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The US Justice Department's complaint aimed at stopping JetBlue Airways from buying rival discount carrier Spirit Airlines will force the companies to explain why very high market shares on some routes will not mean higher prices for consumers. The government filed the lawsuit on Tuesday, saying the planned $3.8b acquisition "will lead to higher fares and fewer seats, harming millions of consumers on hundreds of routes." The U.S. Justice Department argued JetBlue was losing its reputation as a maverick, low-price carrier as it grew and that Spirit was poised to expand, posing a bigger threat to other airlines. It also said JetBlue and Spirit were "especially close and fierce head-to-head competitors" on such routes as Boston to Miami/Fort Lauderdale, where they had about half the market and Boston to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where they had nearly 90%. In court, JetBlue is expected to argue that the deal would create a sort of super-maverick that would at least slow price increases in the sector. It will likely reiterate it has just 9% of the national market and point to planned asset sales in Boston and elsewhere as a way to resolve antitrust concerns. JetBlue will face "an uphill battle" as it fights the government," said Diana Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute. She added that showing an airline merger is illegal is "not rocket science." "It's a solid complaint. Whether they win or not - goodness, who knows," agreed Bill Kovacic, a former chair of the Federal Trade Commission. Several legal experts interviewed stopped short of saying which side they thought would prevail in court. Analysts have said the lawsuit has cast a chill over future airline deals, at least during the Biden administration, but companies will still kick the tires on deals as they push for growth and to manage costs.<br/>

Fledgling US carrier Global Crossing Airlines (GlobalX) lost $4.4m during Q4 2022 as it pursues an aggressive expansion plan. Operating charter flights with a fleet of leased narrowbody Airbus aircraft, the Miami-based company lost roughly the same amount during the same quarter of 2021. It generated revenue of $32.5m during the final three months of 2022, compared with $11m the previous year. “We are pleased to report strong financial and operational results for 2022,” Ed Wegel, CE of GlobalX, said during the company’s Q4 earnings call on 9 March. The operator launched passenger flights in August 2021 using Airbus A320s. On 6 February, GlobalX received approval from the FAA to begin US cargo operations with its A321F aircraft. For the full year, the company lost $15.8m, compared with a $19.8m loss during a few months of operations in 2021. GlobalX generated $97.1m of revenue in 2022, compared with $14.3m the previous year. The company forecasts revenue of “at least $140m” for 2023. Now operating eight Airbus jets, GlobalX expects to expand its fleet to nine A320 passenger aircraft and two A321Fs within the next two months, Wegel says. All 11 of those jets “are all on great lease terms that we were able to negotiate during the pandemic”, Wegel says. “We see an extension on those favourable lease terms on the aircraft that we are bringing [into the fleet] in 2023. We believe that we still have a window of about 12 to 15 months where we can lock up aircraft – mid-life aircraft, which are the type we need.” GlobalX plans to operate 12 passenger aircraft and six freighters by the end of 2023 – and expand to 18 passenger aircraft and 12 cargo jets by the end of next year.<br/>

Fiscal first-quarter revenue for Transat AT – parent company of Canadian leisure airline Air Transat – reached C$667m ($483m), more than triple the company’s C$202m revenue during the same quarter in 2022. But the Montreal-based leisure specialist reports a C$57m loss during the three-month period ending 31 January as Annick Guerard, CE of Air Transat, acknowledges a “challenging” road to profitability as the airline continues its long recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. For comparison, the company lost C$114m during the fiscal first quarter of 2022, during which the carrier cancelled nearly 30% of its flights thanks to the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Poor weather was a significant obstacle during Air Transat’s first fiscal quarter of this year, as the airline cited “numerous disruptions and delays caused by inclement weather and operational difficulties at several airports across North America between late December 2022 and early January 2023”. A 46% increase in fuel prices also suppressed first-quarter profit, the company says. Capacity, on the other hand, rebounded roughly to pre-pandemic levels as Air Transat reports a “satisfactory load factor” of 85%. Overall, Guerard says that the “momentum that took shape in the second half of 2022 is being maintained”. “Our focus went from cash preservation, which is consistent with a crisis mode mindset, to focus on cash generation and profitability, which attests to a return to normalcy,” says Patrick Bui, Transat’s CFO. Air Transat also touted the modernisation and simplification of its fleet, though Guerard notes that “the industry supply chain is experiencing sporadic difficulties”.<br/>

LATAM Airlines reported a Q4 net profit of $2.538b, the company said on Thursday, and said the results reflected all financial renegotiations stemming from its bankruptcy proceedings. The quarterly profit of South America's leading airline compares to a loss of $2.755b during the same three-month period a year earlier. However the company will propose not to pay out dividends and instead use its 2022 profits to offset accumulated losses, it said in a securities filing later on Thursday. "Profits for the year ended December 31, 2022 must be used primarily to absorb such losses," it said. The airline, created by the 2012 merger of Chile's LAN with Brazilian rival TAM, operates units in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Peru. Revenue for Santiago-based LATAM during the quarter rose about 38% to $2.75b from the year-ago period. Last November, LATAM announced the completion of a years-long restructuring process after it declared bankruptcy in 2020. CFO Ramiro Alfonsin told reporters at a news conference on Thursday that "all renegotiations since we left Chapter 11" bankruptcy protection are now reflected in the quarter's income statement as profits. The company's operating result - which excludes the restructuring process - reached $139m in the quarter, according to the airline. Meanwhile, LATAM'S total costs for the quarter stood at $2.6b, almost in line with pre-pandemic levels, despite a nearly two-thirds increase in fuel costs between 2019 and 2022.<br/>

Brazil’s second largest airline, Gol, will grow a little less this year than it planned thanks to delays receiving new aircraft from Boeing. But while that may not sound good, management is perfectly fine with the situation. The São Paulo-based carrier has shaved five percentage points of capacity growth from its forecast for 2023, to up 15-20% year-over-year. The reduction is due to delays receiving new 737 Max aircraft, Gol CEO Celso Ferrer said during the carrier’s fourth-quarter earnings call Wednesday. At the same time, travel demand is strong with bookings “performing very well” since the beginning of the year, Ferrer said. And while corporate travel volumes are down 25-30% from 2019 levels, revenues in the lucrative segment have fully recovered. And what happens when demand outstrips supply of air travel? Travelers pay more, and higher revenues are critical for Gol especially as the airline faces the double expense whammy of high oil prices and a strong US dollar; many major airline expenses, including aircraft leases and fuel costs, are paid in dollars. “We are ramping up the capacity in the domestic market, very cautiously to maintain the unit revenues that became very crucial for us,” Ferrer said. Gol’s yields were up 45% from 2019 levels — or 25% year-over-year — in Q4. That increase was driven by robust travel demand, particularly among leisure and visiting friends and relatives traffic, while overall airline capacity in Brazil was down about 1% from three years earlier, Diio by Cirium schedule data show. Hence the delay of new 737 Maxes is not a top concern for Gol management this year. The airline ended 2022 with 38 of the aircraft; six fewer than the 44 planes it had expected. This year, Gol anticipates adding 15 more Maxes for 53 by December. The 2023 number, however, is still three fewer aircraft than Gol had forecast for the year as recently as October.<br/>

A Shree Airlines Dash 8 turboprop made a safe emergency landing in Nepal on Thursday after an "indication of fire" in one of its engines, officials said, in a country on heightened alert over aviation safety after a deadly ATR 72 crash in January. The Shree Airlines plane was on a scheduled flight from Kathmandu to Bhairahawa in southwest Nepal with 78 people, including the crew, on board. "The pilot reported an indication of fire in the right engine and the plane was diverted to Kathmandu immediately," Shree Airlines spokesperson Anil Manandhar told Reuters. Jagannath Niroula, a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), said the plane landed safely in Kathmandu and all passengers and crew were safe. "There was no indication of any fire when it landed," Niroula said. Mountainous Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 highest peaks, including Mount Everest, has a history of frequent air crashes. Many of them are blamed on difficult terrain and sudden change in weather conditions. In January, an ATR 72 aircraft owned by Yeti Airlines carrying 72 people crashed in good weather before its scheduled landing in the tourist town of Pokhara, 125 km (79 miles) west of Kathmandu. Rescuers have so far recovered 71 bodies with one person still missing and presumed dead. One of the plane's pilots said before the Yeti Airlines crash that there was no power from the aircraft's engines, a preliminary report said last month.<br/>

The Philippine Supreme Court has declared as unconstitutional an agreement between Philippine Airlines Inc and an employees’ union that set a lower retirement age for female cabin attendants. The agreement "was deemed void for lack of basis, discriminating against women, and being contrary to laws, international convention, and public policy,” the nation’s top court said in a statement on its website Thursday, citing a decision it made on Jan. 10. A PAL spokesperson didn’t immediately reply to queries seeking comments. The mandatory retirement age for female flight attendants is 55, while their male counterparts is 60, based on the collective bargaining agreement between the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines and the flag carrier owned by billionaire Lucio Tan. The top court said it found merit in a petition filed by PAL female cabin crew in 2019, upholding the "fundamental equality of women and men” as guaranteed by the Philippine Constitution.<br/>