Spirit Airlines is cutting about 200 jobs across the company as the struggling budget carrier seeks to reduce costs after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November. “These decisions were not made lightly, as we know they impact professional and personal lives,” CEO Ted Christie wrote in a staff memo, which was seen by CNBC. “As you all know, we’re facing significant challenges with our business, which is why we’ve been focused on taking actions to optimize our organization and create more efficiencies. The bottom line is, we need to run a smaller airline and get back on better financial footing.” Spirit had about 13,000 employees at the time of its bankruptcy filing, about 84% of them represented by unions, according to a court filing. The job cuts are to nonunion positions and are part of the company’s plan to cut $80m in costs. “With all of those actions, coupled with this week’s reductions to our workforce, we’ve now reached the $80m cost-savings target,” Christie wrote. The Dania Beach, Florida-based airline had previously furloughed hundreds of pilots and offered flight attendants extended voluntary leaves of absence to try to reduce costs. It has also shrunk its network and reached deals to sell some of its Airbus jetliner fleet to raise cash.<br/>
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A Southwest Airlines pilot was removed from a plane at the airport in Savannah, Ga., on Wednesday and charged with driving under the influence, according to the authorities and jail records. Mark Howell, a regional spokesman for the TSA, said on Thursday that one of its officers at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport contacted law enforcement after “encountering an individual in the crew screening lane who smelled of alcohol and appeared intoxicated.” The pilot, David Paul Allsop, 52, was arrested by the airport police, Chatham County Sheriff’s Office records show. He was later released on a $3,500 bond, Brianna Jones, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman, said. Allsop “was seated in the cockpit performing preflight checks” when the police asked him to step out onto the jet bridge for questioning, the incident report said. Allsop, who the police said smelled like alcohol and had bloodshot eyes, admitted to drinking a “few light beers” the night before, according to the incident report. Josiah Best, a police officer who responded, administered several field sobriety tests. He wrote in his report that Allsop could not maintain his balance and was unable to follow a pen with his eyes. When Allsop refused to take a blood test, Best handcuffed Allsop and drove him to the Chatham County Detention Center, according to the report. In a statement, Southwest said the “employee involved in the situation on Flight 3772 Wednesday morning from Savannah has been removed from duty.” The passengers, who were on the flight to Chicago Midway Airport, were put on other flights, the airline said. The company did not provide further details about the pilot’s employment or experience. A spokeswoman for the airport police said on Thursday that she had no immediate comment.<br/>
A blown tire is to blame for the collapse of a passenger plane’s landing gear as it touched down in Halifax last month, causing an engine fire and evacuation of the aircraft, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada says. The Air Canada Express flight, operated by regional carrier PAL Airlines, had 73 passengers and four crew members on board, but no one was injured during the rough landing on Dec. 28 at Halifax Stanfield International Airport. The independent board issued a brief report Thursday saying a tire on the left side of the De Havilland Dash 8 blew apart as the turboprop aircraft was taking off from the St. John’s International Airport in eastern Newfoundland. Board investigators confirm finding tire fragments on the runway in St. John’s, but they also found that the crew were unaware of what had happened as the aircraft continued to its destination. When the plane touched down in Halifax at 9:30 p.m., the blown tire caused a vibration that unlocked a brace stabilizing the landing gear. As the landing gear collapsed, the left propeller struck the runway, causing a fire in the left engine.<br/>
Irish budget airline Ryanair said on Thursday it would cut flights at seven regional airports in Spain this summer due to what it called "excessive fees" levied by state-controlled airport operator Aena. Overall, it will reduce capacity on 12 routes by 18% and cancel some 800,000 passenger seats compared with the previous summer, the carrier added in a statement. Ryanair has been complaining for several years about the airport fees charged by Aena, despite a freeze during the COVID-19 pandemic and a December decision by the competition watchdog to block an increase planned in 2025. Aena said its average fee of 10.35 euros ($10.66) per passenger was "one of the lowest in Europe". The operator said data on Ryanair's flight programming for this summer at its airports implied more seats available than the airline had last summer, when it increased its activity at Spanish airports by 8.7%. Aena added it "laments Ryanair's use of spurious arguments ... to confuse citizens and put pressure on public institutions". Ryanair said it would stop operating in the cities of Jerez and Valladolid and also reduce the number of flights to and from Vigo, Santiago de Compostela, Zaragoza, Santander and the airport of Asturias. The airline, the largest in Spain in terms of passengers, said it would redeploy its aircraft and capacity in countries such as Italy, Sweden, Croatia, Hungary and Morocco, "where governments encourage growth," it said.<br/>
Serbian investigators have disclosed that an Airbus A319 shed a large engine panel while climbing out of Belgrade three weeks ago. Operated by Air Serbia, the aircraft (YU-APD) is fitted with International Aero Engines V2500 powerplants. Serbian traffic accident research centre CINS states that the aircraft had been conducting a flight from Belgrade to Budapest on 26 December. It had previously arrived from Copenhagen “without any problems”, the centre states, and the crew did not find any issues during a pre-flight inspection. Engine start was normal and the take-off proceeded without any indication of defects. But about 3min 30s after departure, at an altitude of 9,460ft, the crew “heard a loud and unusual sound” from the left-hand engine, says the centre, accompanied by cockpit indications of a problem with the powerplant. It adds that the crew ran a relevant checklist and opted to return to Belgrade, where the twinjet landed without further incident. Inspection of the aircraft found the left engine to have sustained damage to the inner structure of its thrust-reverser.<br/>
Icelandair’s co-operation pact with US budget operator Southwest Airlines is to expand to additional connecting points beyond the initial proposal of Baltimore. The airlines reached a provisional strategic tie-up deal last year, and the two sides have newly finalised the agreement. Icelandair states that the connections will be added at Nashville and Denver, as well as Baltimore Washington. The Baltimore partnership will take effect from February. “[This] will allow customers to easily connect between the two airlines’ networks,” says Icelandair, adding that it becomes Southwest’s initial airline partner. Icelandair adds that expansion to Nashville and Denver will “open new and exciting possibilities” for passengers who will be able to access both airlines’ networks via the three connection airports.<br/>
Same-day air travel between Ireland and the UK will not recover to pre-pandemic levels because many businesses have replaced internal face-to-face meetings with conferencing technology. That is the view of Conor McCarthy, executive chairman of Aer Lingus regional franchise Emerald Airlines, who says same day travel between the neighbours – which is almost exclusively for business – remains 40% lower than in 2019. “Those are high-spending passengers, the ones an airline wants,” he said during a talk at an Aviation Club UK dinner in Dublin on 12 January. “It’s an improvement on where it was, at minus 80 [%], and it might go back to 20, but that’s probably going to be it.” He says that while the leisure market has rebounded since the pandemic, and companies have largely returned to in-person customer visits and attending conventions, meetings with colleagues in other offices have in many cases been swapped for catch-ups using Teams and other virtual platforms. Dublin, like London, is a hub for the financial services sector, and many global IT firms have subsidiaries in the republic.<br/>
The Romanian civil aviation authority suspended the Air Operator's Certificate of Bees Airlines on January 14, 2025. This follows the airline suspending all flight operations in late December 2024. The Romanian carrier suspended its scheduled flights on December 20 and subsequently ferried its only aircraft, A320-200 YR-BUZ, to Varna on December 22. The Airbus narrowbody remains parked at that airport, although it is still registered in Romania and is on Bees Airlines' Operations Specifications. ch-aviation understands that Bees Airlines voluntarily surrendered the certificate. The airline operated scheduled flights out of Bucharest Henri Coanda, Suceava, and, in Moldova, Chisinau International, but in recent months it was reportedly struggling to pay its staff as the demand for its flights was lower than expected.<br/>
FlySafair has urgently called on Barbara Creecy, South Africa's transport minister, to intervene in regulatory proceedings that have found the airline falling foul of the country's foreign ownership restrictions. The airline argues that civil aviation regulators' interpretation of the law is flawed and, if applied, would render nearly every airline in the country non-compliant, potentially resulting in widespread suspensions and "catastrophic" economic repercussions. The budget airline faces a potential suspension or cancellation of its domestic and international operating licences. With a domestic market share of 60%, it argues this would destabilise the local aviation market, threaten the livelihoods of its 1,925 employees with job losses extending to other industries, and result in significant damage to the South African economy and tourism industry. FlySafair is facing two challenges to its ownership structure before the country's domestic and international licensing councils, following separate complaints from competitors Global Aviation Operations (which operates Lift Airlines) and Airlink (South Africa). On October 31, the International Air Services Licencing Council found FlySafair to be non-compliant, but the airline won a court interdict which requires the regulator to meet with it on January 20 before imposing punitive action.<br/>
Wizz Air Abu Dhabi is closely monitoring the improving geopolitical developments in Syria as the ultra-low cost airline weighs up the potential demand for flights into the country after the fall of the Assad regime. A decision on whether to start flights to Syria would depend on Damascus International Airport's operational reliability, safety and security, and sufficient passenger demand to fill its narrow-body jets, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi's managing director Johan Eidhagen told The National. "We want to satisfy demand and ensure there is a high level of point-to-point traffic, this is our key point," he said on Thursday. "So we need to be able to operate, fill the plane with 230 passengers per round trip who want to come to the UAE. "Without a doubt, if Syria continues its trajectory of improving, then I think that we will be moving into Syria at some point. But right now, you have a limited amount of resources and you always have to weigh your options, and there's quite a lot of options available in the region." While the airline is closely watching the situation in Syria, it is also focusing on adding seat capacity in markets it already serves such as Egypt, Jordan and Israel.<br/>
Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, the ultra-low-fare national airline of the UAE, has announced its operational results for 2024. The joint venture established between ADQ and Wizz Air achieved more than 20% growth year-on-year in both seat capacity and the number of passengers carried. The national airline operated more than 19,000 flights at a completion rate of 99.8%, unlocking more than 4.4m ultra-low-seats, and carrying more than 3.5m point-to-point passengers, contributing to Zayed International Airport’s point-to-point traffic by 25%. Wizz Air carried more than 1.2m international visitors to Abu Dhabi in 2024, playing a pivotal role in reinforcing the Emirate as a world-class destination and supporting the sustainable growth of its culture and tourism sectors through efficient, reliable and ultra-low-cost travel.<br/> The airline is an important contributor to Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Strategy 2030, which aims to position the Emirate as one of the fastest growing global destinations for international visitors.<br/>
A new Saudi Arabian airline has pushed back its highly-anticipated launch after receiving fewer aircraft than expected from stricken plane maker Boeing. Having originally planned to begin operations in the early part of this year, Riyadh Air is now targeting the third quarter after Boeing halved its number of expected deliveries. Bosses are preparing to receive just four 787 Dreamliner wide-body aircraft in 2025, Bloomberg reported, having previously expected eight. Tony Douglas, the CE of the start-up Saudi Arabian carrier, said: “We have obviously pivoted like everybody else has on a number of occasions to be able to adjust to the latest forecast. “I am confident, given the latest forecast, that we’ll get deliveries this year. Is it completely without risk? Obviously no, it’s not.” Riyadh Air has said it wants to offer flights to 100 global destinations, including New Zealand, by the end of the decade, supporting Saudi Arabia’s bid to attract 100m tourists a year. The delayed launch comes after Boeing has fallen far behind Airbus in its long-running battle to be the world’s biggest plane maker, having suffered from a string of setbacks and crises. The US manufacturer delivered less than half the number of jets shipped by its European rival in 2024, the latest data show, with a similar story for new orders. Riyadh Air revealed in October that it had lodged a mammoth $8b aircraft order with Airbus, as it aims to take on established Middle Eastern carriers such as Emirates. The airline, which is bankrolled by the Saudi state, struck a deal to buy 60 A321neo short-haul jets from Airbus.<br/>
Investigators found bird feathers and blood in the two engines of the Boeing jet that crashed in South Korea in December, a person familiar with the probe told Reuters on Jan 17. Jeju Air 7C2216, which departed from the Thai capital Bangkok for Muan county in south-western South Korea, belly-landed and overshot the regional airport's runway on Dec 29, bursting into flames after hitting an embankment. A total of 179 people were killed in the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil.<br/>
Pakistan’s national airline said Thursday that an advertisement showing a plane heading toward the Eiffel Tower was never intended to evoke the memories of the Sept. 11 attacks. The illustration, not in video format, shows a plane superimposed over the French flag and tilted toward the Paris landmark, with the words “Paris, we're coming today.” The ad was posted on X by Pakistan International Airlines, or PIA, on Jan. 10, the day that the company resumed flights to European Union countries after a four-year ban by the bloc's aviation safety agency. Many social media users immediately decried the ad, and Pakistan's prime minister called for an inquiry. On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar described the ad as an act of “stupidity.” PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez said Thursday that the ad, which hasn't been deleted and has more than 21.2m views, was only ever meant to celebrate that the airline was resuming flights to Europe, and never intended to harm 9/11 survivors or victims' families. Hafeez told The Associated Press that he was surprised over the criticism. But he said that “we apologize to those who feel the advertisement hurt them. “We want to make it clear that we had no intention to hurt the feelings of anyone," Hafeez said.<br/>
Several years after launching as a start-up charter and passenger carrier, Florida-based Global Crossing Airlines – which operates as GlobalX – is looking to extend its model to Asia-Pacific by establishing a new airline based in Melbourne. The yet-unnamed carrier is tracking to launch operations before the end of 2025 through a joint venture with ATB Aviation Australia, chief marketing officer Mark Salvador told FlightGlobal on 15 January. “As an ACMI [aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance] charter operator, we have seen some really good success in North America, along with our opportunities to operate in Europe and in the UK,” he says. “We were approached by a highly capable management team in Australia for this joint venture. “Being a passenger and cargo airline, we thought there was a really strong opportunity to expand our business into the Asia-Pacific region.” Salvador says that the “entity is coming together”, with the company beginning to compose a board of directors and initiating regulatory processes. Asked about the search for a CE, he says the operation will be “led locally” in Australia. Global Crossing views the APAC region as having significant growth potential. Salvador notes that the region has embraced the Airbus A321 Freighter platform that it uses to move air cargo. ”We thought we could lend some really good experience in that area.” <br/>