unaligned

Southwest Airlines executives on Thursday unveiled their vision for Southwest 2.0, an airline that for the first time will give passengers assigned seats, charge them extra for more legroom and offer red-eye flights. And bags still will fly free. The airline will also repackage its sale of vacation packages. It will seek partnerships with international airlines, starting with Icelandair next year, that executives say will make Southwest credit cards and frequent-flyer program more attractive. The changes will amount to the biggest ever at Southwest, which is the original low-cost airline but is now well into middle age and suffering from sagging financial results. Southwest executives pitched the new offerings as they came under increasing pressure from an activist investor who wants to replace the airline’s management and force a review of its strategy. Southwest’s annual profit is on pace to decline for a third straight year, and its stock price has fallen by more than half since early 2021. “Our model is not broken,” CEO Robert Jordan declared, but he said it needs tweaking and “enhancement.” “We are not producing the financial results that we are capable of delivering,” he said at a meeting with investors at the airline’s Dallas headquarters. Southwest said its multi-year plan, including changes to its flight network, will add about $1.5b in pretax earnings in 2027. Southwest had previously given the outlines of changes including assigned seating and extra-legroom seats, but it gave more details about them Thursday.<br/>

Southwest Airlines chief executive Bob Jordan blasted minority shareholder Elliott Investment Management’s latest criticisms as “inane” during Southwest’s 26 September investor day in Dallas. Jordan was provoked by Elliot’s strongly worded 25 September letter, which suggests incompetence on the part of Southwest’s leadership team. The letter calls for a special investor meeting to make shareholders “aware of certain defensive actions that Southwest’s leaders are taking, apparently in an attempt to disenfranchise shareholders and evade accountability for their poor performance”. Notably, the letter calls Southwest’s newly unveiled plan to overhaul its business model amid a difficult environment for domestic and low-cost carriers “half baked”. But Jordan maintains the plan is the product of a long and thoughtful development process that included a third-party study of its customer experience. Southwest detailed its broad transformation plan to reporters at its Dallas headquarters on 26 September. The plan includes breaking away from its decades-old open seating model in 2026, forming partnerships with international carriers and installing new “premium” coach seats in its aircraft starting next year. Jordan addressed Elliott’s call for a special investor meeting by maintaining that a “proxy fight” is not in Southwest’s best interest. “We remain willing to work with Elliott on a cooperative approach,” Jordan says. “We have demonstrated that willingness time and again through our attempts at engagement. But time and again, Elliott has demonstrated little or no interest in collaborating with Southwest on how to deliver more shareholder value – focusing instead, as evidenced by the most-recent letter and recent action, on tactics and on gamesmanship.”<br/>

Bahamasair has become embroiled in spat playing out between Nassau and US airlines that fly into the island country’s airspace. For several years, US carriers have alleged that the Bahamas government charges unreasonable air navigation service fees, violating the US-Bahamas air transport agreement. Now, US trade group Airlines for America (A4A) is urging the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to prohibit Bahamasair’s from flying US routes – unless the Bahamas government eliminates alleged “excessive charges”. Specifically, A4A wants to DOT to hold up approval of Bahamasair’s pending request to renew its US operating authority. Time may be running out, as the Nassau-based carrier’s current authorisation – called an “exemption” – seemingly runs only through 3 October, according to regulatory filings. Bahamasair did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the company’s attorney, Michael Pennekamp with Miami law firm Fowler White Burnett. The DOT and The Bahamas Air Navigation Services Authority (BANSA) also have not responded to inquiries from FlightGlobal. Bahamasair requested the renewed exemption on 23 August, and A4A objected on 12 September. Since then, the airline and trade group have battled the issue in DOT filings. “Because the government of the Bahamas continues to violate the [air transport agreement], Bahamasair’s application to serve the US must be denied,” A4A said in a 25 September filing.<br/>

Brazil's Total Linhas Aereas, a small cargo and charter airline, aims to become the first firm outside Asia to buy aircraft from China's state-owned planemaker, which is trying to break into a global passenger jet market dominated by Western manufacturers. Total and the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) have been in talks for months, said the airline's controlling partner Paulo Almada, who will visit COMAC in October to discuss a potential order of up to four C919 planes. Brazilian Ports and Airports Minister Silvio Costa Filho said Total sought out the government to share its intentions, but has not presented any formal plan so far. A deal could foster closer Brazil-China ties in the aviation sector ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit in November. Yet some industry observers have voiced skepticism about Total's business plan for the Chinese jets. "Even if Total is getting a great deal on the aircraft, its unproven reliability record and lack of support network in Brazil make it a very risky choice," PA Consulting Aviation Partner Carlos Ozores said. Total's Almada said the airline was forced to look beyond traditional Western manufacturers such as Airbus and Boeing because they were unable to meet demand for new planes as they grapple with supply chain constraints.<br/>

Aurigny has warned customers its winter flight schedule has been changed in a bid to minimise delays and improve punctuality. According to the airline, schedulers have poured over months worth of flight data to come up with the adjustments to the winter schedule. The changes to flights may be as little as five minutes and in the vast majority of cases no more than an hour, it said. Dave Cox, head of ground operations, said: "By making these adjustments to our flight times for the winter schedule, we will be able to get more people to their destination on time." An airline spokesperson added: "A small number of our customers will see their flight departure times changed by up to one hour and 40 minutes." The winter schedule begins on 27 October. The spokesperson said all affected customers would be contacted by email at least four weeks before the start of the schedule.<br/>

Boeing's continuing troubles are not affecting the US aircraft manufacturer's chances in the race against its European rival Airbus for a narrow-body aircraft order from Saudi Arabian start-up Riyadh Air, a senior airline executive has said. Riyadh Air, which is considering both Airbus and Boeing models for its long-awaited narrow-bodies order, plans to announce its decision before the end of 2024, Vincent Coste, its chief commercial officer, told The National on the sidelines of the global aerospace summit in Abu Dhabi. "We are looking at the long term, we are not looking at onboarding our narrow-body aircraft next year because we still have to take a decision, announce the order and it takes a few years to manufacture these aircraft," he said. "So these short-term issues that Boeing is going through are not impacting our long-term vision." US plane maker Boeing, which has been struggling with a safety and quality crisis after a door panel blew out mid-air on a 737 Max jet in January, is now also contending with a workers' strike, which could further delay output. The strike has not affected 787 production.<br/>

South Korean low-cost carrier T’way Air will lease five Airbus A330neos from Avolon to support international growth. The aircraft will be delivered in 2026, helping the airline expand its current route network, which already covers 55 destinations, says the lessor. “We have forged a strong relationship with Avolon and partnering on these new A330neos is an important next step in our growth ambitions,” says T’way representative director Hong Geun Jeong. “With 55 destinations and plans to expand our network the aircraft will help us in our mission to offer passengers exceptional service, reliability and value.” In June, the carrier announced that it had gained approval to launch flights to Frankfurt, and that flights to Paris were in the works pending discussions between French and South Korean authorities. Cirium fleets data indicates that T’way operates 36 aircraft: 27 Boeing 737-800s, two 737 Max 8s, four A330-200s and three A330-300s. It also has a pair of 737 Max 8s on order.<br/>

Thailand's main international airport in Bangkok said on Thursday it received a bomb threat concerning an incoming Thai VietJetAir flight traveling from Danang, Vietnam, but no explosives were found and all passengers and crew were safe. "The incident did not affect the airport's overall operations," Suvarnabhumi airport's general manager said in a statement, adding emergency measures had since been lifted and a passenger suspected of making the threat had been handed over to police for further investigation.<br/>

Hong Kong’s Greater Bay Airlines will add three new destinations in Japan in the final quarter of this year, the company’s new head has said, while the future of the much-awaited services to Beijing and Shanghai remains uncertain. The airline would start flying to Yonago in the western region of Tottori prefecture on October 27, with flights operating every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, chief executive officer Liza Ng Shiow-lan said on Thursday. “In the coming months, we plan to introduce some new destinations to the Hong Kong market as well as the Japanese one. We hope it will encourage travellers to take the opportunity to visit Hong Kong, contributing a little to the travel industry,” Ng said. “There has been a significant decrease in the number of Japanese tourists visiting Hong Kong, so we hope that by showcasing these new destinations, travellers from Japan will be attracted after seeing direct flights to Hong Kong.”<br/>Services will also be extended to Tokushima prefecture on Shikoku island with three weekly chartered flights and to Sendai in Miyagi prefecture with four, starting on November 16 and December 7 respectively. But the carrier’s applications to operate flights to Beijing and Shanghai, made more than a year ago, were still awaiting approval. “We have not been offered time slots for flights to Beijing and Shanghai yet, but we will continue to strive for them while expanding our networks,” Ng said, adding the company planned to operate flights to Zhoushan in Zhejiang province in mainland China in early November. <br/>