Americans traveling this summer have broadly seen prices fall for airline fares, a welcome trend after last year’s sticker shock. But airfare remains more expensive in 2024 for some regions and destinations, largely for trips abroad, data shows. For example, on average, a round-trip flight to Tokyo, Japan — one of the top hot spots for American tourists — costs $1,372 this summer, up 2% from 2023, according to travel site Hopper. Hopper also found that flights to Canada, South America, the Middle East and Africa are up 6%, 2% and 1%, respectively, from summer 2023. Of course, there’s significant variation among the cities and countries of such vast regions and continents. For example, while the cost of a round-trip fare to Asia is flat from a year ago, the price for certain destinations has soared. High prices to certain Asian cities impact many American tourists since the continent is their second-most frequented international travel destination, Hopper said. Story has more fare details.<br/>
unaligned
Spirit Airlines is doing away with both change and cancellation fees, effective immediately, days after Frontier’s similar announcement, part of an overhaul of the country’s biggest discount carriers’ longtime strategy. Prior to the new rule, Spirit used to charge anywhere between $69 and $119 for ticket changes and cancellations, depending on how close to departure the customer made the change. “This new policy is among the best in the industry because it applies to each and every guest,” Spirit said in a statement to CNBC. “We have many other enhancements in the works and look forward to sharing more soon.” The changes mark a shift for budget airlines’ longtime pricing approach, which includes low base fares to attract customers and add-on fees for advanced seating assignments, bottled water and cabin baggage. Ancillary revenue routinely surpasses those airlines’ ticket prices. “As we continue to see the demand and competitive environments develop, we know that we must also change with the times,” Spirit’s CCO Matt Klein said on an earnings call earlier this month. “We will continue to test out new merchandising strategies, which we anticipate will change how we think about the components of total revenue generation.” Both Spirit and Frontier are trying to return to profitability in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, while larger airlines that offer both bare-bones fares to domestic destinations and big international networks have posted profits. Most larger rivals such as Delta, American, Alaska and United got rid of change fees during the pandemic except for the cheapest, most restrictive tickets. Southwest does not charge customers a flight-change fee.<br/>
A Frontier Airlines passenger refused to comply with exit row instructions from a cabin crew member forcing everyone on the flight to deboard. In a viral TikTok posted on 9 May, travel blogger Tia (@travelwithtia23) shared with viewers how an unidentified woman in glasses argued with airline employees. Meanwhile, her fellow passengers were pleading with her to deboard the plane for all of their sakes. “This lady right here, when she first got on the plane and acknowledged the exit row, she said, ‘Oh, I’m not going to save anybody. If something happens, I’m going to save myself,’” Tia explained. “That was her attitude throughout the seating process. And I already knew something was about to pop off when she had that attitude.” The video shows the woman arguing with a female flight attendant, gesturing to another flight attendant: “Yeah, she talking to me - what is the problem?” ”Cause she don’t wanna tell us her name?” she interrupted the airline worker as she set down her drink on the aircraft floor. The flight attendant attempted to finish her sentence, “If it’s gonna be a problem-” “A problem? What’s the problem?’ the woman interrupted as the flight attendant continued to try to relay the exit row instructions mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). “We ain’t got no problem with that. We understand we gotta help people get off the plane and help Betty White if something happens.” Story has more.<br/>
A group founded by a prominent anti-affirmative action activist on Monday sued Southwest Airlines, alleging that a two-decade-old program that awards free round-trip flights to Hispanic undergraduate and graduate students is racially discriminatory. Edward Blum's American Alliance for Equal Rights in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Dallas alleged that the airline's program violated federal civil rights laws by excluding non-Hispanic students from eligibility for free tickets. His group alleged that as a result, two Asian and white students who were members of his nonprofit were barred from applying to the program. The lawsuit seeks an injunction blocking Southwest from using its eligibility criteria. "Southwest Airlines should immediately open this program to all students, regardless of their skin color or ethnic heritage," Blum said in a statement. Dallas-based Southwest did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The lawsuit marked the latest in a series of cases Blum has filed in recent months challenging corporate diversity programs after another group he founded last year convinced the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court to bar the consideration of race as a factor in college admissions. Monday's lawsuit centers on Southwest's ¡Lánzate! Travel Award Program, which launched in 2004 and is operated in partnership with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.<br/>
Canadian airline company WestJet Group faces a delay of at least six months in completing its integration of Sunwing Airlines’ small fleet of Boeing 737s. Calgary-based WestJet now hopes to complete the integration in April 2025 instead of October 2024, as previously planned, WestJet interim director of route planning Rick Jones said at the Airport Council International-North America’s JumpStart conference in Washington, DC on 20 May. The new timing is when WestJet aims to have finished shifting 11 Sunwing 737s onto its own air operator’s certificate (AOC). The delay stems from training Sunwing’s pilots and changing measurement units used in the cockpits of the discounter’s 737s, Jones says. WestJet, which is privately held and does not disclose financial data, purchased Sunwing in May 2023. The deal faced tough regulatory scrutiny amid concern it would negatively impact consumers. As part of the acquisition, WestJet also integrated its wholly-owned budget brand, Swoop, onto its AOC. That integration was completed in October 2023. The Canadian airline market is one in flux. In addition to WestJet’s acquisition of Sunwing, Calgary-based discounter Lynx Air closed its doors in February, citing financial pressures. Meanwhile, Porter Airlines has embarked on North American expansion from Toronto and other eastern Canadian cities since introducing Embraer 195-E2s in February 2023. The airline plans to grow its available seat kilometres 6-8% this year compared to 2023.<br/>
Ryanair has reported record annual profits of E1.9b as the Irish airline announced the appointment of former UK home secretary Amber Rudd to its board and said summer fares would be lower than previously expected. Profits after tax increased by more than a third in the year to the end of March compared with the previous year as the number of passengers increased by 9% to 184m – 23% above the heights reached before the pandemic. The Dublin-listed company said it expected to carry as many as 200m passengers in the current financial year, but added that the prices it could charge were lower than expected in recent weeks. Ryanair said it expected prices to be “flat to modestly ahead of last summer”, but that “recent pricing is softer than we expected”, pushing it to offer lower fares to attract customers. Rudd was energy and climate change secretary under David Cameron and then home secretary for nearly two years under Theresa May, before resigning in 2018 in relation to the scandal over the mistreatment of the Windrush generation of migrants to the UK. She did not seek re-election in 2019. Rudd, who was an investment banker before becoming an MP, has since worked for public relations companies, as an adviser to Darktrace, a cyber-security company that is being bought by a US private equity investor, and on the board of the British Gas owner, Centrica. She joins Ryanair as a non-executive director on 1 July.<br/>
Saudi Arabia's national airline ordered more than 100 new Airbus jets, a reflection of the kingdom's ambitious drive to lure more tourists. Saudia Group, which represents the Saudia airline and its budget carrier Flyadeal, said Monday that it ordered 105 aircraft from the French aerospace company's A320neo family of jets, including 12 A320neos and 93 A321neos. That brings Saudia Group's Airbus aircraft order backlog to 144 of the A320neo family planes. Saudia said it is increasing flights and seat capacity across its existing 100-plus destinations to meet the country's goal of attracting more than 150m tourists by 2030. In February, Airbus reported healthy results for its commercial aircraft business in its latest annual earnings report and set a target of 800 commercial aircraft deliveries, 67 more than in 2023. Airbus’s fortunes contrast with struggles at U.S. rival Boeing, which seemed finally to be recovering from two crashes of Max jets in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia. But on Jan. 5, a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9, and the company has been reeling ever since. Airbus has benefitted from its decision to launch the A321neo, a single-aisle aircraft with 180 to 230 seats. “Neo” stands for new engine option, meaning highly fuel efficient engines that save airlines money on one of their biggest costs. Boeing rushed to match it with the Max, a 737 equipped with new, more efficient engines, only to run into a myriad of technical issues. Despite Boeing's woes, Airbus is unlikely to extend its advantage in the Airbus-Boeing duopoly much further because the company already is making planes as fast as it can, with a backlog of more than 8,600 orders to fill.<br/>
Saudi Arabian authorities are probing a serious landing incident, including a runway excursion, involving an Airbus A320neo at Riyadh. French accident investigation agency BEA, citing its Saudi counterparts, states that the twinjet made an “unsafe landing” after a “destabilised approach”. This resulted in a “significant” excursion off the right-hand edge of Riyadh’s runway 15L, for a distance of 400m (1,300ft), it adds. The Flynas aircraft had been arriving from the Qatari capital Doha on 28 April. Meteorological data from Riyadh’s King Khalid international airport, around the scheduled time of arrival, indicates it had been experiencing thunderstorm activity, rain and gusting winds. BEA states that there were no injuries among the occupants, and that damage to the aircraft was “light”. It identifies the airframe involved as HZ-NS45, powered by CFM International Leap-1A engines and delivered new to the carrier in June 2021.<br/>
Russian carrier S7 Airlines is to increase its capacity through the lease of Airbus A321s from state lessor GTLK. S7 has reached an agreement to take three of the twinjet type. All three will be delivered in an full economy-class configuration. Two of the jets are fitted with 219 seats and the third with 220. “The aircraft will undergo thorough maintenance before entering service,” says GTLK. It states that they will be removed from storage, and technical work will then be carried out to prepare the aircraft for operation. GTLK adds that, as part of the process, the jets will be repainted in S7’s livery. It says the aircraft will be introduced ahead of the summer season, adding that they will “help increase the volume of Russian civil air transport”. GTLK has not identified the specific airframes or their engine type.<br/>
Passengers landing at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi are greeted by a grim sight on arrival: the graveyard of out-of-service planes that once flew the skies for debt-strapped national carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). "I do my best to avoid taking a PIA flight," said finance professional Asif Waleed, who regularly takes the two-hour trip between the coastal commercial hub and Pakistan's capital Islamabad. "I have a high degree of confidence that [their] flights never operate on time." The airline, which lost over $3.6b in the past 20 years, has been thrust into the spotlight this month as a test case for the government's ambitious plan to sell off more than 80 of Pakistan's state-owned enterprises. From power plants and utilities, to a women-focused bank and even a hotel in New York, assets owned by Pakistan are scheduled to be offloaded as the country seeks a multi-billion dollar package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail out an economy that has crashed into a high-debt, low-growth crisis. Ahead of an original May 4 deadline, 10 companies submitted bids to buy a majority stake in PIA, including Pakistani tycoon Arif Habib, domestic aviation services firm Gerry's Group and three of the nation's private airlines, according to local media reports. That deadline for bids was subsequently extended to May 18. A successful sale of PIA -- two years after the privatization of neighboring India's national carrier -- could be critical to a $6b to $8b bailout that the country is seeking from the IMF. The Washington-based fund has told Pakistan it must stop subsidizing money losing entities as a condition for loans to help prop up a faltering economy.<br/>