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Shares in easyJet dropped by almost a fifth on Monday after the low-cost airline warned that profits would be hit by Britain’s decision to leave the EU. Friday’s referendum result would cause further economic and consumer uncertainty, easyJet warned, as its shares fell to a three-year low of £10.66 on investor worries about the threat to the airline’s membership of the single European aviation market. More than 1,000 flight cancellations were already expected in Q3 owing to the air traffic control strikes in France, severe weather and the runway and congestion issues at Gatwick airport in London. Profits would be GBP28m lower in Q3 as a result, the group said, while fallout from the EU referendum would mean that revenue in the second half of its financial year was expected to fall by at least a “mid single-digit percentage” compared with H2 2015. EasyJet has become Europe’s second-largest budget airline by capitalising on the creation of a single EU aviation market in the 1990s. This market allows EU airlines to operate services on any route within the bloc. CE Dame Carolyn McCall has said the company remained “confident” in the strength of its business model after Britain voted to leave the EU. But Dame Carolyn on Friday urged the EC to prioritise British airlines remaining part of the EU aviation area “given its importance to trade and consumers”.<br/>

Britain’s decision to leave the EU will weaken airfares and is causing Ryanair Holdings PLC, Europe’s largest carrier by passengers, to consider shifting growth away from the UK, the airline’s CE said Monday. “We are taking another 50 aircraft next year. Would we place any of those in the UK? It is highly unlikely,” Michael O’Leary said. “We will pivot all of our growth into the European Union.” Shares in airlines have been among the hardest hit by the UK vote last week amid concern a plummeting British currency and slowdown in economic growth will impact demand. BA parent IAG issued a profit warning Friday in part linked to the outcome of the referendum, and British budget carrier easyJet Monday said earnings would be hit. Shares in easyJet are down about 24% in afternoon London trading. O’Leary said “there clearly is going to be a hit to UK GDP and to European GDP. There is three to four months of considerable uncertainty. The pound has fallen through the floor. It has all the feel and hallmark of another 9/11.” Ryanair’s response will be to discount seats, he said, to fill planes.<br/>

Within weeks of India easing aviation rules, Singapore Airlines’ local venture is charting a course to take on carriers from the Middle East. It’s counting on a surge in international traffic from the world’s fastest growing major air-travel market. Vistara, in which the city-state’s flag carrier owns 49%, is considering buying or leasing wide bodied aircraft for long-haul routes and will seek funds from its owners to finance the purchase, the company’s CEO Phee Teik Yeoh said. Vistara, which has 11 planes in its fleet and is co-owned by India’s Tata Sons Ltd., needs at least nine more to fly abroad under the relaxed policy. The carrier’s plans may be the start of a fresh challenge for Emirates and Etihad, which have long been the biggest foreign carriers in India and have, along with Air India and Jet Airways India, dominated the market for offshore travel. “We believe Vistara may pull out all stops to get to the 20 number and fly overseas,” said Amber Dubey, the head for aerospace at KPMG. "Being an Indian carrier they will have the advantage of providing non-stop flights from India to the European Union and US, something that Gulf carriers can’t do."<br/>

Spirit Airlines is the carrier that leads the pack when it comes to customer gripes. With that in mind, its new boss is trying to repair one crucial aspect of the business: getting to your destination on time. Spirit operated only 68% of its flights on time for the 12 months ended April 2016, as defined by the US metric of a flight that gets to the gate within 14 minutes of scheduled arrival. CEO Bob Fornaro says he’s been focused on reliability since his first day on the job six months ago. So has his board: In January, they amended executive compensation plans for 2016 to give on-time rate a 20% weighting in calculating managers’ bonuses, up from 10%. “Over the years, we’ve never put enough emphasis on service,” Fornaro said June 20. Now that’s changing. Spirit’s official on-time showing improved to 73.8% in April but was still the worst in the US airline industry and almost 11 percentage points below the average, according to the most recent DoT statistics. Spirit also cancelled a higher percentage of its flights in April than any other carrier — 1.7%. Amid all these operational fixes, though, Spirit doesn’t want to get too good at showing up on time: A high on-time percentage can be expensive, especially for an ultra-low-cost operator. Getting closer to the 90th percentile means allotting more time for flights and ensuring everything goes right on the ground. Some airline experts equate it to “buying” on-time performance. <br/>

China’s HNA Group subsidiary Guilin Airlines made its inaugural flight from Guilin to Zhengzhou June 25. The new venture has a registered capital of CNY600m ($94m), comprising 60% ownership by Guilin Tourism Development (with a CNY360m investment) and 40% ownership by Guilin Air Travel Group (with a CNY240m investment). Guilin Air Travel Group is a joint venture launched by HNA Group and the Guilin municipal government. In addition to the Guilin-Zhengzhou route, Guilin Airlines is expected to launch services from Guilin to Yinchuan, Jinan and Yangzhou with three Airbus A319s. It plans to expand its fleet to five aircraft this year and open more routes to Tianjin, Xi’an and Shijiazhuang. The new carrier is targeting 40 aircraft and 7m passenger boardings over the next five years.<br/>