Virgin Atlantic has joined criticism of Heathrow in a multibillion-pound funding row, saying the airport should ask shareholders for help before putting up charges on Covid-hit airlines. The airline urged Heathrow to “exhaust all private funding opportunities” instead of increasing airport charges, which could hammer profits for carriers already reeling from the collapse in global travel. A bitter row erupted when the Civil Aviation Authority concluded that Heathrow’s demands to raise fees by GBP1.7b were not proportionate. In response, the airport’s finance chief threatened legal action. Virgin Atlantic, majority owned by Sir Richard Branson, was taken to the brink of collapse this summer after the Government rejected a plea for GBP500m of state aid. It later secured GBP1.2b from shareholders and a hedge fund. In a letter to the CAA consultation, Virgin said it was pleased the regulator had “identified that [Heathrow] have provided little evidence to suggest that they have exhausted all their options to seek private funding, unlike Virgin Atlantic has been publicly required to do”. Virgin added that Heathrow should seek fresh cash from shareholders, who were handed more than GBP100m in dividends in April. In a separate submission, BA accused Heathrow of “double charging”. Story has details.<br/>
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Low-cost carrier Ryanair is to open a base at Venice Treviso airport in March, the airline’s 15th in Italy. Ryanair will base two aircraft there from 30 March, adding 18 new routes from the airport in the process. That will take to 45 the number of services it will operate out of Treviso for the summer of 2021. Cirium schedules data shows Ryanair was already the biggest operator at Treviso before the pandemic hit. The new routes include three domestic connections – serving Alghero, Pescara and Trapani – and 15 international destinations including Alicante, Frankfurt-Hahn, Paphos, Riga, Tel Aviv and Thessaloniki. Ryanair CE Eddie Wilson says: ”We have a strong affiliation to Venice Treviso, since Ryanair’s first ever flight to Italy in 1998 was from London Stansted to Venice Treviso. Italy is one of Ryanair’s biggest markets and we want to continue to support the economic recovery as well as regional and international connectivity across the country.”<br/>
Air travel has not been the “ogre” responsible for spreading coronavirus it has been portrayed as by policymakers, the CE of Aer Lingus has said. Donal Moriarty, Aer Lingus interim CE, said there had been an unfair “degree of toxicity and flight shaming” around international travel. The airline boss maintained that the rates of infection linked to flights and overseas travel was low. “The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control came out earlier this week and showed that international travel was the cause of less than one per cent of infections,” he said. While not outright criticising the Government, or the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet), Moriarty said policymakers had relied on “anecdote” when it came to the risk of Covid-19 from flights. “There was certainly a very negative narrative towards travel and it really wasn’t merited by the facts,” he said. v“Travel hasn’t been the ogre it’s portrayed as … There was a degree of toxicity and flight shaming and really we have to move on from that.”<br/>
Entrepreneurs have revealed ‘Flyr’ as the brand name for the new Norwegian airline which aims to commence services in the first half of 2021. The airline is being established by a team including industry specialist Erik Braathen as well as pilots from a number of Scandinavian carriers. Flyr is intended to operate in the Norwegian market as demand begins to recovery from the air transport crisis. “Norway is an elongated country with fjords and mountains which means that we need to fly in the years ahead – but probably a little less than we have done before,” it states. “We’re building an airline from scratch, based on many years of experience, with a size, organisation and business model that is adapted to this future.”<br/>
Flydubai on Sunday said it would provide a new multi-risk travel insurance which will apply to all passengers purchasing a ticket from December 1. The insurance, which also provides COVID-19 coverage, covers both return and one-way trips outside of a passenger’s country of residence. The policy “will offer passengers more confidence to travel knowing that they will be looked after at every step of their journey - we expect the demand for travel to increase during the upcoming winter holidays season and this will give our passengers greater piece of mind,” said Hamad Obaidalla, CCO at flydubai. The insurance includes coverage for overseas medical expenses and emergency evacuations for up to $500,000 valid for COVID-19 and other medical emergencies while traveling abroad.<br/>
A new airline is preparing to start flights in South Africa next week, entering the industry at a time when carriers near and far are going bankrupt amid the worst crisis in aviation history. Lift, owned by Johannesburg-based leasing company Global Airways, will operate three Airbus A320 jets and look to tap returning domestic demand after an almost five-month ban on inter-provincial travel to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. The airline is looking to take advantage of plunging startup costs due to an oversupply of idle planes and low oil prices, according to Co-Founder Gidon Novick. “The opportunity is here now to go into the consumer airline space -- especially given the current environment,” Novick said. “The current cost structures are about 40% lower than what it would have cost to start an airline before the coronavirus.” While European airlines struggle to stay afloat during the slower winter season and a resurgence of Covid-19 cases, Lift will start flying at the height of the South African summer and just as millions of people travel to holiday resorts and family homes for the festive season. Competition has also thinned slightly with the grounding of SAA, which has been in bankruptcy protection for a year. Lift’s first flight is scheduled for Dec. 10, and the carrier will link Johannesburg with Cape Town and George -- a small coastal town in the middle of the so-called Garden Route, a popular area for holidaymakers.<br/>
Ratan Tata is no stranger to flying. As a 17-year-old, the octogenarian patriarch of India’s biggest conglomerate once landed a plane that had lost its sole engine mid-flight; he’s also piloted the supersonic F-16 fighter jet. That love of aviation hasn’t always translated into business success, however. Tata Group’s two airlines -- AirAsia India and Vistara -- were struggling before the coronavirus pandemic. Covid-19 has put the sprawling Tata Sons Ltd., which owns a 51% stake in each, at a crossroads. Either go big, by buying state-run Air India for example, or bow out before spilling more red ink. The Tatas “are caught between a rock and a hard place,” said Mukund Rajan, a former member of the group’s executive council who’s now the chairman of a investment advisory firm focused on environment, social and governance issues. “The only option to run a successful airline is to seek scale. This would require the Tatas to deploy significantly more capital than they have done thus far. Absent ambition and scale, the prospects for success are probably very remote.” India has been trying unsuccessfully to sell its unprofitable national airline for years. Tata Group, although aviation only accounts for a small share of its total revenue, has often been identified by local media as the most likely suitor. PM Narendra Modi’s administration has repeatedly sweetened the terms to woo buyers; Tata Group, which was previously evaluating the proposal, hasn’t said whether it will bid. Story has more.<br/>
The European Union’s aviation safety agency has extended a ban imposed on Pakistan’s state-run airline this year barring it from flying to Europe after a plane crash that killed 97 people in the port city of Karachi, a spokesman said Friday. At the time — and while the probe into the May 22 Airbus A320 crash was still underway — authorities acknowledged that nearly a third of Pakistani pilots, 260 out of 860, had cheated on their pilot’s exams. Pakistan International Airlines subsequently grounded 150 of its pilots while a probe by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority into the other pilots is still ongoing. In first imposing the ban, the EU agency said it was “concerned about the validity of the Pakistani pilot licenses.” It added that Pakistan was not capable of certifying and overseeing “its operators and aircraft in accordance with applicable international standards.” No timeframe was given for the duration of the ban’s extension.<br/>
Vietjet, Vietnam's largest low-cost airline, and rival Bamboo Airways have asked the government for financial assistance as they grapple with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Vietjet Vice President Ho Ngoc Yen Phuong asked for 4t dong ($172m) in low-interest loans, saying that carriers in Thailand and China have already received state aid, according to local media. The airline has already slashed employee pay by 50%, among other cost cuts. The request calls on Hanoi to provide the same support to private-sector airlines that it has offered to state-run Vietnam Airlines. Bamboo, which launched in January 2019, is also seeking low-interest financing, as well as the continuation of breaks on takeoff and landing fees and fuel costs. The Transport Ministry has begun considering options to help the country's private-sector airlines. Vietnam has fared better than many other Asian nations during the coronavirus pandemic. Domestic flights largely returned to normal by the end of May, but airlines still face a tough environment. Passenger volume has remained far below last year's levels, and no time frame has been given for the resumption of international flights, which were halted in March.<br/>