Discount carrier Spirit Airlines has emerged from bankruptcy protection. The budget airline — known for its no-frills, low-cost flights on a fleet of yellow planes — said Wednesday that its parent, Spirit Aviation Holdings, exited Chapter 11 after finalizing debt restructuring. The reorganization plan, which received the court greenlight last month, aims to bring the carrier back to profitability and boost resources to compete with rivals. “We’re emerging as a stronger and more focused airline,” CEO Ted Christie, who will continue to lead Spirit post-bankruptcy, said in a statement. The restructuring deal allows Spirit to convert $795m of its debt into equity. The company says it’s also received a $350m equity investment from existing investors to aid future operations. Spirit filed for bankruptcy back in November, following years of struggles and mounting debt as it failed to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Florida carrier was particularly hit hard by rising operating expenses and stiffer competition. By the time of its Chapter 11 filing, the airline had lost more than $2.5b since the start of 2020. Whether Spirit will continue as a standalone airline has also been up in the air, although takeover attempts from budget rivals like JetBlue and Frontier have proven to be unsuccessful before and during the bankruptcy process. Spirit rejected a third bid from Frontier last month.<br/>While future merger proposals may not be entirely off the table, Spirit signaled Wednesday that it would continue to focus its own growth and offerings. Christie noted that the airline would be “moving forward with our strategy to redefine low-fare travel with our new, high-value travel options.” In an evolution from its budget-exclusive roots, Spirit is attempting to tap into the growing market for more upscale travel. It is now offering flight options with tiered prices, the higher-priced tickets coming with more amenities. Last year, months before filing for Chapter 11, Spirit decided to sell bundled fares that include a bigger seat, priority boarding, free bags, internet service and snacks and drinks.<br/>
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The head of Transat A.T. Inc. says Canadians' appetite for travel remains unsated even as pocketbook worries grow amid a trade war with the United States. Travellers continue to book transatlantic flights with the tour company, said CEO Annick Guérard, though she acknowledged demand for American destinations dropped sharply over the past few months. “Besides the U.S. market ... we have not seen — yet — other negative impacts on our booking curve following tariff announcements,” Guérard said. “We are well aware that the current environment is affecting overall consumer confidence, and this could eventually affect travel demand. But we haven’t seen any impact over the last weeks.” Transat currently flies to only two U.S. destinations, in Florida. But those nearly 300 trips per month, while shorter and lower priced, still make up nearly 12% of its total flights. The company also opted to cut capacity to the state by about 10% last month as bookings declined amid the backlash to tariff threats levelled by U.S. President Donald Trump as well as a weak loonie, according to figures from aviation data tracker Cirium.<br/>
Spanish consumer organisation OCU is filing a legal test case against budget carrier Ryanair alleging persistent charging for cabin baggage, despite previous fines from the country’s consumer affairs ministry. Ryanair was among five airlines fined but the OCU says the affected carriers have appealed the matter in court. The OCU says it has filed a “trial lawsuit” against the Irish carrier in a bid to “expedite resolution” of the dispute by having a court confirm the charges as exploitative. It says it hopes the national court will adopt measures which will temporarily prevent carriers from engaging in such practices. OCU says that, over the course of 2024, it received 1,139 complaints about Ryanair, including 248 about baggage issues. Spanish carriers Vueling and Volotea, as well as Norwegian and EasyJet, were also fined alongside Ryanair. Ryanair bore the heaviest part of the overall E179m penalty, a total of nearly E108m.<br/>
Kuwaiti budget carrier Jazeera Airways has been fined over KD72.8m ($236m) by a court after one of the airline’s Airbus A320s collided with a tethered military balloon eight years ago. The occurrence involved flight J9787 which had been inbound from Riyadh on 27 August 2017. As it conducted an approach to Kuwait’s international airport, the jet snagged the tethering cable for the balloon, which cut into the inlet of the A320’s right-hand CFM International CFM56 engine. The aircraft (9K-CAK) had carried out an orbit over the Al Jahra district of Kuwait City shortly before turning onto the base leg for runway 15R. Kuwait’s defence ministry has a facility near Al Jahra which includes tethered balloons. According to the court of first instance judgement on 10 March, Jazeera must pay the ministry two sums of nearly KD70.6m and KD2.26m. The ministry’s case was against both Jazeera Airways and the Kuwaiti directorate general of civil aviation. Jazeera has disclosed the decision “obligating [the airline] to compensate the ministry of defence for the damage to the parts of the military aerostat balloon owned by the ministry”. But it stresses that the ruling has “no financial impact” on the carrier because the claim will be “covered by insurance” if it is upheld by a final judgement.<br/>
Israeli carrier El Al’s leisure and charter operator, Sun D’Or, has echoed its parent’s strong financial performance with a doubling of full-year profit. Sun D’Or transported over 1m passengers last year, for the first time in its history, according to El Al’s latest financial statement. The carrier uses a pair of Boeing 737-800s with capacity supplemented by wet-leasing from foreign operators. Its full-year profit reached $59m – compared with just under $30m in 2023 – on the back of a near-50% rise in revenues to $189m. Sun D’Or serves 16 European cities, including Warsaw, Chisinau, Porto, Thessaloniki, Tbilisi, and several resorts in the Mediterranean region. It will offer services to Tirana, Mykonos and Lefkada this year. El Al says the carrier, which specialises in routes up to 4h duration, has recently adopted a new brand identity to reflect its status as the group’s leisure operator.<br/>
A spare power bank is a possible cause of a fire that engulfed an Air Busan plane in January, South Korea's transport ministry said on Friday, citing interim investigation results. Scorch marks on the debris of a power bank found where the fire was first detected indicate the blaze may have started because insulation inside the battery had broken down, the statement said. Investigators cannot yet state what may have caused the breakdown, however, according to the statement. Lithium batteries in devices such as laptops, mobile phones, electronic cigarettes and power banks can produce smoke, fire or extreme heat when manufacturing faults or damage cause them to short circuit. No abnormalities in the plane's own electrical systems have been identified, the statement said. The fire on Jan. 28 was first detected in a luggage bin above row 30 on the left side of the plane about 20 minutes after the delayed flight to Hong Kong from Busan, in South Korea, had been scheduled to depart, investigators have said. All 170 passengers and six crew were evacuated from the Airbus A321ceo plane, which the fire destroyed. South Korea's Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board is leading the investigation. Friday's investigation update is not a final accident report, which states are obliged to produce within a year of an incident, according to global aviation standards. Aviation has long recognised lithium batteries as a safety concern, and rules are periodically tightened in response to accidents. From March 1, South Korea changed rules on carrying batteries onboard flights, including keeping power banks and e-cigarettes with passengers and not in overhead bins, and not charging devices on board.<br/>