Icelandair aims to slash its unit costs through the winter by leasing out capacity when demand for travel to the country is at its lowest, chief executive Bogi Nils Bogason has indicated. During a briefing on annual results, Bogason noted that being located near to the Arctic Circle – Icelandair's home base of Reykjavik is the most northerly capital in the world – meant that the airline experienced particularly large swings in demand through the year. This, he observes, has only widened post-pandemic because leisure demand, which is highly seasonal, has recovered faster than corporate travel. "We are working on initiatives to mitigate the cost of low resource utilisation in the low season," says Bogason. The airline's leasing arm, Loftleidir Icelandic, will be "key" to this, he adds, providing capacity to other carriers through the winter. Loftleidir focuses on maintenance projects, ACMI and private-jet services. During 2022, it operated five Boeing 757s, two 767s and one 737-800. Last year, it contributed revenue of $71.3 million, out of a company total of $1.5 billion. Icelandair is currently in a period of fleet renewal, phasing out its ageing 757s in favour of the 737 Max and Airbus A320-family aircraft. This year, it will operate 21 Max aircraft, up from nine in 2021, while the number of 757s it will fly has fallen from 26 in 2018 to 12 in 2024. The airline has also committed to 20 Airbus A320-family jets (seven of which will be leased), plus 12 options, and aims to completely replace its 757s by 2027. Through 2024, the airline will operate 36 passenger aircraft, but over 50 jets across its wider fleet once cargo and leasing are included. EBIT for 2023 came in at $21 million, up from a $18.9 million the year before, with the company's results held back by seismic activity pre-Christmas which led it to drop its previous guidance of $50-60 million. A sharply higher wages bill, up by nearly a quarter, also impaired the carrier's performance. After the airline focused in 2022 and 2023 on ramping up operations, "now we are going into more normal operations with slower growth", says Bogason. Management attention has now shifted to efficiency and cost of operations, and there is, he adds, a "strong pipeline of initiatives aimed to drive unit costs lower". The outlook for is "in general promising", Bogason says, with "considerable strength" in the transatlantic market in particular.

Southwest Airlines has selected Recaro as seat supplier for a fleet of on-order Boeing 737 Max 8 jets. The German manufacturer says that its BL3710 economy seat will be installed on Max 8 jets scheduled for delivery from 2025. Fleets data shows that Southwest has on order 178 Max 8s and 300 of the in-development Max 7. The airline's fleet already includes 225 Max 8s plus 614 737NGs. Recaro notes that its US facility is located in Fort Worth, near Southwest's headquarters at Dallas Love Field airport. "It's been a long-term goal to work with our neighbours," states Recaro Aircraft Seating Americas general manager Sunitha Vegerla. Recaro chief Mark Hiller hails the deal as a "tremendous accomplishment" for the supplier.

Lufthansa is seeking to refinance and upsize its €2 billion ($2.17 billion) revolving credit facility. A source with knowledge of the situation says the German airline group wants to increase the volume of the facility to €2.2-2.3 billon. The Star Alliance member closed terms for the unsecured loan, its first RCF, in April 2022 with what it described as a "broad syndicate of international relationship banks". The agreement dictated that the facility would be available for three years with two one-year extension options. The source says Lufthansa is keen to extend the RCF.