Air Canada on Monday unrolled its transborder schedule from Vancouver airport for summer 2025. Three new transborder routes to Tampa, Raleigh and Nashville, plus more capacity to Austin, Denver and Miami, have been added, the airline announced in a press release. Together with United Airlines, Air Canada will offer up to 7,700 seats on 58 daily non-stop flights to 21 US destinations next summer, representing an 11% increase in seat capacity from summer 2024. "We are pleased to further expand our YVR hub with new year-round flights to Tampa, seasonal services to Raleigh and Nashville, and more capacity to Austin, Denver and Miami. Air Canada continues to reinforce its position as the leading carrier between Canada and the US with new flights to fast-growing metropolitan areas and sought out destinations. Our robust network means customers in Western Canada have more options to explore all that the US has to offer, and for our American customers to explore beautiful British Columbia. At Air Canada's Pacific gateway, our newest services further bolsters our sixth-freedom strategy by efficiently bridging North America and growing international destinations across the Asia-Pacific region," said Mark Galardo, EVP, revenue and network planning, and president, Cargo at Air Canada. <br/>
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The airlines of the Lufthansa Group said, on Monday, that it had extended its flight suspension to Tel Aviv, Israel until the end of January, Anadolu Agency reports. “Flights to and from Tel Aviv remain suspended until 31 January, 2025,” Lufthansa said, citing ongoing security concerns related to the conflict in the region. The cancellation includes all airlines under the Lufthansa Group, such as SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Eurowings. Affected passengers can rebook their tickets for future travel dates at no additional cost or opt for a full refund.<br/>
The CEO of Air India says an aircraft seat shortage is his biggest supply chain issue. Campbell Wilson told Bloomberg TV last week that seat manufacturers are struggling to design, certify, and produce seats at the needed volumes. His comments come as the flag carrier is part way through a programme of refurbishing around 100 aircraft. "In our case, the first and business class seats for both our big retrofit programmes have been delayed by upwards of six, and even twelve, months, which is very frustrating" he said. Wilson was speaking in the wake of Air India merging with Vistara and Air India Express merging with AIX Connect. "We're in the process of ensuring things stabilise, but the hard work really has been done," he said. "Air India has come, in the last two years, from a state of really quite poor repair. We've made a lot of progress." "The big work yet to be done is rehabilitating the older aircraft we inherited from the former owner," he added. "We're about a third of the way through re-fitting the narrowbody aircraft and we will complete that by mid-2025. In early 2025, we'll commence re-fitting 40 widebody aircraft, and that will take about two years to complete." In addition to issues with seat suppliers, Wilson said aircraft delivery delays were impacting Air India but were beyond its control. However, he said that the airline was attempting to mitigate the problem through various strategies, including leasing around 40 aircraft and opportunistic purchases of newly manufactured aircraft not taken up. "But there's a limited supply out there," he said. "The slowdown in production of Boeing aircraft has a flow-on effect. We're having to recalibrate our [delivery] expectations and plans."<br/>
All eyes are on Washington D.C. as the proposed merger of South Korea’s two largest airlines reaches its final regulatory hurdle. It follows an announcement by the European Commission late last week that the conditions it set for the deal have now been satisfied. If – or more likely when – realized, the coming together of Korean Air and Asiana Airlines will turn two significant carriers into a formidable aviation powerhouse. The developments in Brussels leave the United States as the last of 14 global regulators to allow the deal. In February, European competition authorities granted the proposed merger conditional clearance. In practice, this meant formal approval was dependent on certain pro-competition commitments being honored. The first of these required Korean Air to sell Asiana Airlines’ cargo unit, which it has done. The second focused on four routes between Europe and South Korea where the two airlines had overlapping networks. With Seoul-based rival T’Way Air now operating to Barcelona, Frankfurt, Paris, and Rome, the European competition watchdog has cleared the deal. In a statement, Korean Air said it has submitted the European Commission’s final approval to the U.S. Department of Justice and “plans to complete the transaction by December 2024.” The company’s bullish timeline – with completion by year-end – suggests it is confident that the DOJ is looking favorably upon the deal. However, there could yet be strings attached.<br/>
Asiana Airlines flight attendants will no longer assist passengers in placing their luggage in overhead bins starting next month, following a change in the airline’s guidelines. This policy update aims to reduce injuries among flight attendants caused by handling excessively heavy carry-on luggage, Asiana Airlines said on Monday. However, exceptions will be made for people with disabilities, older passengers and pregnant travelers. With this latest policy change, the airline joins Korean Air and Jin Air in implementing a self-service baggage system under specific guidelines. Asiana Airlines stressed that it will strictly enforce a 10-kilogram (22-pound) weight limit for carry-on baggage to facilitate the new policy, urging passengers to check heavier items as checked baggage. Additionally, Asiana Airlines recently revised its carry-on size limits. The new guidelines permit total dimensions — length, width and height combined — of up to 115 centimeters, replacing the previous limits of 40 centimeters in length, 20 centimeters in width, and 55 centimeters in height.<br/>
The year 2024 is coming to a close, and for SIA, it has been a year of flying high before encountering turbulence. In January, its KrisFlyer rewards programme crossed 8m members; in March, it carried out the biggest revamp of its premium economy class, now in its 10th year. The good news was capped on May 15, when SIA posted a record S$2.7bil full-year profit for the year ended March and rewarded its staff with eight months’ bonus. Five days later, Flight SQ321 with 211 passengers and 18 crew on board hit severe turbulence, resulting in one death and dozens injured. It was the first such fatality on a commercial flight in nearly three decades. Financially, despite the industry seeing robust demand for air travel, SIA’s earnings as reported later in the year were hit by increasing competition and rising costs. Net profit for the six months to end-September tumbled 48.5% to S$742mil. SIA shares, which reached a 2024 high of S$7.37 on Feb 20, closed at S$6.31 on Nov 29 as analysts and investors take stock of where the airline is now headed. In an interview with The Straits Times, CE Goh Choon Phong said his team has a strong strategy to navigate the challenges ahead. Story has more.<br/>
On December 1, Thai Airways' regular Brussels service returned after a four-and-a-half-year gap. While the long route previously operated no more than six times weekly, aircraft downgauging means it is daily for the first time. It has become Thai Airways' 11th European airport and Brussels' fourth-longest service. With 106,000 roundtrip point-to-point passengers, Bangkok-Brussels is a reasonable-sized market. It is the Belgium capital's third-largest long-haul market after New York JFK (160,000) and Dubai (126,000). It is Bangkok's 14th-largest European market. The above figures were before Thai Airways resumed nonstop flights, so traffic was depressed. Indeed, in the airline's last full year of operation, the city pair had approximately 152,000 passengers, with Thai Airways carrying about 43%. The rest transited to another flight en route, mainly in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Helsinki, and (as permitted at the time) Moscow Sheremetyevo.<br/>
Air New Zealand expects to operate seven Boeing 787-9s with new cabin interiors by end-2025, as retrofit works on its first aircraft continue apace. Airline chief Greg Foran, speaking to reporters in Singapore, says the airline is hoping to operate its first retrofitted 787 in mid-February next year. Foran was in Singapore visiting the facilities of ST Engineering, who are undertaking retrofit works for 14 Air New Zealand 787s. Thereafter, a second 787 will be inducted in February for a cabin refresh, and the remaining fleet to follow on a rolling basis. Air New Zealand expects the programme to complete by end-2026. The retrofitted 787 will likely operate Auckland-Vancouver flights after its return to service, says Foran, as well as to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. The first 787-9 (ZK-NZH) was inducted at ST Engineering’s airframe MRO facility in Singapore in October. The aircraft is a 9-year-old example powered by a pair of Rolls-Royce Trent 1000s. The upgraded 787s will seat 272 passengers across four classes: economy, premium economy, business classes, as well as a newly introduced Business Premier Luxe class with a suite-like product. It is a reduction from current configurations which seat between 275 and 302 passengers, with more seats in business and premium economy classes.<br/>