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United Airlines, one of the biggest buyers of Boeing jets, is losing patience with the troubled aircraft maker. “I’m disappointed that… this keeps happening at Boeing. This isn’t new,” said Scott Kirby, CEO of United, in an interview Tuesday on CNBC. “We need Boeing to succeed. But they’ve been having these consistent manufacturing challenges. They need to take action here.” Kirby made his comments after the airline warned investors that it will report a larger-than-expected loss in the first three months of this year because of the grounding of all 737 Max 9 jets after a door plug blew off on an Alaska Air flight on January 5, leaving a massive hole in the side of the plane. The plane landed without any serious injuries, but the FAA ordered the grounding and additional inspections of the more than 200 jets of that model worldwide. United said it now expects its fleet of Boeing Max 9 jets to remain grounded through the end of this month, and that the company will report a Q1 loss in the range of $116m to $262m. United has 79 of the Max 9s, more than any other airline, and had originally scheduled nearly 8,000 flights with the plane for this month before the incident, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics firm. “I think the Max 9 grounding is probably the straw that broke the camel’s back for us,” said Kirby. “We’re going to build a plan that doesn’t have the Max 10 in it.” United has firm orders for 277 of the 737 Max 10, and options to buy an additional 200, and so if the airline were to pull out of those orders, it would be a massive blow for Boeing’s efforts to bring that plane to market. And in a call with investors later in the day, Kirby said that the airline is not quite canceling the orders that it has for the Max 10, but it doesn’t anticipate it’ll be receiving the jets, either.<br/>

Canadian insurance giant Manulife Financial has entered into a multi-year partnership with travel loyalty program Aeroplan as it looks to bolster demand for its new healthcare initiative it is planning to launch this spring. The agreement with Air Canada, opens new tab-owned loyalty program is part of the insurer's initiative to launch new features for its mobile app and expand beyond its traditional mainstays to gain a foothold in the digital healthcare industry. Under the terms of the tie-up, eligible members within Manulife's group benefits business can earn points for engaging in health and wellness challenges or completing educational courses, the companies said on Tuesday.<br/>

Brussels has opened an in-depth probe into Lufthansa’s purchase of a minority stake of Italy’s ITA Airways on competition concerns, in the latest example of airline consolidation facing post-pandemic regulatory hurdles. Regulators said on Tuesday that they were worried that the deal “may reduce competition in the market for passenger air transport services on several short-haul and long-haul routes in and out of Italy”. It comes after Lufthansa agreed to take a 41% stake in ITA Airways, the successor company to Alitalia, the now-insolvent flag-carrier back in May. The deal allows Lufthansa to eventually buy up to 100% of the Italian carrier. The EC said that initial concessions to avert an in-depth probe were not enough to appease these worries. Lufthansa said it “will continue to work vigorously for a swift conclusion of the EU Commission’s review and for the subsequent implementation of the investment”. ITA Airways did not immediately reply to a request for comment.  People close to the talks between Brussels, Lufthansa and Rome said the German carrier offered to give up certain airport slots at Milan Linate, but the EU asked for further concessions on the number of Lufthansa’s flights from Europe to the US. “It is a very onerous ask,” one of the people said.  The expansion of ITA’s long-haul offering is one of the pillars of its turnaround strategy, with the US representing one of the main target markets. Europe’s three biggest long-haul airlines have engaged in a burst of deal making as the aviation industry emerges from the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic.  British Airways owner IAG in February last year agreed to buy the 80% of Spain’s Air Europa it does not already own for about E400m.<br/>

Ryanair Holdings Plc’s CEO Michael O’Leary said the low-cost carrier will emerge as a winner from rival Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s E325m investment in Italy’s ITA Airways, as more slots come up for grabs to secure regulatory approval. “We support Lufthansa buying ITA,” O’Leary said in an interview in Rome on Tuesday. “It will create more growth opportunities for Ryanair in Italy.” Under the deal, the German airline would initially buy 41% of the successor to failed flagship Alitalia from the Italian state, with an option to acquire the rest at a later date. O’Leary made the comments ahead of a move by European Union watchdogs to open an in-depth probe into the transaction. Paving the way for more slot concessions, regulators said a package of commitments offered so far by Lufthansa was “insufficient, in terms of both scope and effectiveness, to clearly dismiss” its competition concerns on long- and short-haul connections. Aside from helping Ryanair, O’Leary warned that if the deal goes through, the German carrier “will increase all the airfares,” on the routes involved. “Rather than growing routes to and from Italy they will just use it to feed the hubs in Munich and Frankfurt.”<br/>

Scandinavian airline SAS forecast on Tuesday its revenue to exceed 48b Swedish crowns ($4.57b) in 2024, and expects to emerge from an amended Chapter 11 plan of reorganization by the end of the first half. The carrier said in a statement it would file the amended Chapter 11 plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to include its final and updated projections. SAS, Scandinavia's biggest carrier, had filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. in mid-2022 after years of struggling with high costs coupled with low demand brought on by the pandemic. The company expects its net debt to range between 36b and 39b Swedish crowns prior to emergence from the Chapter 11 process, and between 22b and 24b Swedish crowns after the process. SAS reiterated that there will be no value for its existing shareholders and all of its common shares and listed commercial hybrid bonds will be cancelled, redeemed and delisted, in connection with emergence from the Chapter 11 process. <br/>