Monthly Archives: June 2022

Singapore Airlines resumes nonstop flights to Rome Fiumicino

Singapore Airlines has resumed nonstop flight from Singapore to Rome (Fiumicino).

The restored route will operate three days a week.

Singapore Airlines is the first airline to have restored nonstop connections to East Asia at Leonardo da Vinci since the onset of the pandemic.

Marco Finelli reporting from Italy.

Singapore Airlines aircraft photo gallery:

Bahamasair relaunches nonstop service from Orlando to Grand Bahama Island

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism has made this announcement:

Beginning Thursday, June 30, 2022, Bahamasair will relaunch a weekly nonstop flight from Orlando International Airport (MCO) in Florida to Grand Bahama International Airport (FPO) in Freeport, The Bahamas.

Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas – photo courtesy of The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Investments & Aviation

Bahamasair’s weekly nonstop flights from Orlando will operate every Monday and Thursday from June 30 through September 10. Introductory fares start as low as $297 round trip.

Bahamasair aircraft photo gallery:

Lynx Air’s inaugural flight from Hamilton takes off

Lynx Air’s (Lynx) first flight from John C. Munro HamiltonInternational Airport (Hamilton International) took to the skies on June 29, marking the commencement of twice-weekly return services to Calgary International Airport and twice-weekly return services to Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

L-R: Hamilton City Councillor Lloyd Ferguson, Vantage Airport Network Vice President and Head Cathie Puckering, Lynx Chief Commercial Officer Vijay Bathija, John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport Executive Managing Director Cole Horncastle and Hamilton City Councillor Judi Partridge celebrate Lynx’s inaugural flight from Hamilton to Halifax. (CNW Group/Lynx Air)

On July 29, 2022, the Hamilton–Calgary services will increase to four times a week, taking the total number of flights in and out of Hamilton to 12 times per week, equating to 2,268 seats per week.

Lynx Air aircraft photo gallery:

JetBlue comments on Spirit’s adjournment of special meeting

JetBlue Airways has issued the following statement from Robin Hayes, chief executive officer, regarding the decision by the Spirit Airlines’ Board of Directors to adjourn its special meeting:

We compliment the Spirit Board for listening to their shareholders, who clearly were not supportive of the Frontier transaction, and adjourning the Special Meeting. We look forward to commencing a constructive and substantive dialogue with them.

It’s clear that Spirit shareholders have now handed the Spirit Board an undeniable mandate to reach an agreement with JetBlue. The Spirit Board has so far not walked away from the Frontier transaction and we continue to strongly recommend that Spirit shareholders let the Spirit Board know that preventing their shareholders from receiving the superior value JetBlue has proposed is unacceptable, by voting AGAINST the Frontier transaction.

A combined JetBlue-Spirit would create a truly compelling national competitor to the legacy carriers and a winning combination for customers, JetBlue crewmembers and Spirit Team Members, and shareholders of both airlines. We urge the Spirit Board to listen to its shareholders and accept our superior proposal without further delay.

Air New Zealand to relaunch 14 international routes

Air New Zealand is gearing up for the busiest July in two years with the relaunch of 14 international routes in 16 days. With these routes back in action, the airline will be operating 60 percent of its international capacity – the most international flying in the last two years.

From July 9, 2022, the airline will have three quarters of its international and domestic routes back up and running with popular destinations like Honolulu, Houston and Tahiti restarting after around 820 days of not operating.

The Boeing 777-300 aircraft will also be back flying passengers, helping towards the addition of around 40,000 seats per week in July on the international network.

Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Greg Foran says it takes a village to get the airline back up and running and is incredibly proud of the sheer amount of work the team at Air New Zealand has put in to get to this moment.

“To bring one Boeing 777-300 out of storage in Auckland takes around six to eight weeks to get it ready for the skies. We’ve hired or rehired more than 2,000 Air New Zealanders across the business including 150 pilots, more than 500 cabin crew, and 270 airport employees, with another 1100 vacancies to be filled. It’s no easy feat but we’re getting back to where we were so we can give our customers that Air New Zealand service they know and love.

“We’re seeing first hand how keen people are to travel again, particularly across the Tasman. Come July, we will double our services across the Tasman and restart popular direct services like the Sunshine Coast, Hobart and Adelaide. By 9 July we will be back to all nine Australian ports which is an important milestone for us.

“I’d like to thank our customers for their patience while we get back to where we were pre-Covid, as well as our teams who are working hard to gear back up.

“Getting aircraft out of storage, people back in, opening ports, and working with new travel requirements, there’s a lot to consider, and the Air New Zealand team are doing their very best to make it happen as quickly as possible.”

Air New Zealand’s restart schedule is as follows:

Auckland	Commencing from	Frequency Jul-Oct
Honolulu	4 July	3 per week
Tahiti	6 July	2 per week
New Caledonia	6 July	2 per week
Houston	7 July	3 per week
Adelaide	6 July	3-4 per week
Cairns	5 July	3 per week
Hobart	7 July	2 per week
Sunshine Coast	9 July	2 per week
Gold Coast	3 July	4-2 per week
Nadi	5 July	3-2 per week
Nadi	5 Jul	3-2 per week
Brisbane	24 June	4-3 per week
Melbourne	24 June	7-6 per week
Sydney	25 June	9-5 per week

Air New Zealand aircraft photo gallery:

JetBlue issues letter to Spirit shareholders, voting starts tomorrow

JetBlue Airways today issued an open letter to shareholders of Spirit Airlines:

The full letter follows:

Dear Spirit Shareholders,

Tomorrow, Spirit shareholders have YOUR chance to help assure you receive the most value for your Spirit shares by voting AGAINST the Frontier transaction.

If you want more value and more certainty, sooner, your choice is clear. By voting AGAINST the Frontier transaction you vote FOR:

A superior all-cash price of at least $33.50 per Spirit share, a premium of 51% to the implied value of the Frontier transaction as of June 28, 2022;

An accelerated payment of $2.50 per Spirit share – or 13% more than Frontier’s prepayment;

Greater regulatory commitments, including a larger reverse break-up fee of $400 million and a more significant divestiture commitment than Frontier, despite similar regulatory profiles; and

A ticking fee – a monthly prepayment of $0.10 per share from January 2023 until the deal is consummated or terminated.

In fact, Spirit shareholders would receive more cash in the unlikely event a JetBlue deal is terminated ($4.30 per share assuming the ticking fee is paid in full) than they would receive if the Frontier transaction is consummated ($4.13 per share).

Ultimately, however you assess the probability of regulatory approval of each transaction, you are always better off with the JetBlue transaction.

As one of Spirit’s top ten shareholders said, “We firmly believe that if, as shareholders, we must wait for a transaction to be consummated following a lengthy regulatory process, we are much better off waiting alongside JetBlue, which is willing to compensate us along the way. The Board’s self-serving actions and failure to accept JetBlue’s $33.50 per share offer is preventing shareholders from receiving superior value.”

Only by voting AGAINST the Frontier transaction can you assure that you will receive the benefits of our offer.

The entrenched Spirit Board needs to know that you, their shareholders, want our better offer.

Multiple Spirit directors have significant ties to Frontier’s controlling shareholder, Bill Franke,resulting in a conflicted Spirit Board more focused on securing an inferior transaction with Frontier than maximizing value for its own shareholders.

While negotiating for eight months with Frontier, Spirit’s Board never seriously considered any alternatives, resulting in an original merger agreement with Frontier that was clearly suboptimal, with a low premium, no reverse break-up fee, and no divestiture commitment. Frontier has improved its offer twice only because we launched our “vote no” campaign.

The Spirit Board consistently ignored or refused to engage with JetBlue until faced with certain defeat on the original shareholder meeting date and then, in an attempt to avoid the widespread perception of its poor corporate governance, pretended to engage with JetBlue.

The Spirit Board continues to forgo any engagement or good faith negotiation with JetBlue, publicly rejecting our latest proposal in less than a day without ever discussing the amended terms.

Don’t let the Spirit Board’s allegiances to Frontier’s controlling shareholder keep you from the most value creating opportunity. This is the time to make your voice heard and deliver a clear message to the entrenched Spirit Board that you want the superior JetBlue transaction.

Vote AGAINST the Frontier transaction today.

Sincerely,

Robin Hayes
Chief Executive Officer

Sky Express announces a strategic partnership with Emirates

Sky Express made this announcement:

New prospects for interconnecting the country and further enhancing of the tourist prod-uct are created by the agreement of the new era with the leading air carrier of the Middle East.

Emirates and SKY express are joining forces to offer passengers more flight options from New York and Dubai to the largest domestic network in Greece.

Passengers, flying with Emirates from Dubai and New York to Athens International Airport, will be able to continue their journey to one of the 34 Greek destinations SKY express serves. The connection is undertaken by the country’s youngest and greenest fleet and one of the most envi-ronmentally friendly in Europe, offering a special in-flight experience.

The new strategic interconnection with the leading air carrier in the Middle East is a practical recognition of the dynamics of SKY express at an international level. In addition, it gives a further boost to the country’s tourism development by creating the right conditions for visitors to arrive even from areas such as Australia, Southeast Asia and India via Dubai Airport.

This is the purpose of cooperation with global carriers such as Air Transat, Air France, KLM, Qatar Airways, American Airlines, Cyprus Airways, Condor, El Al, Transavia, Middle East Airlines, Air Transat, Delta and others.

Sky Express aircraft photo gallery:

flypop partners with Hi Fly in the United Kingom

flypop has announced that it is forming a joint venture with Hi Fly airline in the United Kingdom.

The two companies have been partnering throughout the global pandemic utilizing flypop’s aircraft for cargo operations. This new partnership agreement will see the two expand their collaboration onto passenger flights out of the United Kingdom.

Speaking from the flypop headquarters at London Stansted Airport, (Nino) Navdip Singh Judge, Founder and CEO of flypop, commented:
“We expect a surge in demand in and out of our home market over the coming months and we look forward to serving our customers with the newly formed joint venture”

Hi Fly President, Paulo Mirpuri, speaking from the Hi Fly head offices in Lisbon, said:
“We are looking forward to operating flypop’s aircraft out of the UK. Hi Fly’s leading expertise in Airbus widebody aircraft will prove to be a winning recipe for the joint venture.”

Over the next few weeks flypop will be adding additional aircraft to the joint venture that will be operated by Hi Fly.

Nino added: “We are in active discussions with several parties to grow the fleet further in the near future and look forward to welcoming these aircraft to the joint venture”.

Top Copyright Photo: flypop (People Over Profit) (FlyPop Ltd.) Airbus A330-343 9H-POP (G-FPOP) (msn 1445) ZRH (Rolf Wallner). Image: 957972.

flypop aircraft photo gallery:

Silk Way West Airlines signs order for two Airbus A350Fs

Silk Way West Airlines based in Baku, Azerbaijan has signed a purchase agreement for two Airbus A350Fs.

This is the first order from the Caspian region for this aircraft type. The freighters are intended to modernize and further grow the existing fleet with the most efficient and sustainable cargo aircraft available in the market.

The A350F is based on the world’s most modern long range leader, the A350. The aircraft will feature a large main deck cargo door and a fuselage length optimised for cargo operations. Over 70% of the airframe is made of advanced materials resulting in a 30 tonnes lighter take-off weight, which together with efficient Rolls-Royce engines generate an advantage of at least 20% lower fuel burn and CO2 emissions over its current closest competitor. With a 109 tonnes payload capability (+3t payload / 11% more volume than its competition), the A350F serves all cargo markets (Express, general cargo, special cargo…) and is in the large freighter category the only new generation freighter aircraft ready on-time for the enhanced ICAO CO₂ emissions standards.

Silk Way West aircraft photo gallery:

Mediation between SAS and the SAS Scandinavia pilots’ unions is prolonged 72 hours

Scandinavian Airlines-SAS issued this statement:

After weeks of mediation, the mediators have, together with SAS and the SAS Scandinavia pilots’ unions, decided to extend the deadline of the mediation until July 2, 2022 00.01 CET.

SAS welcomes the mediators’ decision as it continues to be the company’s firm ambition to reach an agreement and avoid a strike.