JetBlue said Monday it expects cash burn to rise to about $8m per day in Q4, citing recent booking trends and a delay in cash tax refunds. A renewed surge in COVID-19 infections and travel curbs has further dimmed the financial outlook for the sector, which the IATA has predicted is set to lose $87b this year. US airlines received $25b in federal aid to keep employees on payroll between March and September and have now asked for a second round of support. “Booking trends remain volatile and the company continues to believe demand and revenue recovery will be non-linear through the fourth quarter and beyond,” New York-based budget carrier JetBlue said. It expects its Q4 average daily cash burn to be between $6 and $8m, compared with its prior forecast of between $4 and $6m. <br/>
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UK airline EasyJet said it would partner with COVID-19 testing companies to offer passengers discounted tests to try to encourage more travel, following similar moves by Wizz Air and London’s Gatwick Airport. Travel rules in England will change from Dec. 15 so that if a traveller receives a negative test result from a self-funded test, they can reduce their quarantine from 14 to 5 days. Desperate to stimulate the travel market after months of restrictions, airlines and airports are teaming up with testing firms to make it easier and cheaper to get a test. EasyJet, whose finances have come under severe pressure during the pandemic, said on Monday that passengers will receive a reduced rate of GBP75 per home test with Confirm Testing or with CityDoc, GBP100 per home test or GBP150 per in clinic test. The GBP75 rate is cheaper than the GBP85 rate available to Wizz Air passengers. Both are more expensive than Gatwick Airport’s offer of GBP60 per test for passengers who use its drive-through testing facility. EasyJet said that the two companies it was working with aimed to provide results within 48 hours.<br/>
SpiceJet has carried out its first service to Ras Al Khaimah airport a year after the Indian low-cost carrier identified the emirate as its first international hub. The Boeing 737-800-operated service from Delhi touched down at the UAE airport in the early hours of 27 November. The service will operate twice-weekly. SpiceJet announced in October 2019 its intention to establish Ras Al Khaimah as its first international hub. Originally planning to launch Delhi flights in December last year, it had ambitions ultimately to extend its network from the airport to other points including Western Europe. Services on the initial Delhi route had not, though, begun before the global pandemic brought international scheduled services to a virtual standstill. SpiceJet CE Ajay Singh says: ”The addition of Ras Al Khaimah as our 12th international destination marks one of the most important days in our 15-year history and represents a major stepping up of our commercial operations. RAK Airport has been a vital partner for us since we signed an MoU with them last year and they are a major part of our expansion plans, which are to deliver more services to more destinations across the Indian sub-continent and the rest of the world.” <br/>
Thai AirAsia (TAA) expects to earn 40% of the revenue it tallied in 2019 this year. It is also looking for additional income from new business units. Santisuk Klongchaiya, CE of TAA, attributed the decrease to international travel restrictions to stem the pandemic. The country needs travel bubbles to support the whole tourism industry, he said. Travel bubble discussions have stalled as global cases spike, making the airline worried the reopening plan will abruptly stop. In the first nine months this year, SET-listed Asia Aviation (AAV), the largest shareholder of TAA, reported 12.1b baht in total revenue, a 61% plunge year-on-year. Rigid travel restrictions since March 22 caused a 60% drop to 6.68m passengers. Santisuk said TAA will close this year with 9.3m passengers, down from 22.2m in 2019, while the average load factor is likely to stay at 75%, down from 85% last year. Total revenue last year closed at 41.6b baht. Domestic travel demand during the high season will push the average load factor up to 80% as local tourists cannot spend on trips abroad and seek domestic excursions instead. He said seat capacity for domestic services in January was 4m, and it aims to fill 3.94m seats in December.<br/>
A Southwest passenger shared a video on social media in which he appeared to cook a steak in an aircraft toilet. Marcus Monroe, an actor from New York who is also known for his online pranks, uploaded a video of him pulling off the stunt to Tiktok. “They don’t have hot meals anymore on airplanes, so I came up with a solution,” read the video’s caption, before Monroe appears to light a chafing fuel cannister in the plane toilet, on which he places an aluminium baking sheet. He pops a piece of meat on top, pours over white wine and even garnishes the meal with a sauce and some fresh spinach taken from a ziplock bag. The video shows him plating up the meal and taking it back to his seat. However, Southwest has since debunked the idea that the video is real. Monroe reportedly said the prank was an illusion and he has since deleted the video from his Tiktok account. This hasn’t stopped social media users raising concerns about sharing such content though. “The problem of this is, people think it's true... And because it's on media they would repeat,” commented one user. “That is why this video, even if proven fake, should be removed.”<br/>