has included forcing passengers 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.<br/>

Wizz Air Holdings has canceled all flights to Tel Aviv through until March as the conflict between Hamas and Israel wages on. The Hungarian budget carrier had previously paused flights to and from Israel until the end of January. A spokesperson said the airline decided on Wednesday to extend the pause over the next three months. There has been no material impact as Wizz stopped flights to the region in October and all capacity was relocated to other countries, the spokesperson said. The airline will continue to monitor the situation on a regular basis. Wizz was among airlines to pause operations to Israel after the conflict broke out in October. CEO Jozsef Varadi said in November in an interview that the war had to settle down before Wizz restarts flights to the region because passenger safety was paramount. Wizz has taken the opposite approach to Deutsche Lufthansa AG, which announced it will resume flights to Israel in early January, providing 20 weekly connections to and from Tel Aviv. This makes the German carrier the first major airline to return to the country. Ryanair Holdings reported on Wednesday in a traffic update that it had canceled more than 900 flights in December because of the Israel-Hamas conflict. The Irish low-cost airline said in November during earnings that there was a sharp increase in no-shows and a collapse in bookings for Israel flights. Air-France has reported similar trends.<br/>

Estonia’s Ministry of Climate, which oversees the operations of Nordica, is in contact with seven potential suitors, all of which are European companies, over the full or partial sale of the loss-making state-owned flag carrier and aims to reach a preliminary agreement with at least one of them this month, the Estonian public broadcaster ERR reported. The lessor Transpordi Varahaldus, also a subsidiary of Nordic Aviation Group, is not currently part of the agreement and will be sold later, but sister carrier and ACMI specialist Xfly is ready for sale with or without Nordica. “Initial materials were sent out to the interested parties before Christmas, and we’ll be awaiting more detailed feedback in the first weeks of January,” said Sander Salmu, undersecretary for mobility and transport at the ministry. “The process has become a bit more formal.” The Estonian government met interested parties in November and December, and the Baltic financial advisory firm assisting with the sale, Superia, has since dispatched further information to seven possible suitors. If one or more entities are interested in buying Nordica, the ministry will follow up with additional and more precise financial data on signing a confidentiality agreement. “We’ve started with those who are active in Europe and are familiar with the field - so that we wouldn’t have to start explaining from scratch, so to speak, what Europe is and how aviation works here,” Salmu added.<br/>

Iran’s flag carrier Iran Air suspended plans to restart flights to Saudi Arabia after an eight-year hiatus, in a setback for one of the few concrete signs of the countries’ political detente. Jeddah-bound pilgrimage flights from Tehran, Mashhad and Isfahan scheduled for Wednesday were canceled because the Saudi authorities haven’t issued the necessary permits, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported, citing Iran Air Spokesman Hesam Ghorbanali. The flights would have been the first of their kind from Iran to Saudi Arabia in eight years, IRNA said. They would also have marked a step in thawing relations between the two regional rivals, which agreed to restore diplomatic relations last March after years of hostility but are yet to finalize talks on investment. In a televised statement, Iran’s Minister of Culture Mohammad-Mehdi Esmaeili said the problem is “a technical disagreement” between the countries’ aviation authorities, describing it as “nothing serious.” Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.<br/>

Despite Airbus ceasing production in 2021, the world’s largest passenger aircraft, the A380, still has a legion of fans. Although Etihad and Qatar Airways are planning to retire theirs in the next few years, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of the A380 have been greatly exaggerated. That’s in large part because the A380’s biggest fan, Emirates, which currently flies about 90 of the planes (with 30 mothballed) has now committed $US1.5b ($2.234b) to getting the most life out of its fleet. Like Qantas, which is eyeing 2032 to begin farewelling its fleet of 12 A380s, Dubai-based Emirates will eventually farewell its superjumbos, albeit later than the Flying Kangaroo. For now, they remain popular and busy. In 2022, Emirates began a massive program of upgrading the interior cabins of its A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft. The target was to completely retrofit four planes from start to finish every month, continuously for more than two years, doing 67 earmarked A380s and 53 777s. The project was set to be complete in April 2025 but Australian passengers are already experiencing the upgrade that includes the introduction of premium economy. Emirates flies Sydney to Dubai with the aircraft three times daily, Melbourne to Dubai twice daily, and Brisbane to Dubai and Perth to Dubai once daily. Two of the three Sydney flights and both Melbourne flights are on newly refurbished planes. Emirates currently flies the A380 to almost 50 destinations including 19 daily flights from Dubai to the UK; 14 from Dubai to the US; five from Dubai to France, nine to Germany and seven to Thailand. The airline’s commitment to its superjumbos, announced at the Paris Air Show last year, sees “maintenance, repair and overhaul services, parts provisioning, component repairs and technical support to ensure the A380 fleet continues to meet Emirates’ exacting standards, well into the next decade”.<br/>

Aeroflot Group has transferred nearly 100 aircraft from foreign ownership, its CE has told Russian president Vladimir Putin during a briefing. Sergei Alexandrovsky stated that the group’s three carriers – Aeroflot, Rossiya and Pobeda – respectively ended the year with 171, 136 and 41 aircraft. Aeroflot Group has been engaged in efforts to settle insurance claims brought by leasing companies over aircraft retained by Russian operators after international sanctions were imposed in response to the Ukrainian conflict. Several lessors have reached agreements under which a Russian insurance company, NSK, has transferred funds to them in return for taking ownership of aircraft. Alexandrovsky told Putin that 98 aircraft had been transferred to Aeroflot Group by the end of 2023, as a result of the government’s support for the settlements and buy-back measures. “This, of course, contributed to the increase in international passenger traffic,” he adds. Aeroflot Group’s overall passenger numbers rose by 15% to 47m during the year, Alexandrovsky says. This includes 25m for Aeroflot, 9m for Rossiya and 13m for Pobeda. Domestic passengers accounted for about 80% of the total. The company achieved a “historic maximum” load factor of 87.1%, Alexandrovsky adds, and Russian market share rose to just under 45%. He points out that Aeroflot Group’s hub at Krasnoyarsk, which emerged in 2021, handled 700,000 passengers in 2023 and the company intends to reach 1.2m this year. “We are more than doubling the fleet [there],” he adds.<br/>