• Singapore Airlines (SIA) has reported a net loss for the three months to June 30, 2020 of S$1.1 billion (US$816 million), plunging the airline group into the red from a net profit of S$111 million a year ago. The airline group - Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Scoot - said passenger numbers fell 99.6%, to 38,000, in the quarter, as the coronavirus pandemic smashed demand. In a regulatory filing to the Singapore stock exchange yesterday, the group said the recovery trajectory in international air travel had been "slower than initially expected". Read More »

• All Nippon Airlines' (ANA) latest monthly traffic report showed it flew 707,378 passengers across its domestic network in June. Although the figures represented an 80% decline from a year earlier, they were more than double the 229,706 domestic passengers flown by the carrier in May. There also was a 195% month-on-month improvement in demand, or revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), for the reported period. Capacity grew by 64%. With demand rising faster than capacity, passenger load factor increased 23.1 percentage points, from 28.9% in May to 52% in June. Read More »

• South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) vice chairman, Sohn Byung-doo, told reporters in Seoul today all options were on the table for the future of debt-laden Asiana Airlines. The Yonhap news agency said Sohn made the comments when asked if Asiana could be nationalised by the government. A proposed acquisition of the South Korea carrier from a consortium led by Hyundai Development Company (HDC), formed in December 2019, hit turbulence after missing a recent deadline. Local media reported yesterday HDC had sought another round of due diligence in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the airline's financial status.  Read More »

• Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) said today it was reducing planned domestic growth in August in response to slowing demand amid a recent rise in coronavirus cases in the country. The airline said it would operate 77% of originally scheduled domestic flights in August. While this projected capacity was up from about 50% in July, this latest August schedule was down 11 percentage points from the 88% ANA had proposed for August on July 14. Read More »

Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) director general, Subhas Menon, said this week initiatives to open up air travel during the coronavirus pandemic such as travel bubbles and green lanes had failed to take off because they were impractical and inherently unscaleable. Read More »

Cathay Pacific Group this week said it would defer aircraft deliveries and flagged an operating loss in the vicinity of HK$8.7 billion (US$1.1 billion) for the first half of calendar 2020 due to the collapse in passenger traffic from the coronavirus pandemic. Read More »

Air India announced this week plans to operate 180 repatriation flights between India and the U. S. until the end of August after the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT) gave the airline an all-clear to continue flying to the country. Read More »

South Korean low-cost carrier (LCC), Eastar Jet, faces an uncertain future after a proposed takeover by Jeju Air collapsed this week. Read More »

Singapore Airlines (SIA) said this week it had boosted liquidity with fresh long-term financing of S$750 million (US$541 million), secured against A350-900s and 787-10s. Read More »

All Nippon Airways (ANA) said this week it would operate a 90-minute scenic flight around Tokyo on August 22 with its A380 "Flying Honu". Read More »