Air China reported an operating loss of CNY10.5 billion ($1.6 billion) in the first quarter, increasing from the CNY8.65 billion loss reported in 2020. Revenue fell 11% to CNY12.9 billion, the group says in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Net loss attributable to shareholders widened to CNY8.9 billion from the loss of CNY6.2 billion loss mainly due to the “combined effects of the domestic sporadic outbreak of the pandemic and the rising aviation fuel price”. Operating costs remained flat at CNY23.1 billion. As on 31 March, the carrier had a cash and cash equivalents of CNY11.2 billion versus CNY15.9 billion at the start of the quarter.

Ukrainian carrier SkyUp is seeking to obtain an European Union air operators certificate and open offices in the bloc as it reveals it has incurred $500 million of lost revenues due to the Russian invasion. The airline says it is working to obtain permission for it to operate in Europe while it and its sister tour operator Join Up are seeking to open offices in Europe, SkyUp says in a LinkedIn post. SkyUp has provided its aircraft to the market on a wet-lease basis, started operating evacuation and humanitarian aid flights, and conducted air cargo services since the start of the war with Russia. In an interview with Forbes that was shared by the airline, SkyUp co-founder Oleksandr Alba says that the company is hoping to gain an EU licence by the end of July which would enable it to overcome European airspace restrictions. In March, the airline said it was making its fleet of 15 Boeing 737s available for wet-leasing. The aircraft had been pulled out of Ukraine ahead of the conflict.

Finnair presented a relatively sanguine reaction to the closure of Russian airspace as part of its first quarter results, noting that although the move cuts the airline off from much of its north Asian network, it has allowed it to redeploy capacity elsewhere. A key facet of the Helsinki-based airline's normal business model is utilising its geographic location to become a hub between Europe and north Asia, action that has been hit hard by the closure of Russian airspace. But Finnair notes that this has had only a "moderate negative impact" on its overall figures for March, with passenger revenue still growing by over five times since the same period of last year, while available seat kilometres grew by nearly six times. The impact of Russian airspace closure has been muted in large part because of strict Covid-19 policies in parts of Asia means that travel to the region has been relatively subdued compared to the US and Europe anyway. Meanwhile, high cargo yields have enabled it to maintain services to Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai, despite longer flight times. It has also encouraged a pivot towards providing greater long haul services to the US, to which Finnair has seen "clearly strengthened demand" over the first quarter, especially in recent weeks. It opened a new route to Dallas at the end of March and will provide services to Seattle this summer. Finnair has been able to continue serving its destinations to South Asia, where sales are returning despite lengthened flight times. Chief executive Topi Manner notes that its existing Delhi services were seeing a "good degree of demand", ahead of a planned new route to Mumbai, adding: "When you fly [between] India and the US, it makes sense to fly through our Helsinki hub. So we have a competitive advantage for that." Meanwhile in its core market in Europe, ASKs increased by 2,613% on the same quarter of last year. The overall result is that: "Finnair's operating environment is two-sided," the airline explains in its outlook. "In Europe, the United States and South Asia, travel is normalising as the impacts of the pandemic have eased. In contrast, travel restrictions in North Asia, combined with the closed Russian airspace, have a significant impact on Finnair’s operating environment." The Helsinki-based carrier is now preparing for a prolonged Russian airspace closure by making indefinite changes to its operations. As well as updating its network, this encompasses launching a new cost reduction programme targeting €60 million ($64 million) of "permanent savings from distribution, aircraft leases and the continuous improvement of operations," says Manner. "These savings will be on top of the already achieved 200 million euros of permanent annual savings during the pandemic." Finnair will also review its fleet plan including wet leasing three Airbus A350s to Lufthansa and four A321s to British Airways for the summer season. Further wet lease opportunities will be explored as well as the "potential sale" of individual aircraft to reduce idle capacity. During the second and third quarters it expects to operate an average capacity of around 70% compared to 2019. Including those aircraft on wet-lease, total capacity deployed amounts to almost 80%. "Booking behaviour is normalising quite fast," Manner told the company's webcast. "When we look at booking for last couple of weeks, especially Europe, the US and South Asia, we are close to pre-pandemic levels of bookings." Daily flights will increase to more than 300 during the peak season. Despite this, the overall result for the period remained weak, with quarter-on-quarter revenues declining on the back of Omicron resulting in operating losses of €133 million for the period, "mainly driven by the high fuel price and the Omicron impact on costs and demand." Load factors were at 47.3% and liquidity stood at €1.1 billion, including an undrawn €400 million hybrid loan granted to Finnair in March 2021 from the Finnish state, which will now be converted to a capital loan. It estimates losses narrowing in the second quarter, supported by strong sales but hurt by high fuel prices and the reduction in North Asian traffic. "The bookings are coming in," explains Manner. "We are relatively close to pre-pandemic levels for last couple of weeks. We need to remember we are deploying only 70% of capacity for scheduled traffic for the summer, so bookings are higher than pre-pandemic adjusting for capacity," he adds.