unaligned

JetBlue Airways named Ursula Hurley, its head of treasury and investor relations, as acting chief financial officer after the resignation of Steve Priest, who’s taking the same post at EBay. Priest’s departure is effective June 11, the New York-based airline said in a statement Monday. He’ll start at EBay on June 21, according to the online retailer. The departing executive has spearheaded major fleet decisions and cost-control efforts at the carrier since 2017. Priest joined JetBlue from IAG’s BA in 2015 as vice president of structural programs and became chief financial officer in February 2017. “They were starting to reap the benefits of the multiyear structural cost program initiatives right before Covid hit, and should again in the recovery,” said Savanthi Syth, a Raymond James Financial Inc. analyst. Priest oversaw discussions that led JetBlue to convert some existing aircraft orders in 2019 to the Airbus SE A321XLR, enabling the carrier to plan transatlantic flights that are expected to begin in Q3. <br/>

Planned Icelandic start-up Play Airlines appears closer to launching after securing its air operator’s certificate and its first aircraft. Details of plans to launch low-cost operator Play first emerged in November 2019, before the global pandemic hit air travel markets. In a social media posting on 16 May, Play says it has now secured its AOC from the Icelandic transport authority, as well as its first aircraft, an Airbus A321neo. The Icelandic transport authority confirms it has awarded certification to the carrier. No firm details of its route network nor launch schedule have yet been released, beyond plans to link Iceland with Europe and North America. The airline’s website says tickets will be on sale soon. The carrier is led by CE Birgir Jonsson, former CE of Iceland Express and deputy chief at Icelandic operator Wow Airlines.<br/>

Ryanair ‘cautiously believes’ it can be close to breakeven for the financial year ahead after posting a record loss of E815m for the pandemic-hit year to March 2021. Revenues collapsed to just E1.64b from E8.49b in the previous year, in line with an 81% fall in passenger numbers to 27.5m for its 2021 financial year amid lockdowns and travel restrictions across Europe. Ryanair sees travel disruption continuing in the first quarter of the new financial year and expects to carry only between five and six million passengers for the three months ending 30 June 2021. ”With a very close-in booking curve, visibility for the remainder of FY22 is close to zero, although bookings have jumped significantly from a very low base since week one of April. It is therefore impossible to provide meaningful FY22 guidance at this time,” it says. However it reiterates recent guidance that it expects full-year traffic levels to be at the lower end of its 80m to 120m passenger guided range. “We also (cautiously) believe that the likely outcome for FY22 is currently close to breakeven – assuming that a successful rollout of vaccines this summer allows a timely easing of European government travel restrictions on intra-European traffic in time for the peak travel period of July/August/September,” it says.<br/>

Ryanair CE Michael O’Leary has blasted a “complacent” Boeing for delays in delivering the airline’s troubled 737 Max aircraft. The low-cost carrier handed Boeing a major boost with a multibillion-dollar deal for 75 of the planes in December, the first firm Max order since the jet was grounded for 20 months after two fatal accidents within five months.  But on Monday, O’Leary said Boeing had not delivered 14 aircraft expected in April and May, accusing the US company of mishandling its relationships with safety regulators — a particularly sensitive issue following the crashes. Boeing paused deliveries of the Max in April over an electrical issue, and promised to catch up on deliveries through the rest of the year.  “I think it’s disappointing and unacceptable. Certainly, if they’re treating the regulator with the same radio silence that they’re treating customers, I’d be very worried about the durability of the aircraft,” O’Leary said on a company results call on Monday. While O’Leary has not spared Boeing from his withering criticism of large parts of the industry over the years, he had become a strident supporter of the troubled Max aircraft. Boeing said: “We continue to work with Ryanair to support their fleet requirements.” O’Leary’s comments came as Ryanair slumped to the steepest annual loss in its 35-year history as the coronavirus crisis devastated international travel.<br/>

Passenger levels for the Middle East’s largest airlines plummeted by 70% last year and it furloughed more than a quarter of its staff due to the coronavirus pandemic, Emirates’ chairman and CE said Monday. Despite the turbulence of last year and the continued uncertainty around global travel, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said he expects passenger levels for Dubai’s flagship carrier to climb back to nearly three-fourths of what they were before the COVID-19 outbreak by the end of the year. “It’s been a very tough year,” Al Maktoum said. “Our focus today is more on really putting back Emirates on the map the way it used to be.” Al Maktoum acknowledged, though, it’s been difficult to get approvals and wade through the myriad of regulations and other health authority rules of every country. “And sometimes it’s a nightmare,” he said. He spoke to reporters at Dubai’s Arabian Travel Market, billed as the world’s first travel and tourism event to take place in person since the global outbreak. The event highlights Dubai’s open embrace of tourists amid the pandemic still roiling parts of the world. Visitors to Dubai are not required to quarantine upon arrival or prove they’ve been vaccinated. In most cases, only a negative PCR test is required.<br/>

Local airlines Emirates and flydubai will have a combined network of 168 destinations by the end of May - speeding up Dubai's full-fledged return as a travel and tourism hub. Since the revival of the airlines' codeshare partnership in September 2020, close to 500,000 passengers have flown on the combined network, the airlines said. Top destinations booked through the codeshare include Kabul, Kathmandu, Kyiv, the Maldives and Zanzibar. "We are seeing strong customer take-up and are excited to take the partnership to the next level by expanding services to new destinations," said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Group and Chairman of flydubai. "The partnership continues to grow steadily to offer travellers even better connectivity to Dubai, and through Dubai to an extensive global network."<br/>

Emirates is considering two high-ranking internal executives as among candidates to replace President Tim Clark after his near two-decade run at the helm of the world’s largest long-haul airline. The state-owned carrier is open to promoting COO Adel Al Redha or Ghaith Al-Ghaith, head of Emirates’ regional partner FlyDubai, Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who is chairman of both companies, said Monday. He hinted, however, that they are not the only ones in contention, saying there are “very good candidates” at the airline. Asked who he was referring to, Sheikh Ahmed replied: “When the time comes you will know.” Succession at Emirates has been closely watched throughout the industry because of the outgoing president’s stature as well as the airline’s clout in matters such as wide-body aircraft design. Clark, a knighted British citizen, is credited with turning Emirates’ Dubai hub into a global crossroads linking all corners of the world. Clark, 71, was originally set to retire in June 2020, but stayed on to help guide Emirates through the coronavirus pandemic. The carrier has been hit especially hard with the drop-off in long-distance travel, grounding dozens of planes -- including many of the double-decker Airbus SE A380s for which it was the biggest customer.<br/>

Saudia, the national carrier of Saudi Arabia, on Monday resumed its international flights to 43 international destinations, local media said. The flights resumed as per the Ministry of Interior’s decision to lift the suspension of travel abroad came into effect. Saudia confirmed that it will operate 153 scheduled flights every week from Riyadh, and 178 flights from Jeddah. The resumption of the first international flights departing from the Kingdom will be from Riyadh to Hyderabad, and from Jeddah to Dhaka. The first international flights coming to the Kingdom will be from Cairo to Riyadh and from Jakarta to Jeddah.<br/>