Ukraine International Airlines has proffered its aircraft to the ACMI and charter market to secure some cash flow as its operations remain grounded due to the ongoing Russian invasion on Ukraine. The privately-owned carrier said its aircraft are available for charter and wet-lease services and can also operate cargo-only flights, including humanitarian relief. It did not provide the full list of aircraft available and did not respond to the ch-aviation's request for comment. The airspace over Ukraine has been closed since February 24 due to ongoing air and missile strikes. "Using our aircraft, you support UIA operations during the war and help pay taxes to the state budget of Ukraine," the airline stressed, adding that it would not deal with airlines either from or even doing business in Russia or Belarus, the two countries responsible for the invasion.<br/>
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The union for flight attendants at Dallas-based Southwest Airlines is asking the White House and other aviation regulators to drop face mask mandates that have become a hallmark of flying during the COVID-19 pandemic. The TWU Local 556 union that represents that carrier’s 16,000 flight attendants said in a letter to President Joe Biden and other regulators that “Serving onboard during these contentious times and enforcing mask compliance is one of the most difficult jobs we have ever faced as flight attendants. We strongly believe it is now time to give our members and passengers the opportunity to choose if they prefer to wear a mask while flying,” the letter from TWU Local 556′s executive board said. “In the spirit of bringing normalcy back to our front lines as aviation’s first responders, we ask that you consider lifting the federal mask mandate for airline travel and will move expeditiously to restore choice to aviation professionals and the flying public.” The request comes weeks after the TSA said it would extend the face mask mandate from March 18 to April 18 and that the CDC was working on a set of guidelines to determine when masking on airplanes and in airports could be dropped. <br/>
Aer Lingus has agreed a new E200m debt facility with the State-backed lender Irish Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF). The three-year facility is the second agreed between the ISIF and the airline, and brings its total borrowings from the fund to E350m. Both tranches of funding have come from ISIF’s Pandemic Stabilisation and Recovery Fund, which was established during 2020 to support medium and large-scale enterprises operating in sectors materially impacted by the pandemic. The agreement is intended to support the airline as it tries to recover from Covid-19 restrictions curbs that have left it with losses of E700m. It is designed to complement ongoing support provided by Aer Lingus’s parent company, IAG, to the Irish airline. “The pandemic has had a very damaging impact on Aer Lingus’s business, causing operating losses of E347m in 2021 and E361m in 2020,” said Elizabeth Haun, the airline’s CFO. “The increase in the available facility from ISIF to E350m provides additional resilience and, together with the airline’s focus on improving our cost efficiency and competitiveness, it is an important element as we plan our recovery.”<br/>
The budget airline EasyJet has said mask wearing will no longer be required on some of its flights from Sunday. The Luton-based company said where masks are no longer legally required at both ends of the route mask wearing would be a personal choice. It means they do not have to be worn on UK domestic flights, including Jersey, excluding Scotland. The rule change will apply to flights to Denmark, Gibraltar, Iceland and Hungary. To those locations it will "not mandate customers and crew to wear masks onboard the flight", it said.<br/>
Eastar Jet Co., a South Korean low-cost carrier, said Tuesday it has graduated from the court-led debt-rescheduling program in one year after it was placed under court receivership amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Eastar applied for court receivership in January 2021 as it had failed to find a strategic investor since July 2020, when Jeju Air, the country's biggest budget carrier, scrapped its plan to acquire Eastar amid the pandemic. In November, local property developer Sung Jung acquired an entire stake in Eastar through a rights issue following the budget carrier's overall stock cancellation worth 48.5b won (US$40m). Sung Jung has injected a total of 112b won into Eastar and still has ample cash to help the carrier ride out the prolonged pandemic, Eastar President and CEO Kim You-sang said last month.<br/>
Q Airways plans to commence flights operations in July or August once it has obtained its air operator's certificate, its COO Syed Kamran Hasan said. As previously reported, the Pakistani government authorised in January that a domestic Regular Public Transport (RPT) operating licence could be granted to the start-up. Q Airways will initially operate flights between Karachi Int'l, Lahore Int'l, and Islamabad Quaid-e-Azam Int'l. “We have already received the RPT,” Hasan confirmed. “Now we are working to become eligible for an AOC. We will start domestic operations as soon as we receive it.” The investor behind Q Airways is Ramada Plaza Group, owned by Mohammad Anwar Qureshi, who is also the owner of Ramada Hotels Group’s operations in Pakistan. No foreign investors are currently involved in the airline, Hasan said but declined to quantify the total investment in the project so far. “We will initially start with three A320-200s. We want to expand after that and will also try for international flights by increasing the size of our fleet with two to three widebody aircraft,” he elaborated.<br/>