The CE of JetBlue Airways, Robin Hayes, said on Monday that he planned to step down after nine years in the role and while in the middle of trying to carry out a merger with Spirit Airlines that could reshape the industry, if it isn’t blocked in court. Hayes will be replaced by Joanna Geraghty, the company’s president and COO, on Feb. 12, which would make her the only woman to lead a major US airline. Hayes, 57, will serve as a strategic adviser to the company after he steps down. In a lengthy statement, Hayes described the decision to retire as “bittersweet” and suggested that unspecified health concerns had driven it. “The extraordinary challenges and pressure of this job have taken their toll, and on the advice of my doctor and after talking to my wife, it’s time I put more focus on my health and well-being,” he said. “I am deeply grateful for these many exciting years, and I feel very lucky to have worked at an airline with a brand, culture and team that are simply unlike any other in the world.” JetBlue announced plans in 2022 to buy Spirit for $3.8b. The Justice Department sued last year to prevent the deal, and the federal trial in that lawsuit concluded last month. The presiding judge has not yet issued a ruling, which could allow the deal, require that JetBlue and Spirit make some concessions, or prevent the merger altogether. Hayes joined JetBlue in 2008 from British Airways. He became the CE in February 2015. The company said in a securities filing that Hayes notified the board on Sunday of his intention to step down, with the board voting to approve the appointment of Geraghty, 51, the same day. In a message to employees, Hayes said he had been thinking about stepping down for a while.<br/>
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One of the newest and fastest-growing weapons in the fight against global warming is technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, known as direct air capture. Some liken it to sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere. However, it’s not a perfect science, and most methods require a lot of water. That is about to change, with new companies offering new strategies. Direct air capture is already a growing business, and governments around the world are adding to it, providing tax incentives and grants to help spur the industry forward. Some of the first firms to do it, such as Climeworks and Carbon Capture, use massive fans in the process. One California-based startup called Avnos is differentiating itself by creating, rather than using, water in the process. “We produce as opposed to consume water,” said Will Kain, CEO of Avnos. “We don’t consume any heat, which is a major differentiator and allows us to be more cost-effective, more resource-efficient and ultimately more scalable than other solutions in the space.” Avnos invented what it calls “hybrid direct air capture,” which uses a dehumidification technology to produce approximately five tons of water per ton of CO2 captured. Others consume about that much or more. “We have the opportunity to turn a cost line item for other forms of direct air capture, in spending money on water, to a revenue line item, where we can generate revenue by selling the water that we produce directly from the air,” said Kain. Similar to other direct air capture companies, Avnos is benefiting from both government tax credits and direct funding. Critics argue direct air capture in general is never going to remove enough carbon to make a dent in the 50b tons of CO2 emissions each year, but Kain argues this is just one tool in a decarbonization ecosystem that includes renewable energy such as wind, solar and geothermal.<br/>
US start-up Surf Air Mobility has an agreement with Pennsylvannia’s Williamsport Regional airport to launch scheduled commuter flights to Washington Dulles International airport starting in May. The Williamsport Municipal Airport Authority has agreed to “subsidise and support” the establishment of 10-times weekly flights to be operated by Surf Air’s subsidiary Southern Airways Express, the company said on 8 January. Southern Airways will operate the flights between Williamsport and Washington, DC using its nine-passenger Cessna Grand Caravans, which Surf Air intends to eventually retrofit with its in-development electric powertrain technology. ”By bringing consistent weekly service to this underutilised regional airport adjacent to the city’s centre, travellers arriving or departing via Washington Dulles will be able to skip the multi-hour drive and fly directly to or from Williamsport Regional airport,” the company says. The flights will be Williamsport’s first commercial flights in more than two years. Passengers will be offered connections at Washington Dulles to American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, including bag transfers, Surf Air says. Los Angeles-based Surf Air says its arrangement with local authorities is similar to essential air service (EAS) agreements, through which federal subsidies allow carriers to connect communities that would otherwise lack air service. It establishes a flow of funding from local grants and community donations to “mitigate risk to Surf Air”. ”There are hundreds of underutilised yet incredibly convenient airports across the US,” says Stan Little, Surf Air’s CE. ”We’re finding innovative solutions to the lack of viable regional connectivity. We plan to continue exploring these types of partnerships with local, state and federal agencies, with private institutions, and with international partners.”<br/>
A union representing 2,100 flight attendants has reached an agreement over a new labor contract with Canadian leisure carrier Air Transat, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said on Monday, easing fears of a strike that could have crippled the carrier's operations. General meetings of the members will be held in the next few days to disclose the content of the agreement and present it for their vote, CUPE said in a statement. Air Transat did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. Earlier this month, the flight attendants rejected a tentative agreement with the airline, mainly because the deal did not offer pay raises in keeping with higher living costs, CUPE had said. Flight attendants in Canada and the United States are pushing airlines to end an industry practice, where they are not compensated for the time spent during boarding and waiting at airports before and between flights. Last month, flight attendants at Southwest Airlines voted against a five-year contract that would have made them the highest-paid cabin crew in the industry, but did not include compensation for boarding time. The move comes as labor unions are aggressively pressing North American carriers for better pay, benefits and working conditions, a strategy that yielded record contracts for some pilots. Alaska Air flight attendants on Monday will begin a strike authorization vote for the first time in two decades. The vote will extend through Feb. 13. In Canada, Transat flight attendants voted in late November to authorize a mandate that would allow them to strike, with 72 hours' notice.<br/>
Canada, Britain, Sweden and Ukraine on Monday formally complained to the UN aviation council in their bid to hold Iran accountable for the downing of a passenger airliner in January 2020 that killed 176 people, they said on Monday. Most of the dead were citizens from the four nations, which created a coordination group that seeks to hold Iran to account. "Today we have jointly initiated dispute-settlement proceedings before the International Civil Aviation Organization against the Islamic Republic of Iran for using weapons against a civil aircraft in flight," they said in a statement. Last June the four nations said they would take their case to the International Court of Justice. Iran says its Revolutionary Guards accidentally shot down the Boeing 737 jet and blamed a misaligned radar and an error by the air defense operator at a time when tensions were high between Tehran and Washington.<br/>
Indian airline Vistara said on Monday it was confident of receiving its last 787 wide-body jet from Boeing (BA.N) by March or April, despite a recent incident on a narrow-body 737 MAX 9 that lost part of its fuselage. "We will hit a fleet size of 70 aircraft by March or April 2024," Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan said on a media call on Monday, much earlier than its previous timeline of end-2024. Vistara, a joint venture between the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines which began operating in 2015, currently operates a fleet of 67 jets, mostly single-aisle Airbus A320s and five Boeing 787s. Kannan said he also expects to get all legal approvals for Vistara's merger with larger carrier Air India in the first half of 2024 and to merge operations by mid-2025 at the latest. Vistara is also closely tracking developments regarding the 737 MAX 9, Kannan said, but clarified that the incident on Sunday involving a new Alaska Airlines plane would not affect them. Separately, India's aviation regulator said on Monday that it was "satisfied" with the checks conducted by domestic airlines that operate the Boeing 737 MAX 8 following the Alaska Airlines incident.<br/>
Malaysia’s Capital A Berhad said on Monday it intends to sell its aviation business to long-haul unit AirAsia X Bhd, with a goal of consolidating both its long and short-haul operations under a single AirAsia brand. The proposed deal, which is subject to a final agreement being signed and to approvals from shareholders and courts, involves the sale of AirAsia Berhad and AirAsia Aviation Group Ltd, which includes AirAsia units in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, and Cambodia, Group CE Tony Fernandes told reporters without disclosing any deal value. Full details of the deal would be announced “in the next two weeks”, he told reporters at AirAsia’s 2024 outlook briefing. “Eventually AirAsia X and AirAsia will be merged into one airline... my dream is for it to be one ASEAN airline,” Fernandes said, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. AirAsia was founded in 2001 with two aircraft and has since become one of Asia’s largest budget airline operator with a fleet of some 200 planes serving markets including Southeast Asia and China. Both Capital A and AirAsia X were hard hit by pandemic travel restrictions and classified by Malaysia’s stock exchange as PN17, or financially distressed. Such firms may be de-listed from the exchange if they fail to stabilize their finances within a set time frame. AirAsia X was removed from the classification in November, after undertaking measures to improve its financial position. Fernandes said the group’s airlines will likely return to full pre-pandemic capacity by the end of the first quarter. He said they have 400 planes on order and Airbus will start delivering new A321 aircraft by the second quarter of 2025.<br/>