Air Canada confirms gradual re-opening of its Maple Leaf Lounges

Air Canada today announced the gradual re-opening of its Maple Leaf Lounges, featuring new biosafety protocols for the well-being of customers and employees. The Maple Leaf Lounge at Toronto Pearson, D gates re-opens on July 24 to eligible customers travelling on a domestic or international flight, with the Maple Leaf Lounges located in the domestic departure areas at airports in Montreal and Vancouver set to re-open in the coming weeks.

 Andrew Yiu, Vice President, Product, at Air Canada said: "We are pleased to welcome eligible customers again to one of our Maple Leaf Lounges at our primary Toronto Pearson hub. The Maple Leaf Lounge experience has been completely re-thought with a range of industry-leading biosafety measures in place for the safety of customers and employees alike. We are introducing electrostatic spraying in our Lounges as part of our significantly enhanced cleaning procedures for additional peace of mind, and launching new touchless processes, such as the ability to order pre-packaged food directly to your seat from your smartphone."

Manchester-Belfast City Airport route starts from 14 September

Stobart Air to operate up to 4 daily return flights from Manchester to Belfast City

It has been confirmed that Stobart Air, operating as Aer Lingus Regional, will base five ATR72-600 aircraft at Belfast City Airport and the airline will operate up to 4 daily return flights from Manchester Airport to Belfast City Airport with fares starting from £29.99 one way including taxes.

Aer Lingus Regional, operated by Stobart Air, operates three routes from Manchester including Dublin, Cork and now Belfast City.

Stobart Air, following guidance from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), has implemented a number of enhanced health and safety measures to protect staff, crew and passengers. New measures include:

American Airlines Launches Carbon Offsetting Partnership with Cool Effect

American Airlines is partnering with Cool Effect to connect its customers with options for offsetting the carbon emissions associated with their flights, part of the airline’s long-term commitment to help reduce the impact of air travel on the environment.

Cool Effect is a nonprofit organization that sources high-quality, verified carbon reduction projects across the globe and is recognized for rigorous vetting and full pricing transparency.

“Sustainability is as important to us as it is to our customers, and even in circumstances as challenging as these, our focus on climate change has not diminished,” said Alison Taylor, Chief Customer Officer for American Airlines. “Carbon offsetting is not a complete or perfect solution to the environmental challenges we face as a society and as an airline, but we want to do what we can right now to make a difference. We’re proud to connect our customers with a trusted partner like Cool Effect, and we appreciate all those who are willing to join our efforts to help better protect the planet as we connect the world.”

Lufthansa expands network adding two destinations in the Canary Islands

 Lufthansa will be offering two new sunny destinations from Frankfurt: Gran Canaria and Tenerife. The Canary Islands are particularly popular holiday destinations during the autumn and winter holidays because of their ideal climatic conditions. With lots of sunshine, the temperatures are pleasantly warm throughout the winter.

Starting Saturday, 3 October 2020, Lufthansa will be operating to/from Tenerife with flight number LH1500/1501 and to/from Gran Canaria with flight number LH1502/1503. The flights to the Spanish Canary Islands will be operated on Saturdays and Sundays with an Airbus A320 family aircraft. Tickets are now available for booking with prices in Germany starting at 129 Euros for a round trip and 79 Euros for one-way. 

Belfast City Airport to get six new routes with Stobart Air

Belfast City Airport secures six routes to the UK commencing from 27 August  

• Stobart Air, operator of Aer Lingus Regional routes, to base five ATR72-600 aircraft at Belfast City Airport
• Routes from Belfast City Airport to Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, East Midlands, Leeds Bradford and Exeter to commence from 27 August
• Commenting on the announcement, Brian Ambrose, CEO of Belfast City Airport said the new base would significantly enhance the Aer Lingus network from Northern Ireland

Belfast City Airport (BHD) announced the opening of a new Aer Lingus Regional base with the launch of six routes operated by Stobart Air.

Services to Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, East Midlands, Leeds Bradford and Exeter will begin on a phased basis in line with passenger demand. From 27 August, flights from Belfast City to Edinburgh will begin, while services to Exeter will commence on 28 August. Flights to Manchester and Birmingham will operate from 14 September and to East Midlands and Leeds Bradford from 1 October.

Stobart Air, operator of Aer Lingus Regional routes, will base five ATR72-600 aircraft at Belfast City Airport and plan to operate over 200 flights weekly to and from Belfast. Stobart Air operates 30 Aer Lingus Regional routes from bases in Dublin, Cork and Belfast.

KLM network: recovery of destination offer, capacity lags far behind

KLM's European network will grow in the coming months from 72 destinations in July to 91 destinations in August, September and October. The number of intercontinental destinations will increase from 51 in July, to 59 in August and 61 in September and October. As a result, KLM offers its customers the widest possible choice of destinations. Capacity in flights and seats, however, is still far below the level before COVID-19.

Compared to 2019, the European network is virtually at its pre-COVID-19 level in terms of number of destinations. Between August and October 2019, KLM offered 92 European destinations. However, the number of flights still lags far behind the level of 2019. In August, there were about 10,000 flights, in September 13,500 and in October more than 11,000. In 2019, there were more than 19,000, 18,800 and 14,700 flights respectively.

The intercontinental network is still slightly behind compared to last year, when 69 destinations were offered between August and October. Currently, one third of intercontinental flights only carry cargo. As soon as local travel rules allow, KLM will start carrying passengers on these flights again. The number of flights is also lagging behind: around 2,000 in August and September and just over 1,800 in October. Last year there were about 3,300, 3,200 and almost 2,600 flights respectively.

KLM has opted to expand the number of destinations first, so that customers have the widest possible choice. The next step is to increase frequencies or increase capacity by deploying larger aircraft on certain routes.

Spirit Airlines Reports Second Quarter 2020 Results

The U.S. ultra-low-cost carrier  Spirit has released details of its latest results for the second quarter of 2020 which showed capacity was down by some 83% and the adjusted loss was around $364 million.

“The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted our second quarter results. However, we were encouraged by our June results and believe they illustrate that when leisure travel demand rebounds and stabilizes, our leading low-cost structure positions us well to be among the first to return to profitability. We increased our schedule in June as a result of encouraging, albeit tenuous, signs of demand improving. This worked out well for us. The favorable dynamics of our low-cost structure, a slight rebound in demand for June, and an uptick in forward bookings for July resulted in favorable cash dynamics for the month of June. In fact, if you exclude an early principal payment of nearly $50 million related to our aircraft deferral agreement and extension of our pre-delivery deposit facility, on an average daily cash basis2, we were break-even for the month of June,” said Ted Christie, Spirit’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

Bombardier Delivers First Global 5500 Business Jet to be Based in the United States

The Canadian firm Bombardier has announced the delivery of the first Global 5500 aircraft to be based in the United States. This business jet, which will be available for charter, was recently delivered to longtime Bombardier customer Unicorp National Developments, headquartered in Orlando, Florida.

“Our team at Unicorp is beyond excited to benefit from the first Global 5500 aircraft in the United States,” said Chuck Whittall, President, Unicorp National Developments. “This aircraft will allow us to travel with less fuss and more peace of mind.”

JetBlue Releases Annual Social Impact and Environmental Social Governance Reports

JetBlue released its 2018-2019 Social Impact Report this week, as well as its abbreviated 2019 Environmental Social Governance (ESG) Report.

The annual reports outline the JetBlue For Good pillars – community, youth and education and the environment. The social impact report focuses on how and where JetBlue crewmembers volunteered for one million hours of caring and the airline’s philanthropic efforts, while the ESG report identifies key sustainability factors that affect the airline’s business and financial performance.

“The JetBlue experience keeps people and culture at the heart of everything we do,” said Icema Gibbs, director corporate social responsibility and diversity, equity & inclusion, JetBlue. “Over the past few months, we’ve realized that our mission of inspiring humanity is more essential than ever. As a values-based airline, we have a long history of using our voice to unite our crewmembers, customers and communities during difficult times. We try to make change in ways that are authentic to us. Bringing our mission of inspiring humanity to life isn’t new. These reports showcase our ongoing work to make a positive impact for the environment, in our communities and beyond.”

American Airlines Takes Strategic Action in Second Quarter to Prioritize Safety, Flexibility and Efficiency in Response to COVID‑19

 American Airlines Group Inc. reported its second-quarter 2020 financial results, this week which demonstrated a massive pre-tax loss of $2.7 billion.  “This was one of the most challenging quarters in American’s history,” said American Airlines Chairman and CEO Doug Parker. “COVID-19 and the resulting shutdown of the U.S. economy have caused severe disruptions to global demand for air travel. In spite of these challenges, the American Airlines team has done a phenomenal job taking care of our customers and our fellow team members.

“We have moved swiftly to improve our liquidity, conserve cash and ensure customers are safe when they travel,” Parker continued. “There is much uncertainty ahead, but we remain confident we will emerge from this crisis more agile and more efficient than ever before.”

• Boosted available liquidity by a net $3.6 billion in the quarter through offerings of common stock, convertible bonds and secured bonds.
• Ended second quarter with approximately $10.2 billion of available liquidity. Additionally, signed term sheet with the U.S. Department of the Treasury for $4.75 billion secured loan, which is expected to close in the third quarter, and announced two senior secured note transactions totaling $1.2 billion. The company’s second-quarter pro forma liquidity balance including these transactions would be approximately $16.2 billion.

Supporting team members, customers and communities

Caring for team members, customers and the communities it serves remains the top priority for American as it navigates the current environment.

To ensure the safety and well-being of team members and customers, American:

• Updated its policies to make face coverings mandatory throughout the customer journey and for team members while at work.
• Instituted temperature checks for team members across the system and began asking customers to certify they are symptom-free before traveling.
• Created a Travel Health Advisory Panel, comprising internal leaders and outside experts in the field of infectious disease prevention, to advise on health and cleaning matters.
• Started working with the Global Biorisk Advisory Council on GBAC STAR^TM Accreditation for cleaning and disinfection practices for its aircraft and lounges.
• Further enhanced its cleaning and disinfection procedures throughout the operation, including the use of an electrostatic spray inside each aircraft every seven days, which kills 99.9999% of viruses and bacteria within 10 minutes.

To provide customers additional flexibility, American:

• Waived change fees for customers who book new tickets for future travel by July 31, 2020.
• Extended its change fee waiver for customers who have existing tickets for travel through Sept. 30, 2020.
• Began notifying customers whose flights may be full, allowing them to move to more open flights when available at no cost.
• Expanded flexible travel waivers and name changes for corporate customers.
• Eliminated the reinstatement fee for AAdvantage^® award ticket changes made more than 60 days prior to travel.
• Provided eligible AAdvantage elite members with a credit of up to $400 to use toward an American Airlines Vacations package.

To support the communities it serves, American:

• Expanded its cargo service to transport critical goods between the United States and Europe, Asia and Latin America. American currently operates more than 310 weekly widebody and cargo-only flights and transported more than 100 million pounds of mail, goods and supplies critical to the global economy in the second quarter.
• Announced a program to provide up to 1 million Business Extra^® points to small businesses and nonprofit organizations in need of travel support.
• Worked with Deloitte to deliver more than 40,000 medical gowns to first responders at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.
• Partnered with Hyatt Hotels Corporation to give free vacations to thousands of employees at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst Hospital.
• Donated more than 600,000 pounds of food to food banks, nonprofit organizations, schools and other groups fighting food insecurity.

Conserving cash

American continues to take steps to reduce costs and preserve cash. The airline estimates that it will reduce its 2020 total operating and capital expenditures by more than $15 billion, achieved primarily through cost savings resulting from less flying. In addition, the company implemented the following cost actions:

• Retired four aircraft types, consisting of 20 Embraer 190s, 34 Boeing 757s, 17 Boeing 767s and nine Airbus A330-300s, along with a number of older regional aircraft. In addition, the company placed its Airbus A330-200s and certain older Boeing 737s into a temporary storage program. In aggregate, these changes remove more than 150 aircraft from the fleet and bring forward the cost savings and efficiencies associated with operating fewer aircraft types.
• Introduced additional voluntary leave of absence and early-out programs to help right-size its frontline team. American anticipates having over 20,000 more team members on payroll than needed to operate its fall schedule. In total, more than 41,000 team members have opted for an early retirement, a reduced work schedule or a partially paid leave.
• Consistent with the CARES Act, reduced its management and support staff team, including officers, by approximately 5,100 positions, or 30%.
• Announced changes to its international schedule for 2021. American expects its summer 2021 long-haul international capacity to be down 25% versus 2019 and also plans to exit 19 international routes from six hubs. These changes will allow the airline to reset its international network for future growth as demand returns.
• Reduced non-aircraft capital expense by $700 million in 2020 and another $300 million in 2021 through reductions in fleet modification work, the elimination of all new ground service equipment purchases, and pausing all noncritical facility investments and IT projects.

Bolstering liquidity

In addition to reducing its operating and capital expenditures, American has taken a number of steps to strengthen its liquidity position. The company:

• Ended the second quarter with $10.2 billion of available liquidity, including a net $3.6 billion raised in the quarter through offerings of common stock, convertible bonds and secured bonds. The company also raised $360 million through municipal facility bonds, the net proceeds from which are included in its restricted cash and short-term investments.
• Refinanced the delayed draw term loan credit facility the company entered into in March 2020, which was set to mature in March 2021. By refinancing this loan, American does not have any large non-aircraft debt maturities until its $750 million unsecured bonds mature in June 2022.
• Signed a term sheet with the U.S. Department of the Treasury for a $4.75 billion secured loan under the CARES Act. The company expects the loan to be finalized in the third quarter.
• Announced $1.2 billion of committed financing subject to final documentation and other closing conditions in the form of two senior secured note transactions to be collateralized by intellectual property and other assets with Goldman Sachs Merchant Bank. The company expects these notes to be issued in the third quarter.
• Reduced its daily cash burn rate from nearly $100 million in April to approximately $30 million in June. This improvement was driven by higher than forecast revenue and larger savings resulting from the company’s cost-reduction initiatives. The company’s second-quarter cash burn rate² was approximately $55 million per day vs. its previous forecast of $70 million per day.

Demand and capacity outlook

Passenger demand and load factors have improved since bottoming out in April, but continue to be significantly below 2019 levels. While May and June revenue trends were encouraging, demand has weakened somewhat during July as COVID-19 cases have increased and new travel restrictions have been put into place. The company will continue to match its forward capacity with observed bookings trends and presently expects its third quarter system capacity to be down approximately 60% year over year.

Conference call and webcast details

The company will conduct a live audio webcast of its financial results call today at 7:30 a.m. CDT. The call will be available to the public on a listen-only basis at aa.com/investorrelations. An archive of the webcast will be available on the website through Aug. 23.

Notes

See the accompanying notes in the Financial Tables section of this press release for further explanation, including a reconciliation of all GAAP to non-GAAP financial information.

¹ The 2020 second quarter mainline operating special items, net principally included $1.8 billion of Payroll Support Program (PSP) financial assistance, offset in part by $332 million of salary and medical costs associated with certain team members who opted in to voluntary early retirement programs. Second quarter 2020 regional special items, net primarily included $216 million of PSP financial assistance, offset in part by $24 million of fleet impairment charges and $14 million of salary and medical costs associated with certain team members who opted in to voluntary early retirement programs.

Second quarter 2020 nonoperating special items, net principally included charges associated with debt refinancings and extinguishments.

² The company defines cash burn as the sum of all net cash receipts less all cash disbursements, but excluding the effect of new financings and new aircraft purchases.

Financial Results

Click the button below to download the 2Q20 financial results.

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Air Transat is making its first commercial flights

Transat, one of the largest integrated tourism companies in the world and Canada's holiday travel leader, is making its first commercial flights today, the day it is resuming air operations after four months of inactivity. There will be three international flights (Montreal-Toulouse, Montreal-Paris and Toronto-London) and three domestic flights (Montreal-Toronto, Toronto-Montreal and Toronto-Vancouver). Transat's entire reduced summer schedule of 24 routes to some 20 destinations will be up and running by August 2.

"July 23 is, and will remain, a very special day in the history of Transat. We are gradually resuming our flight operations after a 112-day shutdown," said Annick Guérard, Chief Operating Officer, Transat. "There will be excitement in the air during our carrier's first takeoffs this evening. The entire Transat team, starting with our on-duty flight crews, is very pleased to return to action and to offer our passengers a restyled experience adapted to the situation. The skies are slowly clearing and that is encouraging, but it in no way means that the crisis caused by COVID-19 is over."

Alaska Air Group reports second quarter 2020 loss of $214 million plus updates on COVID-19

Alaska Air Group Inc. has reported second-quarter 2020 GAAP net loss of $214 million, or $1.73 per diluted share, compared to net income of $262 million, or $2.11 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2019. Excluding the impact of payroll support program wage offsets, special items and mark-to-market fuel hedge adjustments, the company reported adjusted net loss of $439 million, or $3.54 per diluted share, compared to adjusted net income of $270 million, or $2.17 per diluted share in 2019.

"Airlines are currently navigating the biggest demand contraction in the history of aviation," said Air Group CEO Brad Tilden. "The rest of the leadership team and I could not be more proud of how the people of Alaska and Horizon reacted quickly and decisively to adjust our operations and our business, and to help our guests feel safe when they fly with us. Being tested in moments like this reveals character, and I'm confident in our future because of the way our people are responding every day with grit, determination and perseverance. Those are the qualities that will carry our airline and our country through this crisis and beyond."

KLM resumes flights to China after five months

Mr. Zhang Guosheng, Economic Counselor Chinese Embassy and Mr. Pieter Elbers, president & CEO KLM, see the first passenger flight from KLM to Shanghai off on Tuesday 21 July. Photo KLM

As of Tuesday 21 July, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines resumed passenger flights from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to Shanghai due to the relaxation of travel restrictions by the Chinese government. These flights are in addition to the cargo airlift that started on 20 April for the transport of medical supplies.

Flights to mainland China were suspended at the beginning of February in connection with COVID-19. KLM now operates one flight a week to Shanghai, which is operated with a Boeing 777-300 and makes a stop in Seoul (South Korea) on both outbound and inbound flights.

With the reopening of the Amsterdam-Shanghai route, KLM emphasizes the importance of the Chinese market in its network. The warm ties were the reason for Economic Counselor Chinese Embassy Mr. Zhang Guosheng and KLM's CEO Mr. Pieter Elbers to see this first flight off.

Additional hygiene measures

Naturally, KLM has taken measures to ensure that the flight is safe for both passengers and crew. For example, face masks are mandatory when boarding and during the flight, there are extra hygiene equipment on board, such as hand sanitizer, and KLM's aircraft are thoroughly cleaned. The air on board is quickly refreshed using HEPA filters. For more information about the hygiene measures on board, see this video: https://youtu.be/frPO6b58kcU

KLM naturally complies with the strict requirements set by the Chinese government for the resumption of international flights. This means that passengers must complete a health declaration form online and that the temperature of passengers is checked. The toilets, for example, are also inspected extra frequently during the flight. Furthermore, there are as few contact moments as possible between crew and passengers, which means there is limited catering available on these flights.

KLM President & CEO Pieter Elbers said: "The resumption of flights to Shanghai is a cautious but positive sign of recovery and illustrates our good relationship with China and our partners there. KLM is carefully expanding its network to make sure our customers have as much choice of destinations as possible. The fact that we can now offer Shanghai again is an important milestone in the laborious reconstruction of the KLM route network at a difficult time." 

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Icelandair's preliminary results for Q2 2020

In the second quarter of 2020, Icelandair Group‘s operations were significantly affected by the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and the associated wide-ranging travel bans and a decrease in global travel demand.  As such, the firms preliminary results of the second quarter of 2020 indicate that revenues decreased by around 85% between years to around USD 60 million and EBIT amounted to loss of USD 100-110 million. Cash and cash equivalents amounted to USD 154 million at the end of the second quarter. 

The Group took swift actions at the beginning of the pandemic to minimize operational expenses and cash outflow and continues to monitor these closely.  As previously announced, Icelandair Group is in the final stages of key stakeholder negotiations to be in a position to initiate the new share offering and complete a voluntary financial restructuring of the Company.  It is expected that fully documented agreements will be completed with the remaining stakeholders in July and the Company intends to initiate the proposed offering of new shares in August.

The airline has also recently announced that it had signed a new collective-bargaining agreement which is valid until 30 September 2025 with its cabin crew. The agreement is based on the same principles as the agreement which was agreed to between the parties on 25 June 2020 and thus meets the set objectives of increasing productivity and flexibility for the airline and at the same time ensures competitive compensation for cabin crew members. 

High Demand for Constant Aviation AOG Services

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