Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes is seeking around $950m to fund itself in bankruptcy, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Brazilian low-cost airline is in discussions with creditors to raise the debtor-in-possession financing ahead of a planned Chapter 11 filing in the US, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter. A representative for Gol declined to comment. Folha de S. Paulo earlier reported that Gol was planning to file for bankruptcy. In December, Gol said it was working with Seabury Capital to review its capital structure. The airline has already gone through several rounds of restructuring and capital raising since the onset of the pandemic. It’s working on a deal with its own creditors while also seeking to renegotiate agreements with lessors. On top of its high costs and heavy debt burden, the company has struggled to take advantage of a rebound in demand for Brazillian flights due to a delay in Boeing Co. airplane deliveries.<br/>
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JetSMART Colombia has received its Air Operator’s Certificate from the Colombian civil aviation authority (Aerocivil) and is set to launch operations on March 14, 2024, the company announced. It will start with seven domestic routes connecting Bogotá with Medellín José Maria Córdova, Cartagena Rafael Núñez International, Pereira, and Santa Marta. It will also connect Medellín with Cartagena and Santa Marta and Cartagena with Pereira. JetSMART Colombia expects to carry over 2m passengers in the first year of operations with a fleet of A320-200neo aircraft with a capacity for 186 passengers in a single-class configuration. The ch-aviation fleets data shows that no such plane has yet received a Colombian registration.<br/>
EasyJet said it expected winter losses to narrow this year, despite a GBP40m hit from conflict in the Middle East. The low-cost carrier on Wednesday reported a “short-term” impact from the outbreak of war in October after it suspended flights to Israel and Jordan, and the wider travel industry suffered a “temporary slowdown” in bookings. But easyJet said demand for travel during the crucial summer season had been “building well”, and early indications implied that ticket prices would remain high this year. Shares in the airline rose 5% in early trading on Wednesday, amid its comments about a healthy summer trading environment. Johan Lundgren, easyJet’s CE, said demand for the summer looked “positive”. “We see positive booking momentum for summer 2024 with travel remaining a priority for consumers,” he said. “Flight and holidays bookings took off strongly during the traditional busy turn-of-year sales period, as customers opted to secure their summer holidays,” Lundgren said. The update comes after airlines enjoyed a bumper summer in 2023, with high ticket prices failing to deter passengers from travelling. But airlines have still faced questions over whether demand for travel can withstand the weak economic backdrop. EasyJet said early bookings this year had shown an increase “in both volume and pricing” compared with the same period last year. It is the first major European airline to update on trading this year, and analysts at Bernstein said it had “confidently kicked off reporting season”. “Pricing is healthy. In our view this reflects the supply-constrained environment in European short-haul and bodes well for another strong year for European point-to-point airlines,” the analysts said.<br/>
EasyJet has urged French authorities to resolve air traffic control problems after a report into a near-collision involving one of its jets cited staff shortages and absenteeism. "This clearly has been one of the weakest links in the whole chain of aviation; we know it has been an issue particularly in France," CEO Johan Lundgren said when asked about shortages. "They need to sort out the problem because there are millions of people struggling with this thing. The key thing is prioritising safety and they need to have a solid and resilient operation". France's DGAC aviation authority had no immediate comment.<br/>French investigators recently concluded a probe into the near-miss at Bordeaux airport on Dec. 31, 2022, when a controller apparently forgot that a private plane was on the runway as an A320 jetliner was fast approaching with 179 passengers on board. Crew were ordered to abort the landing after the pilot of the small DR400 - taking a leisure flight with his nine-year-old son - raised the alarm on hearing over the radio that the easyJet plane was coming in to land from London Gatwick.<br/>
Ryanair could invest an extra E8b in Italy if the country scraps a local tax on air tickets, CEO Michael O'Leary said in an interview published on Wednesday. Speaking to La Repubblica newspaper, O'Leary said he wants to meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and ask her to "create the conditions" that would allow Ryanair to make that investment. When asked what the conditions would be, he said the government should scrap the additional tax on air fares, charged by municipalities, and which is partially used to pay pension costs for air sector workers. O'Leary also said Ryanair would open two new bases in Italy, in Trieste and Reggio Calabria, and would increase flights to and from Rome's two airports, Milan Malpensa and Bergamo's Orio al Serio.<br/>
Norwegian Air said on Wednesday it had raised its earnings forecast for 2023 on the back of strong demand in the final two months of the year, sending its share price up 5% in early trade to a 21-month high.<br/>The carrier now expects a full-year operating profit of about 2.2b Norwegian crowns ($209.65m), up from an earlier guided range between 1.8b and 2b crowns. The guidance hike primarily follows stronger than expected traffic demand in November and December, Norwegian said, as well as the settlement of a trademark dispute with Bank Norwegian and compensation related to aircraft delivery delays. "Favourable development in the price of jet fuel and foreign exchange rates have also had a positive impact on the results outlook," Norwegian said. The company said its 2023 unit cost excluding fuel per available seat kilometre was now seen at about 0.48 Norwegian crowns for the year, at the high end of its earlier 0.47-0.48 crowns range. <br/>
Norse Atlantic Airways has received subscriptions for about 70% of the shares offered in its latest stock issue. The issue had covered up to 9.1m shares. Preliminary indications, following closure of the subscription period on 24 January, show that just over 6.3m shares have been taken up. The offer price of NKr11 points to a total subscription value of NKr69.4m ($6.65m). Norse Atlantic had initiated the offering – which could have raised up to NKr100m – to limit the dilutive effect of an earlier private placement of shares. It intends to use the proceeds to improve liquidity over the course of the winter season.<br/>
Malaysian airline group Capital A, formerly AirAsia, has achieved a robust group load factor of 88% for the fiscal year of 2023, a year-on-year increase of 5 percentage points. Capital A said in a statement on Wednesday that the load factor showed the return of strong travel demand, which was aligned with the group's effort to inject capacity back into the market and reinstate the route network. Closing the fiscal year with 162 operational aircraft, the group carried nearly 57m passengers for the entire period. Compared to pre-COVID levels, the aviation group passenger carried recovery reached 77% on the back of 74% capacity recovery. Leading the way is the domestic recovery, which stands at 82%, while the international recovery is at 72%.<br/>