Swiss plans to operate capacity at 80% of 2019 levels from Zurich and Geneva during the winter season, serving a total of 93 destinations. The Lufthansa subsidiary says it will begin weekly flights to UK city Bristol from Zurich on 4 February 2023. The route will be operated with Airbus A220s and the Embraer 190s of wet-lease partner Helvetic Airways. Services initiated this summer from Zurich to Bologna, Nantes, Sofia and Vilnius will continue. Frequencies to European destinations Belgrade, Porto, Alicante, Barcelona and Malaga, and to points in Asia, are to be increased. Swiss will serve a total of 61 European and 22 intercontinental destinations from Zurich this winter. The airline's Boeing 777 long-haul fleet will feature its new premium-economy class for the first time. From Geneva, Swiss will serve 25 European destinations. The airline will raise frequencies to Scandinavia and on its Funchal and Tenerife routes. The new direct service to Brussels introduced this summer in collaboration with Brussels Airlines will continue, while flights to summer destinations such as Larnaca, Faro and Heraklion will be available until November.

US president Joe Biden has announced his intention to nominate Phil Washington to become the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. Washington is now chief executive of Denver International airport, before which he headed up the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He also served as chief executive of Denver Regional Transportation District and worked as the assistant general manager of that organisation for nearly 10 years before being named chief. He hails from Chicago's South Side and is a 24-year veteran of the US Army. In March, the US Department of Transportation named federal safety official Billy Nolen to serve as acting chief of the FAA effective 1 April as FAA administrator Steve Dickson departed halfway through his five-year term that began in 2019. The DOT and the White House said at the time they would continue to search for a full-time nominee to lead the FAA. Washington's appointment must be confirmed by the US Senate to become official. The US Senate confirmed Dickson as administrator in 2019 during its investigations into the certification of Boeing 737 Max aircraft, which he then certificated to return to service in November 2020. Washington's nomination was announced by the White House along with three other nominees who, if confirmed by the Senate, will serve in non-aviation-related roles outside the FAA.

SAS and certain of its subsidiaries have voluntary filed for Chapter 11 in the US bankruptcy court for the Southern District of New York. "The purpose of the filing is to accelerate its transformation by implementing key elements of its SAS Forward plan," the Scandinavian carrier says in a release today. SAS adds that its operations and flight schedule are unaffected by the Chapter 11 filing, and it will continue to serve its customers as normal, although the strike by SAS Scandinavia pilots' unions will impact the flight schedule. The airline's cash-balance was SKr7.8 billion ($755 million) as of 30 June and it says it has sufficient liquidity to meet its business obligations in the near term. SAS states: "The strike has a negative impact on the liquidity and financial position of the company and, if prolonged, such impact could become material. The company is in well advanced discussions with a number of potential lenders with respect to obtaining additional debtor-in-possession financing for up to $700 million to support its operations throughout this court-supervised process." These steps are consistent with SAS's announcement on 31 May, that its restructuring effort SAS Forward involves complex multiparty negotiations and that the company might seek to utilise one or more court restructuring proceedings designed to assist in the resolution of its financial difficulties and help accelerate the implementation of SAS Forward.
Through this process, SAS aims to reach agreements with key stakeholders, restructure the company's debt obligations, reconfigure its aircraft fleet, and emerge with a significant capital injection. SAS says it expects to complete its court-supervised process in the USA in nine to 12 months. The airline aims to convert approximately SKr20 billion of debt, including hybrid loans and term loans, into equity while also raising an additional SKr9 billion of further equity. SAS chief executive and president Anko van der Werff states: "Over the last several months, we've been working hard to improve our cost structure and improve our financial position. We are making progress, but a lot of work remains and the ongoing strike has made an already challenging situation even tougher. The Chapter 11 process gives us legal tools to accelerate our transformation, while being able to continue to operate the business as usual." Weil, Gotshal & Manges is serving as global legal counsel and Mannheimer Swartling Advokatbyr is serving as Swedish legal counsel to SAS. Seabury Securities and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken are serving as investment bankers, while Seabury is also serving as restructuring advisor. FTI Consulting is serving as financial advisor.