A small plane crashed while taking off from an airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Wednesday, killing 18 people on board, officials said. The pilot of the Saurya Airlines flight was the only survivor and was seriously injured, the authorities said. The plane took off at 11:11 a.m. from Tribhuvan International Airport and was headed toward Pokhara, Nepal’s second biggest city and a Himalayan tourist destination, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said in a statement. The plane then veered to the right before crashing on the east side of the runway and catching fire, the statement said. Officials said that the cause was not immediately clear and that there would be an investigation. Among the dead were the plane’s co-pilot and one child, the aviation authority said. One passenger was from Yemen, while the others were Nepalese. Photos of the crash site from local media showed the charred wreckage of the plane scattered in pieces. Nepal’s aviation sector has a poor safety record, with a string of crashes in recent years killing dozens. Tough, mountainous topography and unpredictable weather conditions are responsible in part for the country’s frequent plane crashes, according to experts.<br/>
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A group of Latam Airlines Group SA shareholders raised $456m in an initial public offering of American depositary shares. The shareholders in the Santiago-based airline sold 19m ADS Tuesday for $24 each, according to a statement. Each ADS represents 2,000 of Latam’s common shares, which trade on the Chilean Stock Exchange. The sellers are Sixth Street Partners, Strategic Value Partners, Olympus Peak, Monarch Funds, Värde Funds and Marathon Fund, the statement shows. The company, which has a joint venture agreement with Delta Air Lines Inc., has a market value of 7.7t Chilean pesos ($8.1b) as of Wednesday’s close in Santiago. Latam’s US ADS have traded over the counter since the company was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in 2020 following its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to its prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The company won court approval to exit bankruptcy in 2022. The airline transported about 77m passengers in the 12 months to March 31, the prospectus shows. Its fleet consists of 258 narrowbody aircraft from the Airbus A320 family for regional flying, and 58 widebody aircraft — Boeing’s 787, 777 and 767 models — for long-haul international flights. In the three months ending on June 30, Latam had about $144m of net income on $3b of total operating revenue, versus $144m of net income on $2.7b of revenue a year earlier, the prospectus shows.<br/>
Some WestJet travellers will soon be able to stay connected at no cost on their flights, as the airline is planning to offer customers free in-flight Wi-Fi. The Calgary-based carrier announced a new multi-year partnership with Telus on Wednesday that will bring high-speed internet onboard to WestJet reward members free of charge. The in-flight internet, which will be powered by Starlink, will become available starting in December. “Through our strategic partnership with TELUS, we are setting a new standard in the Canadian airline industry by offering Starlink’s revolutionary inflight connectivity, and thanks to TELUS we are able to bring this inflight experience to WestJet Rewards guests for free,” John Weatherill, WestJet Group executive vice-president and chief commercial officer, said in a statement. WestJet said it plans to complete the Wi-Fi installation on its modern narrow-body fleet by the end of 2025 and upgrade all wide-body aircraft by the end of 2026.<br/>
The budget airline easyJet is predicting a record-breaking summer of travel after profits jumped 16% in its most recent quarter of trading. The bumper figures come only two days after the rival no-frills carrier Ryanair reported a plunge in earnings and a poor outlook for the holiday getaway season, pushing down many European airline stocks. EasyJet said pre-tax profits climbed to GBP236m in the three months to the end of June, as passenger numbers rose by 8%, fuelling an 11% rise in total revenues to GBP2.6bn. Johan Lundgren, the E of easyJet, said the airline had sold 1.5m more seats for peak season than at the same time last year, which “means we remain on track to deliver another record-breaking summer”. EasyJet said it had filled 28.1m seats in its most recent quarter, up 7% year on year, with load factor across its fleet hitting 92% in June. Jittery investors slashed 7% from easyJet’s share price on Monday after Ryanair said its profits had halved over the same April to June period and forecast a tough summer amid falling ticket prices hindered by a wider market trend of customers leaving booking their summer flights until late. However, easyJet said on Wednesday that its bookings for the summer quarter “continue to build”, with 69% now sold, up a percentage point on the same period last year as the airline increased the number of tickets on sale by 7%.<br/>
Ryanair's CEO said easyJet's much better fare performance in the April-June quarter did not indicate flaws in his airline's strategy, but were due to its rival's weaker prior year comparisons and slower traffic growth. Ryanair's share price posted its sharpest daily fall since 2016 on Monday, after it released quarterly results that showed average fare falls of 15%, while easyJet on Wednesday said revenue per seat for the quarter was up 1%, lifting its shares more than 4%. "They're doing better than us on pricing but growing a lot less, they still haven't recovered their pre-COVID traffic," O'Leary said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday. The 55.5m passengers Ryanair flew from April to June was 32% higher than the same quarter in 2019, while easyJet's 25.3m was 4% lower than the equivalent period in 2019. "We are growing very strongly in lots of new markets and our pricing is, I would say, marginally weaker than theirs but we don't think there's anything fundamentally broken or wrong with the model." Ryanair, which flew 10% more passengers year-on-year in the last quarter, has been growing strongly in new markets such as Albania, while also opening new routes in its biggest markets such as Italy. A boycott by some online travel agents was also a minor factor in the weakness of Ryanair's average fares, O'Leary added. A number of agents have stopped selling Ryanair's tickets, but others have agreed new deals to allow sales.<br/>
Air Vanuatu is gearing up to restart domestic operations as pilot training flights resume. Liquidator Ernst & Young (EY) Australia, which was called in after the airline collapsed in May, said domestic flights will be back “in the short term”, with no timing as of yet for the return of international operations. EY announced the restart of pilot training flights on Thursday with the support of the Vanuatu government and civil aviation authority. Morgan Kelly, partner in strategy and transactions at EY, said domestic flights by Vanuatu’s national carrier represent “critical infrastructure” for approximately 300,000 people living across more than 60 islands, and demonstrate that there is a future for the airline. “The resumption of domestic services is a major step forward for Air Vanuatu after entering voluntary liquidation in May, and positive news for employees and the country,” said Kelly. “Air Vanuatu is committed to operating safely, reliably, and consistently. Air Vanuatu has retained a full contingent of staff to be able to resume operations and is currently undertaking training flights for pilots."<br/>