Air New Zealand announced (09-Aug-2022) it is bringing its first Victorville based Boeing 777-300 aircraft out of the desert, after 696 days in deep storage. In 2020, the airline sent four 777-300s to the Victorville storage facility in the Mojave Desert due to the impacts of coronavirus, limiting the airline's flying schedule to the bare minimum. The first Boeing 777-300 aircraft, registration ZK-OKP, is due to leave Victorville in late Aug-2022 for Auckland where it will have scheduled maintenance before re-joining the Boeing 777-300 operating fleet from late Sep-2022. ZK-OKP is the first of four Victorville based Boeing 777-300 aircraft to be reanimated and the airline is working through a programme to bring back the three remaining aircraft over the next year. The airline also has three Boeing 777-300 aircraft that were stored in Auckland for the last two years. Two of these aircraft are back in service, with Boeing 777-300 ZK-OKO due to re-enter service in the coming weeks. [more - original PR]
For many US airlines 2Q2022 was a study in contrasts. Leisure demand came roaring back, which resulted in the country’s airline operators posting record revenue. But high fuel costs, staffing and operational challenges cast dark clouds over the robust revenue environment.
Southwest Airlines was among the US operators posting record revenues, and although there are some shifts occurring in consumer and business sentiments, the airline believes that demand trends will remain strong.
But in addition to the challenges US airlines face with labour and operations, Southwest is now bracing for a dramatic decrease in the number of aircraft that Boeing will deliver to the airline in 2022.
For now, Southwest believes it can manage the delays; but if the airframer cannot catch up on those aircraft deliveries over time, it could create more headwinds for the airline.
Australia’s domestic airline market is well on the way to recovery, but the competitive landscape has been transformed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shifting strategies from incumbents and the impending entry of a new airline are set to produce what could be the most dramatic and lasting transformation for the market since the start of the century.
After the start-stop recovery of 2020 and 2021, the rebound of domestic travel demand in 2022 has run ahead of expectations, mostly on the back of strong leisure/VFR demand.
COVID-19 led to an unparalleled collapse of international travel. Few parts of the world felt this more keenly than the South Pacific, where borders were rapidly and firmly closed and international tourism was brought to a near standstill for nearly two years.
The region is now slowly reopening, but it faces a long and difficult task. Not only do South Pacific states need to rebuild their struggling tourism sectors, but they also need to reshape them, both to accommodate the new realities of the pandemic era and to ensure they can survive the next crisis.
Asia Pacific international travel and tourism remains in the doldrums.
While the region had initial been expected to be one of the fastest to recover during 2021, the combination of disparate national responses to COVID-19, long border closures and other restrictions, and the imposition of burdensome travel requirements, have meant that international tourism in the Asia Pacific has remained at a near standstill.
The region’s three largest outbound travel markets – China, Japan and South Korea – have been among the slowest major markets to recover.
At the same time, some key inbound tourism markets continue to suffer from reduced travel from their historical source markets in Europe, North America and Oceania.
Thanks to heightened concerns around health risks and travel disruptions, travellers in these markets are opting for travel closer to home.
Lucky for some - VINCI buys into OMA’s 13 airports; consolidated as number 1 private sector operator
Relentlessly, France’s VINCI Airports continues its march towards world domination.
Its acquisition of a share in the 13-airport OMA group in Mexico, its first foray into that country, has established it (or will do once the deal is ratified) as the world’s leading wholly private sector airport operator as measured by the size of its portfolio – and one that is increasingly focused on the Americas.
OMA’s finances are sound, as indeed they were throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and OMA’s airports are business-oriented and tourist-oriented.
Lurking in the background, though, are politics and future relations with Mexico’s biggest trading partner, the United States, just over a border that no longer seems to exist. VINCI has great experience of operating airports in Latin America, including the political hot potato that is Brazil.
It may well need it.
Upcoming Event
Salvador: CAPA Latin America Aviation & LCCs Summit
CAPA's Latin America Aviation & LCCs Summit will be held in Salvador, one of Brazil's most vibrant and colourful cities. Join us to explore the key strategic issues impacting the Latin American aviation sector.
Upcoming Event
Adelaide: CAPA Australia Pacific Aviation Summit
CAPA’s home event, the Australia Pacific Aviation Summit, will be held in Adelaide, Australia, a city with a vibrant arts culture which was recently ranked as one of the world's most liveable.
Silver Airways CEO, Steve Rossum at the CAPA Americas Aviation & LCCs 2022 Summit
Steve Rossum, CEO of the Sliver Airways, spoke to CAPA TV on the sidelines of the CAPA Americas Aviation & LCCs Summit about travel demand.
CAPA Events are hosted in key markets around the world and attract the highest calibre of thought leaders and decision makers in the aviation and travel industry. Delegates are provided with unprecedented access to the latest data, insights and trends from our global team, in addition to valuable networking opportunities with executives across all sectors of the aviation and travel industry. Review CAPA’s full events calendar here.
Air New Zealand announces plans to reactivate first Boeing 777-300 from Victorville
EUROCONTROL director general Eamonn Brennan, via his official Twitter account, reported (08-Aug-2022) the following European network traffic highlights, for the period between 25-Jul-2022 and 31-Jul-2022:
- The top 20 operators, based on the average number of daily flights:
- Ryanair: 3011 flights, unchanged week to week;
- easyJet: 1640, +3%;
- Turkish Airlines: 1506, unchanged week to week;
- Lufthansa: 1202, +18%, recovering from the strike in the week prior;
- Air France: 1065, -3%;
- Wizz Air: 814, +2%;
- KLM: 783, +1%;
- Vueling: 717: +2%;
- British Airways: 698, +2%;
- TUI Group: 563, +1%
- SAS Group: 559, -1%;
- Eurowings: 546, +2%;
- Pegasus Airlines: 507, unchanged week to week;
- Norwegian Group: 421, unchanged week to week;
- Aegean Airlines Group: 412, +1%;
- SWISS: 408, +1%;
- Jet2.com: 391, unchanged week to week;
- Iberia: 352, -2%;
- TAP Group: 338, -1%;
- ITA Airways: 333, -3%.
Hong Kong to reduce hotel quarantine to three days plus four days of medical surveillance
Hong Kong's Government announced (08-Aug-2022) inbound travellers will be subject to quarantine under the '3+4' model, effective 12-Aug-2022. The model involves compulsory quarantine in designated quarantine hotels for three days, followed by medical surveillance at home for four days. The new regime will be a reduction from the current seven day hotel quarantine. [more - original PR]
Avianca submitted (08-Aug-2022) a request to Colombia Aerocivil to integrate Viva into the Abra Group. The carriers stated the integration request is due to Viva's "complex financial situation that requires immediate intervention". Avianca CEO Adrian Neuhauser said: "The integration request with Viva seeks to fight for its survival in the market, as well as to maintain the competitiveness it has built during 10 years of operation... Avianca has a solid financial position... which would allow it to achieve synergies and take advantage of economies of scale with Viva, provide financial support and participate in its management". As previously reported by CAPA, Avianca and GOL created the Abra Group holding company in May-2022, with the organisation initially proposing a non-controlling 100% economic interest in Viva's operations in Colombia and Peru. [more - original PR]
LATAM Airlines Chile resumed (05-Aug-2022) twice weekly Santiago-Easter Island passenger service on 04-Aug-2022, following a temporary suspension since early 2020. The airline operates the service with Boeing 787-9 equipment. [more - original PR - Spanish]
Oslo Sandefjord Airport reported (02-Aug-2022) it handled 176,944 passengers in Jun-2022 and 201,016 passengers in Jul-2022. Marketing and communications manager Tine Kleive-Mathisen stated: "Traffic has exceeded all expectations. We hardly dared to dream that we would reach 200,000 passengers in July... The SAS strike earlier this summer has probably also given [us] extra traffic in July, as some travellers have been desperate and found non-traditional itineraries around Europe to reach their holiday destination after the journey with SAS was cancelled". [more - original PR - Norwegian]
Want More News Like This?
This report, jointly prepared by CAPA - Centre for Aviation (CAPA) and Envest Global (Envest), is designed to highlight some of the core elements of sustainable aviation, methods of quantifying individual airline sustainability credentials, and emissions.