Aircraft Leasing Ireland's members have agreed to work together on helping the aviation industry meet its net-zero target by 2050, and will publish a sustainability charter towards the end of this year that will detail their planned actions. A key element of the charter will be an agreed metric by which to measure the carbon footprint of each lessor, Jan Melgaard, executive chairman of FPG Amentum and chair of ALI's sustainability committee, says. "It would be unfortunate if we ended up in a world where different lessors used different metrics," says Melgaard, adding that an agreed metric would be "the starting point for everything," he says. Once that metric is agreed, Melgaard's "realistic expectation" is that there would be a "tiered approach" to complying with the charter that takes account of the fact that some members already invest primarily in new-generation, more fuel-efficient aircraft whereas others have based their business models around placing mid- to end-of-life aircraft. "The most important thing is to come up with a solid framework," he says. He observes that it is too early to say exactly what will be in the charter. ALI has 31 members, including AerCap, Avolon, Orix Aviation and SMBC Aviation Capital. The Ibec body says its members will "collaborate and use their influence as owners of more than half of the global fleet to lead and drive aviation towards a sustainable future". In addition to drawing up a charter, ALI plans to hold an "Aviation Sustainability Day" in Ireland during 2022, where stakeholders will be invited to discuss the industry's progress towards net zero. It will also establish a sustainability award, to "promote the sustainability agenda within its membership", and will work with the European Union as it develops its Taxonomy for Aviation, which will define what constitutes a sustainable aviation investment. ALI chair Declan Kelly tells Cirium that lessors are "definitely" already seeing an increased focus from investors on sustainability, and this will only increase. "When you look at the new investors coming in, there's an absolute emphasis on the type of asset and what your ESG compliance is," he says. Melgaard adds that the cost of financing less-efficient aircraft is "going to go up", and there is "no doubt we will be moving in that direction". As lessors "pivot into full acceptance of ESG", this in itself "sends a message" to OEMs as they develop future, more environmentally-friendly aircraft that "there's a buyer out there that's monitoring this", says Kelly. "Our message to OEMs is that we're on board," he adds, noting that "at the end of the day, the end goal" is to reach net zero by 2050.

Canada's largest three airlines have reduced flights on their schedules amid the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 and travel restrictions imposed by that nation's federal government, while Air Canada will suspend 15 destinations in the Caribbean from 24 January through 30 April. Destinations suspended from the flag carrier's network include Antigua; Aruba; Samana; Curacao; Exuma; Grenada; Puerto Plata; Santo Domingo; Bermuda; Grand Cayman; Havana; St Vincent and the Grenadines; St Martin; St Kitts; and Nevis. "These changes will only impact 7% of our customers since we are maintaining operations to 23 sun destinations throughout the winter season," The Montreal-based carrier tells Cirium. "Customers affected by these route suspensions will be notified and a full refund will be processed automatically." These suspensions represent nearly half of the 29 Caribbean destinations Air Canada is scheduled to operate during January, data shows, yet sun destinations on its network also include Mexico. WestJet has trimmed its schedule by 15% of its flights through 31 January in response to both winter storms and staffing shortages amid the spread of Omicron, which has contributed to 499 active Covid-19 infections among WestJet Group employees. "Despite all contingency planning, in addition to hiring back thousands of WestJetters to safely support peak operations, we find ourselves no longer able to predictably resource our planned schedule," the Calgary-based airline says. Airlines in the USA have also cancelled thousands of flights since December amid a high volume of employees calling in sick. Air Transat says it has not faced restrictive staff shortages due to sickness and will not suspend destinations, yet the leisure carrier has reduced its schedule by 30% of its flights until 25 February. "The only exception is that our flights from Moncton and London, Ontario, are cancelled until end of April 2022," Transat says. "The lingering effects of the Omicron variant and the restrictive measures put in place by the federal government on 15 December have had an impact on our customers' reservations and cancellation requests." Ottawa has not closed its borders but has advised against non-essential international travel amid the spread of the Omicron variant.

VietJet will resume flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok from 21 January. The Vietnamese low-cost carrier will operate two weekly flights between Tan Son Nhat International airport and Suvarnabhumi International airport, it says in a release today. VietJet has resumed several international routes from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to Tokyo Narita International airport, Taipei, Seoul Incheon International airport and Singapore, operating weekly flights since early January. In the next phase of service resumption, it will recommence its entire international network while looking to open new routes to destinations such as India and Russia. In Thailand, the carrier currently operates services from Bangkok to destinations such as Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phuket, Krabi, Hat Yai, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani, Udon Thani, Khon Kae and Ubon Ratchathani in addition to other cross-regional routes.