Three years ago, Southwest Airlines started flying out of Bellingham, Wash., a growing city near the Canadian border, aiming to do what it had done in dozens of smaller airports — sell lots of tickets to people who have few other travel options. Officials and residents in Bellingham, which sits between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, were thrilled as the airline added new nonstop service to cities on the West Coast at affordable prices. “The community embraced them, and we loved having them,” said Rob Fix, the executive director of the Port of Bellingham, which oversees the airport. But the expansion didn’t work as planned. This year, facing unexpected costs and challenges, Southwest left Bellingham and a handful of other cities it had started serving during an ambitious period of growth early in the recovery from the pandemic — markets that it said were underperforming. The retreat was a telling reversal for Southwest. The airline’s simple strategy of providing cheap flights and good service, often at smaller airports near large metropolitan areas, was tremendously successful for a half-century, earning consistent profits as many other airlines stumbled. But its playbook is showing signs of wear, raising questions about whether it can regain its momentum.<br/>
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Spain has fined five budget airlines a total of E179m for "abusive practices" including charging for hand luggage. Ryanair has been given the largest fine of €108m (£90m), followed by EasyJet's penalty of €29m (£24m). Vueling, Norwegian and Volotea were issued with sanctions by Spain's Consumer Rights Ministry on Friday. The ministry said it plans to ban practices such as charging extra for carry-on hand luggage and reserving seats for children. The fines are the biggest sanction issued by the ministry, and follow an investigation into the budget airline industry. The ministry said it had upheld fines that were first announced in May after dismissing appeals lodged by the companies. Vueling, the budget arm of British Airways owner IAG, has been fined E39m, while Norwegian Airlines and Volotea have been fined E1.6m and E1.2m respectively. The fines were issued because the airlines were found to have provided misleading information and were not transparent with prices, "which hinders consumers' ability to compare offers" and make informed decisions, the ministry said. Ryanair was accused of violating a range of consumer rights, including charging for larger carry-on luggage, seat selection, and asking for "a disproportionate amount" to print boarding passes at terminals. Each fine was calculated based on the "illicit profit" obtained by each airline from these practices.<br/>
AJet has received a TRY15b lira (US$434m) capital increase from its parent company Turkish Airlines, a regulatory filing reveals. “The capital of our 100% subsidiary AJet Hava Taşımacılık A.Ş. has been increased by TRY15b in line with the company's growth strategies,” the disclosure to Türkiye's Public Disclosure Platform read. The announcement comes shortly after it was revealed that AJet would resume its partnership with SunExpress. The two companies cooperated before AJet was spun off from Turkish Airlines (when it was using the AnadoluJet brand) and obtained its own AOC under the current name. This summer, Turkish Airlines chairman Ahmet Bolat revealed that AJet was seeking a reduction in ACMI dependence and would like to run its own operations. AJet is a fully-owned subsidiary of Turkish Airlines.<br/>
Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings is considering new destinations in the Middle East after expanding its services to Dubai and announcing routes to Jeddah and Cairo as part of its 2024-2025 winter schedule. The German budget airline is studying the potential of new routes to Red Sea coastal cities in Egypt and Saudi Arabia to cater largely to leisure travellers, Eurowings' CE Jens Bischof told The National. Other possibilities include cities in Oman, the UAE and the wider Gulf. “As a principle, we're looking at routes which are overpriced or underserved,” he said. “It's the Red Sea and the Gulf region … there are possibilities all the way through to Oman and there are possibilities in the Emirates which are still unexploited.” The airline is also working with German tour operators and tourism boards in the region to identify where capacity is needed and how to curate attractive packages with “competitive” services, he added. “Certainly nobody wants to spend a holiday on a construction site, there needs to be a certain maturity level which we need to find and it's all dependent on how these big projects will evolve over time to become a real solid piece of the destination portfolio,” Bischof said, referring to Saudi Arabia's tourism projects along the Red Sea coast.<br/>
Norse Atlantic Airways is expanding its Scandinavian reach by establishing an operation from Stockholm Arlanda next year. It will open a twice-weekly route from Stockholm to Bangkok from the end of October 2025, the beginning of the winter season. Norse uses a fleet of Boeing 787s. The aircraft will be configured with 338 seats in two cabin classes. “This new route ensures travellers have a premium, yet budget-friendly, choice on one of the most in-demand long-haul routes,” says Norse chief Bjorn Tore Larsen. The Bangkok route builds on Norse’s Asian presence, and reinforces its ambition to expand beyond the transatlantic sector. Norse operates transatlantic routes from several European cities including Oslo, London, Paris, Berlin and Rome. Swedish airports operator Swedavia says the airline will “play an important role” by offering Thai connections. “There is great confidence in the Swedish air travel market and Norse’s investment [at Stockholm] is a clear sign of this,” says Swedavia chief Jonas Abrahamsson.<br/>
The engine of a Russian plane with 95 people on board caught fire after landing at Antalya airport in southern Turkey on Sunday, Turkey’s transportation ministry said. All passengers and crew were safely evacuated. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 type aircraft run by Azimuth Airlines had taken off from Sochi and was carrying 89 passengers and six crew members, the ministry said in a statement. The pilot made an emergency call after the aircraft landed at 9:34 p.m. local time, and airport rescue and firefighting crews quickly extinguished the fire, according to the statement. No one was hurt, the statement said. The cause of the fire was not immediately known. A video of the incident posted by the aviation news website, Airport Haber, showed flames coming out from the left side of the plane as emergency crews doused the aircraft. Passengers were seen evacuating the plane through an emergency slide, some carrying belongings. The transportation ministry said efforts were underway to remove the aircraft from the runway. Arrivals at the airport were temporarily suspended while departures were taking place from a military-run runway.<br/>
After a round of executive promotions in late February, Emirates CFO Michael Doersam began building a new structure that aimed to give the German-born finance chief more direct supervision over his enlarged corporate functions. Over the next months, Doersam and close staff members worked on the so-called strategic center that would oversee human resources, finance, legal, and information technology. Details were hashed out at several meetings that included at least one off-site gathering, and employees were told where they would sit in the new organization, according to people familiar with the process. Then in late October, Doersam issued a surprise memo: The strategic center would not go ahead after all. Instead, “all team members who were moved will be returning to their original teams with no further impact,” the memo obtained by Bloomberg said. “Following recent executive discussions, we have now decided to change our course of action, and we will not be moving forward with the implementation of the strategic centre as planned,” the CFO wrote. Doersam shelved his plan after he failed to garner internal backing from other senior managers, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal processes. <br/>
A Hong Kong Airlines flight to Fukuoka in Japan was diverted to Taipei on Sunday after a suspected fuel leak. Flight HX640 departed from Hong Kong International Airport at around 9.30am and was scheduled to land in Fukuoka at 1.55pm (local time), according to plane-tracking website Flightradar24. In response to queries by the Post, Hong Kong Airlines said the flight was diverted because of a “technical issue” and apologised for the inconvenience caused. “As a precautionary measure, the aircraft landed for a full inspection before continuing its journey,” said a spokesman for the carrier. The plane landed safely in Taipei at 12.07pm with 13 crew members and 283 passengers on board, he said, adding that local transport and hotel accommodation had been arranged for the passengers. The return flight HX641 from Fukuoka to Hong Kong will also be delayed.<br/>
Vietnam’s largest private carrier, Vietjet, has announced a new direct service connecting Hanoi and Kuala Lumpur, which is expected to foster economic, cultural and tourism ties between Vietnam and Malaysia as well as across South-East Asia. The Hanoi-Kuala Lumpur route, to start on Nov 28, 2024, will operate seven round trips weekly. “The launch of this new route comes as Vietnam and Malaysia elevate their bilateral relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership, creating new opportunities for collaboration and development. Connecting the two capitals, the route will enhance regional aviation connectivity and add further value to economic and cultural cooperation,” it said in a statement issued to Bernama. This is the airline’s second service linking Vietnam and Malaysia, following the Ho Chi Minh City-Kuala Lumpur route introduced in 2016.<br/>
irAsia is aiming to partner with China’s state-owned aircraft manufacturer to expand its fleet and increase its presence across Southeast Asia to meet rising travel demand in the post-pandemic era, according to Tony Fernandes, the Malaysian budget airline’s CE. During a recent visit to Hong Kong, Fernandes said that the turbulence in the travel industry caused by the pandemic was coming to an end. He revealed that AirAsia is in talks to purchase new planes from European manufacturer Airbus and Brazil-based Embraer, while also considering aircraft from the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac). “We’re talking to everyone,” he said. “We would be foolish not to. I go out there publicly and say, ‘never underestimate the Chinese’. You only have to look at their mobile phones. You have to look at their internet technology.” Fernandes acknowledged that discussions were still in the early stages, but said “the world needs more than two manufacturers”, referring to Shanghai-based Comac, which is viewed as a potential rival to challenge the dominance of Airbus and Boeing in the aircraft market. These negotiations offer AirAsia a chance to grow its fleet long-term amid an ongoing supply crunch, but currently, the airline is focused on consolidating the capacity it lost during the pandemic and getting planes back in the air. “The big problem was getting our planes back. We didn’t have a big benefactor,” he said. “We’ve had no real financial assistance from any government, and so we had to put 250 planes back into operation, which was not an easy task.”<br/>