Japanese LCC, Peach Aviation, said it expected all of its 22 domestic routes to be back in operation by June 19. The All Nippon Airways (ANA) subsidiary said late last week that of the 13 domestic routes currently suspended, one would return on June 1, with the remaining 12 to restart on June 19. All international flights would remain suspended until June 30.Read More »
Air New Zealand (Air NZ) said on Monday it had extended its skeleton international schedule, which represented about 5% of capacity compared with levels prior to the coronavirus pandemic, to August 31 due to government travel restrictions and low demand. The international network of 20 weekly flights on eight routes would help keep open air links for essential travel and cargo movement on key trade routes. “While it’s unfortunate the majority of our international network remains cancelled for the foreseeable future, we support the return of safe flying if borders re-open and will update our international network if and when possible," the soon to retire Air NZ chief networks, strategy and alliances officer, Nick Judd, said in a statement.
The airline’s CEO, Greg Foran, announced last Friday that three of his nine member executive team would leave the carrier as part of efforts to create a "structure that is appropriate for an airline that will take two years to return to 70% of its former size". Chief networks, strategy and alliances officer, Nick Judd, will depart the carrier on May 31 and chief air operations and people safety officer, John Whittaker, will retire two months later. Chief marketing and customer officer, Mike Tod, will step away from full-time engagement at the airline on May 31, but continue to provide advisory support to the CEO and the Air NZ board during the current business transformation phase.
U.S.-based Bain Capital has publicly confirmed its interest in buying Virgin Australia (VA), with Sydney-based managing director, Mike Murphy, pledging the private equity group wanted to "bring back the best parts of the Virgin Blue culture and make flying fun again". He said the firm was focused on the long term with "deep funding to navigate these difficult times". Bain, one of four parties shortlisted as interested in VA by its administrators, said in a widely reported statement yesterday the bid was supported by former Qantas Group top executive, Jayne Hrdlicka, whose previous roles included CEO of Jetstar, the Qantas Group’s LCC.
Sydney Airport CEO, Geoff Culbert, told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting on Friday the airport was working very constructively with the government and other stakeholders across the industry to jointly tackle this COVID-19 crisis and develop safe and scalable protocols to return people to the air. Culbert said there had been 12 confirmed cases of the virus among the 33,000 people who worked at the airport, which reinforced the view airports were "relatively safe places, which will be important as we start to talk about the recovery and give travellers the confidence that it is safe to fly".
Air China's international schedule for June, published late last week, reported the airline planned to operate 24 international routes a week: 19 from Beijing Capital, three from Shanghai Pudong and two from Chengdu. The June schedule represented an increase of two routes and four flights a week compared with the 22 international routes and 25 weekly flights the Star Alliance member has scheduled for this month.
China Southern Airlines (CSA) has maintained its international flying at 19 routes for June, with 16 destinations from Guangzhou, two from Shenyang and one from Urumqi, schedules published on the airline's website last week showed. While the number of routes was unchanged, flights each week will be increased by five to 43.
