unaligned

Southwest Airlines on Thursday announced an agreement with activist investor Elliott to end a months-long boardroom battle. As part of the deal, CEO Bob Jordan will retain his job, but Executive Chairman Gary Kelly will accelerate his retirement. The company will also add six new directors to its board. The deal came as the U.S. carrier reported a surprise third-quarter profit on Thursday, benefiting from improved pricing and demand, as well as rebookings from passengers stranded due to the global cyber outage in July. The hedge fund pushed for a revamp of the airline's board and a replacement of top executives. That, along with inflated costs, has pushed it to take steps to restore steady profitability and find high-margin revenue streams, including vacation packages, overnight flights and assigned and premium seating. During the U.S. summer travel season, an oversupply of airline seats in the domestic sector compelled airlines to sell seats at lower prices to fill their planes, denting their earnings. Since then U.S. airlines have moderated capacity. Annual domestic seat growth has slowed to 1.5% in October and November from 5.5% in July, according to BofA analysts. Southwest reported an adjusted profit of $89m, or 15 cents per share, compared with analysts' average estimate of a loss of $12.65m, or a break-even on a per share basis, according to data compiled by LSEG. Shares of the carrier rose 1.5% in premarket trading. It expects fourth-quarter revenue per available seat mile, a proxy for pricing power, to be up 3.5% to 5.5%, on a projected capacity reduction of about 4%. "We are laser-focused on delivering the robust set of tactical and strategic initiatives included in our plan and returning to the strong financial performance we expect," Jordan said.<br/>

At least one U.S. airline on Friday temporarily canceled flights to Haiti’s capital after gang members opened fire and hit a U.N. helicopter flying near the country’s main airport. Spirit Airlines said in a statement to The Associated Press that its daily flight from Fort Lauderdale to Port-au-Prince has been suspended through Sunday. “The safety of our guests and team members is a priority,” the Florida-based airline said, adding that it was closely monitoring the situation. The announcement comes a day after a U.N. helicopter was hit by gunfire, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Port-au-Prince shortly after it had departed the main airport. The U.N. Humanitarian Air Service helicopter, which was carrying three crew members and 15 passengers, landed safely, according to the World Food Program. The shooting comes as gang violence surges across Haiti’s capital and beyond in recent days, raising concerns that a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police is struggling to contain the violence. Thousands of people have been killed or injured this year, and more than 700,000 have been left homeless in recent years as a result of the ongoing gang violence. “There’s a lot that needs to be done to give hope,” Leslie Voltaire, president of Haiti’s transitional presidential council, said at a press conference on Friday. “I am not satisfied. Right now there are no results. We should do more to improve people’s lives.”<br/>

Stelios Haji-Ioannou has stamped the Easy brand on everything from aeroplanes to pizza joints, with varying degrees of success. Now the billionaire entrepreneur is taking a punt on online sports betting, the Guardian has learned, through a partnership with an offshore gambling firm that is on the comeback trail after having its licence suspended in 2020. EasyBet is a joint-venture with Matchbook, a trading name of Triplebet, which is based on the Channel island of Alderney. The Guardian understands that Triplebet is owned by Zeljko Ranogajec, an Australian-born multimillionaire who has been described as the world’s most successful gambler and by the nicknames of the “Loch Ness monster”, because he is rarely spotted, and “The Joker”. The Gambling Commission, which regulates the betting and gaming industry, suspended Triplebet’s gambling licence for six months in 2020 and fined the company £740,000, citing failings on player protection and anti-money laundering controls. Its compliance systems have since been overhauled. At the time, Triplebet’s majority shareholder is understood to have been Matthew Benham, a gambling entrepreneur who also owns Brentford FC. Benham continues to hold a minority stake in the business. Triplebet, which Ranogajec owns via an Isle of Man-based entity called Newfoundland Limited, has a “white label” deal with EasyBet.<br/>

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA’s growth is expected to slow next year as a strike at Boeing Co. deprives the low-cost carrier of new jets, adding to an industrywide bottleneck that’s hurting airlines globally. Capacity growth will be less than the 13% the airline is targeting for this year, Norwegian said in a statement as it reported earnings Friday. Its fleet should rise to around 90 jets by the middle of next year and to 97 a year later, versus 86 — all Boeing 737s — at the end of the third quarter. “The strike among Boeing union members from September is expected to exacerbate the delivery delays,” Norwegian said. The airline hasn’t received any aircraft during the third quarter. Boeing has so far failed to overcome a work stoppage at its main factories in the Seattle area after employees voted not to ratify the latest tentative contract offer earlier this week. As a result, the US planemaker isn’t producing any civil aircraft besides the 787 Dreamliner, which is made at a different site that doesn’t have union representation. Norwegian said that its upcoming deliveries are now delayed by more than a year. <br/>

India’s largest airline IndiGo posted a surprise loss — its first in two years — weighed down by a higher fuel bill and a jump in maintenance costs. The carrier operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. reported a loss of 9.9b rupees ($118m) in the three months ended Sept. 30, it said in an exchange filing Friday. A Bloomberg survey of brokerages had forecast an average profit of 1.34b rupees for a quarter that usually sees seasonally tepid demand. Revenue for the quarter rose 14% to 169.7b rupees but missed estimates. Total costs climbed 22% to 186.66b rupees, with fuel costs jumping 12.8% from a year ago and maintenance costs surging 30%, the filing said. Airport fees for the airline also rose about 40% in the latest quarter. “In a traditionally weaker second quarter, results were further impacted by headwinds related to groundings and fuel costs,” Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers said in a statement. The number of grounded aircrafts and linked costs for the carrier have started declining, he said. Debt rose 20% from a year ago to 592.37b rupees. Its passenger load factor fell to 82.6% from 83.3% in the same quarter last year.<br/>