Avianca announced that Boeing’s 787-8 Dreamliner will be the only wide-body aircraft the airline will operate on its long-haul flights. Taking into account current and future route requirements, the airline’s capacity, operational efficiency and profitability, the company will operate the aircraft on long-haul flights in the Americas and Europe. Rohit Philip, Avianca’s CFO, said, "One of Avianca’s strategic objectives is to simplify its fleet and increase efficiency; the selection of the 787-8 as the only aircraft type for long-haul flights is a significant step in this direction. Thanks to the open and constructive dialogues with Boeing, Rolls-Royce, lessors and financial institutions, we are proud to confirm that we will continue to operate the Dreamliner, an outstanding aircraft that, given its capabilities, features, efficiency, and comfort, is the best for our company and our customers. We look forward to maintaining our business cabin seating, targeting business customers, while re-designing the rest of the aircraft with state-of-the-art seating over the next 18 months."<br/>
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Air China released its 2021 Q3 earnings Wednesday, revealing 7% growth in capacity — measured in available seat kilometers (ASK) — versus the same period In 2020, remarkably lower than the 26% growth recorded in previous quarters of 2021. The decelerated pace was anticipated as China has endured multiple rounds of upticks in Covid-19 cases during the summer, the traditional peak travel season, which caused the airline’s moderate performance over the quarter. Air China received a total of seven jets in the past quarter, including four Airbus A320neos, two A321neos and one COMAC ARJ21. Only a fraction of the airline’s delivery plan for the second half of the year was realized. The carrier stated in its mid-year financial report that it will receive 32 new jets in the second half of 2021 — which came on the heels of 23 deliveries during 1H 2021 — meaning the airline will have to see a substantial increase in deliveries in the current quarter if it hopes to meet that goal.<br/>
Green channel flights from the South Island across the Tasman will be delayed for the foreseeable future because of the Australian Government’s Covid-19 quarantine requirements affecting Air New Zealand crew. Last week the Australian government announced quarantine-free travel from New Zealand's South Island would resume from October 20 for double vaccinated people who had not been in the North Island for two weeks. However, Air New Zealand says most of its crew are based out of Auckland, which means the Australian government's crew quarantine requirement is not viable for the airline. Air New Zealand chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty says as a result, only red-zone flights – which require passengers to quarantine for 14 days – from Auckland are flying to Australia. “While we would love to be able to operate quarantine-free flights out of Christchurch, there are a number of operational issues for our airline. The Australian government has stated that our crew need to have been in the South Island for the preceding 14 days before quarantine-free flying. As our main crew group is based out of Auckland, this is unfortunately not viable,” Geraghty says. “For our Aussie neighbours who have been stuck in Aotearoa for the past few months, we are operating two flights per week from Auckland to Sydney from November 5, and from December 1 these services will ramp up to six flights per week. Customers in the South Island are able to transit in Auckland and connect with these services.”<br/>