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United Airlines on Friday said it is spending $33m to buy 113 acres (46 hectares) in Denver as part of its growth strategy. The Chicago-based U.S. airline said it plans to use "part of this land as the site for the expansion of our world-class Denver pilot training facility." Asked if United could use the land to move its corporate headquarters, a United spokeswoman said, "The land in Denver gives us options for the future as we implement our big plans to grow." United is acquiring two parcels, including one just outside Denver International Airport with access to its Flight Training Center. United added that it has "been in Chicago for decades and have thousands of employees here" and that the airline has an immediate need to expand its Flight Training Center. "Beyond that, it’s prudent for any large company to take advantage of opportunities to buy land in its key cities when the opportunity arises – so we didn’t want to miss this opportunity in Denver," the airline said. In June 2022, United broke ground on a new four-story building at the flight training facility. The airline says it is the Denver area’s largest employer, with about 10,000 employees and 400-plus daily flights from Denver, the most of any airline. If United moved out of Chicago, it would be a blow to Illinois, which has lost other major corporate headquarters, including Boeing, which in May 2022 announced it was moving its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia.<br/>

Avianca posted a modest profit during the second quarter, benefiting from cost control, smooth operations and increased demand, rather than higher prices, the company says. The Bogota-based carrier ended the quarter with a profit of $15.4m. For the first six months of 2023, the company posted a profit of $3.7m. Revenue for Q2 rose to $1.11b from $1.02b in Q2 2022. Operating costs fell 11% over the same period last year at $989m. Revenue during the first six months rose to $2.2b versus $1.83b in the in first half 2022. “We continued our strong execution on the business plan in a seasonally challenging quarter,” CE Adrian Neuhauser said on the company’s quarterly analyst call on 4 August. Traditionally, the first two quarters of the year are weaker than the last two. “Avianca completed its narrowbody densification programme in record time which further optimised our cost efficiency, enabled increased capacity allocation and continued to reduce our per-passenger carbon footprint,” he adds. That seat densification was done on the airline’s 104 older Airbus narrowbody aircraft. It increased capacity by a fifth, and ensured a standardized product across the fleet, he says. Avianca lifted capacity as measured by available seat kilometres (ASKs) 22% to 13.3m during the three months ending 30 June. The airline flew 7.7m passengers, an increase of 17.7% over the same quarter in 2022. Cargo revenue and margins are “ahead of business plan” even though “obviously it’s a more challenged business than at the peak of last year”, he adds. The company launched eight new routes, and now operates 144 routes to 71 destinations. Its on-time performance was 87.5%, which allowed the airline to drive up aircraft utilization to over 11h per day. At the end of Q2, Avianca had 147 aircraft in its fleet, seven more than at the end of last year. After the demise of Colombian competitor Viva Air earlier this year, and Avianca’s thwarted bid to acquire it, the airline has inherited some of the defunct carrier’s slots at Bogota’s El Dorado International airport for the upcoming winter travel season, as well as “about a dozen” of its leased aircraft, Neuhauser says. It’s also hiring ex-Viva employees. “We received a pretty substantial portion of [the slots], and we intend to fly them,” he says.<br/>

Air India CE Campbell Wilson has held talks with India's antitrust head on its pending merger with sister airline Vistara, weeks after the watchdog raised concerns about market power, people familiar with the matter said. The Competition Commission of India has been scrutinising the planned merger of Air India, which Tata Group took over last year, with Vistara, a joint venture between Tata and Singapore Airlines. The merged airline would challenge local rival and market leader, IndiGo. Sharing new details of CCI's concerns, the first source said the watchdog's confidential notice to the airline has raised worries about the combined entity's market power on many international and domestic routes. The CCI also said its initial review showed the market share of the Tata Group could be more than 50% in at least seven domestic markets, raising competition concerns, the person added. Following a request by the company, CEO Wilson and the General Counsel of Tata Group, Sidharth Sharma, in recent days met India's antitrust chief, Ravneet Kaur, to discuss the ongoing merger process, said two of the four sources. Such meetings are typically held to find a way forward and assuage the CCI's concerns, sources said, declining to elaborate further or be named as the talks are confidential. The CCI, Tata Group, Air India and Vistara did not respond to emails seeking comment. Reuters reported in June that the CCI has been concerned that some Air India-Vistara merged routes and categories - such as business class travel - could have a monopoly.<br/>