unaligned

In the 24 years since JetBlue Airways’ first flight, the New York-based airline has pushed the envelope for a carrier of its size. Now, with some veteran executive hires and cost-cutting, it’s trying to get back to basics. JetBlue was a pioneer in seat-back entertainment, free Wi-Fi, good snacks and a business-class cabin with lie-flat seats that debuted at lower prices than rivals’. More recently, it’s ventured across the Atlantic with flights to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Dublin. And, until a judge blocked the deal last month, it planned to buy budget airline Spirit Airlines for $3.8b. (The carriers are appealing that decision.) While JetBlue has never lacked big ideas, it has come up short on profits, cost control and reliability. Those challenges will be top of mind for incoming CEO Joanna Geraghty when she takes the helm on Monday, succeeding Robin Hayes. And the pressure is on: On Monday afternoon, activist investor Carl Icahn disclosed a nearly 10% stake in the company and said he would pursue discussions around board representation. Geraghty, 51, has been at JetBlue for nearly two decades, most recently as president and chief operating officer. By naming her CEO, the company is promoting an insider who knows the complexities of running an airline with quirks like New York’s congested airspace. She’s the first woman to lead a US passenger airline. “The key strategic challenge we’ve always faced is how to thrive as a small player in an industry dominated by four large airlines,” Geraghty said on a Jan. 30 earnings call, referring to American, Delta, United and Southwest, which control about 80% of the domestic market.<br/>

Some pilots at Spirit Airlines are worried and scouring for other opportunities after a US judge last month blocked the low-cost air carrier's proposed merger with competitor JetBlue Airways, throwing its future into doubt. Spirit pilots, recruiters and industry sources told Reuters that the ruling has led to increased job applications at other places of employment. Spirit CFO Scott Haralson last week said the company was looking into "right sizing" its labor costs, adding to the uneasiness. A Spirit spokesperson said attrition levels are not out of the ordinary and pilot resignations this year have trended below its forecast for 2024. "We remain confident about Spirit's future and are committed to the well-being of our team members," the spokesperson said. The ultra-low-cost carrier has struggled to return to sustainable profitability due to softer demand in core markets and the grounding of dozens of its aircraft due to a snag with RTX's (RTX.N), opens new tab Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan engines. Analysts are not sure about Spirit's ability to survive if the $3.8 billion merger deal remains blocked. Some analysts have suggested that the company could face bankruptcy if it cannot shore up its finances, and S&P Global, Moody's and Fitch all downgraded the airline's credit ratings after the ruling, citing higher default and refinancing risks.<br/>

Bankrupt Brazilian airline Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes won court permission to investigate whether its rival Latam Airlines Group sought to take unfair advantage of its recent Chapter 11 filing by improperly soliciting major Boeing aircraft suppliers. Judge Martin Glenn said Monday there is merit in investigating allegations Latam tried to either poach or interfere with Boeing 737 aircraft lessors doing business with Gol after the Brazilian budget airline filed bankruptcy last month. Glenn cited a letter Latam sent to aircraft lessors the day after Gol filed bankruptcy. A Latam lawyer said the Jan. 26 letter was the fist time in recent years the company had inquired about a type of narrowbody Boeing 737 aircraft flown by Gol. Latam has historically flown a fleet of Airbus aircraft, according to court documents. It would be “preposterous” to assume it was merely a coincidence Latam sent the letter immediately after Gol filed Chapter 11, Glenn said. In the letter, Latam said it was seeking more aircraft, which the airline said might be of interest to lessors “given the recent events in the industry.” Glenn granted the Sao Paulo-based airline’s request to get documents and conduct depositions of Latam officials in order to gather evidence, should any exist, substantiating claims that Latam sought to interfere with Gol’s business or violate its Chapter 11 stay, which protects companies in bankruptcy. Latam has denied the allegations and argued Gol is seeking such information to gain an unfair edge on its rival. <br/>

Aerus has asked the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for authority to offer scheduled and charter passenger flights between Mexico and the United States. Based in Monterrey Mariano Escobedo, the Mexican carrier projects between 1,100 and 1,200 annual flights between both countries, according to a submission to the DOT seen by ch-aviation. If approved, it would be the fourth Mexican-based scheduled passenger airline to operate flights to the United States, following in the steps of Aeroméxico, Volaris, and VivaAerobus. Defunct Aeromar Airlines used to fly north until its collapse in February 2023. Aerus has a fleet of three eight-seat Cessna (single turboprop) C208B Caravans owned by CIBANCO, S.A. de C.V., according to the country's aircraft registry. Additionally, in 2023, the company signed a Letter of Intent with Eviation to acquire up to 30 all-electric nine-seat Alice aircraft.<br/>

WestJet faces indefinite delays on dozens of new aircraft deliveries after a panel blowout on a Boeing 737 Max plane last month prompted a halt to greater production at the US aircraft maker. The Calgary-based carrier bought 42 Boeing 737 Max 10 jetliners in 2022, with options for 22 more — on top of nearly two dozen earlier Max orders still in the pipeline. The multibillion-dollar deals were slated to bolster WestJet’s fleet by at least 65 planes — 50 of them Max 10s — by 2029 in a move the airline called a "game-changer" that would reduce fuel costs and “underpin” its growth. However, the Max 10 has yet to receive final certification and, after the panel emergency, US regulators said they would halt production expansion at Boeing until safety concerns were sufficiently addressed. The FAA grounded all 737 Max 9s for inspection and launched a probe after a panel known as a door plug tore away from the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines plane while in flight on Jan. 5, leaving a refrigerator-sized hole in the cabin wall and prompting an emergency landing. As of Feb. 5, 94% of the 144 Max 9s flown by United Airlines and Alaska Airlines — two-thirds of all Max 9s in operation globally — had been cleared to return to service, according to the FAA. WestJet said it could handle the production turbulence. "We continue to work closely with Boeing on all aspects of aircraft delivery and timelines. We believe our order book and fleet planning have the built-in flexibility to support WestJet’s growth plans," spokeswoman Madison Kruger said in an email. The Max 10 is the largest plane in the latest line of 737s and offers 20% fewer carbon emissions per passenger than the previous generation. <br/>

The U.S. government has seized a Boeing 747 cargo plane that officials say was previously sold by a sanctioned Iranian airline to a state-owned Venezuelan firm in violation of American export control laws. The Justice Department said Monday that the American-built plane had arrived in Florida and would be disposed of. The plane had earlier been transferred from Iranian airline Mahan Air — which officials have alleged provides support for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force — to Emtrasur, a Venezuelan cargo airline and subsidiary of a state-owned firm that had previously been sanctioned by the United States. Officials said the sale, done without U.S. government authorization, violated export control laws and also improperly benefited Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. Mahan Air has for years been subject to US government sanctions. “The Justice Department is committed to ensuring that the full force of US laws deny hostile state actors the means to engage in malign activities that threaten our national security,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, the head of the department’s national security division, said. The department said the plane would now be “prepared for disposition,” though it did not elaborate. Venezuela’s government on Monday called the transfer a “shameful rapacious operation” and vowed to “take all actions to restore justice and achieve the restitution of the aircraft to its legitimate owner.” Its statement did not provide details of next steps.<br/>

Central European budget carrier Wizz Air is to open a second flight-training centre, to be located at Italy’s Rome Fiumicino airport. The airline says the facility will be equipped with three Airbus A320 simulators and have the capability to train over 4,800 pilots annually. Wizz Air is investing some E38m in the centre which will open this year. The facility will include briefing classrooms. It will be able to accommodate cadets taking theory courses from May, while the simulators will be installed by the end of the year.“This marks Wizz Air’s continued commitment to the highest standards of safety and continuous training with state-of-the-art equipment,” says Wizz president Robert Carey. He says the facility demonstrates that carrier is “investing in our greatest asset, our employees”. Wizz Air already has a training centre in Budapest which houses three A320 simulators, manufactured by CAE.<br/>

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, welcomed more than 1.4m guests onboard in January 2024, a 35% increase compared to the same month in 2023, according to the airline's preliminary traffic statistics for the month. The airline's load factor averaged at 86.04% in the month, Etihad said. “In January 2024 we saw a 35% year-on-year growth in customer numbers and were flying to five more destinations than the same period in 2023, making us one of the fastest growing airlines in the world,” said Antonoaldo Neves, CEO of Etihad Airways. We are meeting customer demand by adding more flights to key destinations, and Etihad is now offering almost 27% per cent more weekly departures for Summer 24 compared to last summer. We began the year by launching daily flights from Abu Dhabi (AUH) to Kozhikode (CCJ) and Thiruvananthapuram (TRV) in the Kerala region of India taking our total number of Indian gateways to 10."<br/>

Israir Group’s efforts to take control of Czech carrier Smartwings have encountered difficulties after the Israeli operator stopped negotiations with the Chinese shareholder. Smartwings is about 49%-owned by China’s CITIC Group. Israir had put down a deposit of €500,000 ($538,000) in favour of CITIC Group as part of the discussions, and says it had an option to purchase the shareholding with a deadline of 14 February. But it states that on 8 February, owing to the “geopolitical situation in the Middle East”, the negotiations were “terminated”. The deposit has been paid back to the company. Israir Group has been pursuing Smartwings – which is majority-owned by two individual investors – for well over a year. The company has yet to clarify whether it is still interested in taking over the Czech airline.<br/>

SpiceJet is planning to slash jobs among other measures as the unprofitable no-frills carrier seeks to bolster its distressed balance sheet by saving as much as 1b rupees ($12m) annually. A “manpower rationalization” initiative is underway after the recent fund infusion, Spicejet said in a statement Monday, without specifying how many employees would be affected. The move is part of its “turnaround and cost-cutting strategy” to achieve “profitable growth,” according to the statement. The airline plans to cut at least 1,000 jobs or about 10% of its workforce, the Press Trust of India reported earlier in the day. SpiceJet, which has reported losses of almost 55b rupees in the past five years, has been struggling to protect its position against bigger rivals — IndiGo and Air India — as well as upstarts such as Akasa Air that have been steadily eking out market share in India’s crowded skies. Budget carrier Go Airlines India filed for insolvency last year, succumbing to India’s cutthroat aviation market. SpiceJet’s market share in India slipped to 5.6% in December from about 7% at the start of 2023, according to data from the country’s aviation regulator. It raised 7.4b rupees last month, the first tranche of a planned 22.5b rupees capital infusion using preferential shares and warrants. SpiceJet operates a fleet of mostly Boeing’s 737 jets, 25 of which are grounded as the airline struggled to pay lessors while the other 40 are operational. It had a fleet of 110 before the pandemic, according to its annual report.<br/>