Air New Zealand estimates a monthly NZ$20-25 million ($14-18 million) impact from the suspension of trans-Tasman travel, and more from domestic travel restrictions. "Following a month of constrained trading it remains unclear how long these alert levels, the suspension of trans-Tasman quarantine-free travel and associated travel restrictions will continue, as well as how demand will recover when the restrictions are lifted," the flag carrier said today in a corporate disclosure. It puts the monthly impact of nationwide Level 3 or 4 travel restrictions at approximately N$45-55 million, and NZ$25-35 million if such restrictions were limited to Auckland while the rest of the country operates at Level 1 or 2. These estimates include the benefit of any wage subsidy. Government advisory as at 17 September shows Auckland is at Alert Level 4 and the rest of the country at Alert Level 2. New Zealand's four-level alert system indicates a lockdown at the highest Level 4, when Covid-19 is likely not contained, and restricted travel at Level 3, when there are active but managed clusters. Restrictions on social interactions are imposed at Levels 1 and 2, when Covid-19 is contained or there is low risk of community transmission, respectively. Air New Zealand is observing strong demand for domestic travel across regions currently under Level 2 restrictions, it says, while cargo operations are continuing with approximately 50 flights per week. At the last update, it began drawing down on a NZ$1.5 billion standby loan facility extended by the government, NZ$350 million as at 25 August. In today's disclosure, the company says it recently requested additional drawdowns and these will increase its total drawings to NZ$435 million.

Ryanair is embarking on a new training initiative under which the airline will onboard 5,000 new staff over five years in order to increase its capacity to 200 million passengers annually by 2025. A deal has been struck with the Airline Flight Academy as that company unveils a new €50 million ($59 million) training centre near Dublin, allowing Ryanair access to the facility's flight simulators, cabin crew emergency evacuation device, classroom training centres and pilot briefing rooms. As part of the deal, Ryanair will exclusively use the AFA for its cadet training. The airline is increasing its training bandwidth to ensure it has the pilots, cabin crew, engineers and ground staff to match its planned capacity increase over the coming year, especially given its order for 210 Boeing 737 Max aircraft. Deliveries began in June. "We have invested over €50m in this state-of-the-art training centre, and our agreement with AFA will deliver over 5,000 highly trained pilots, cabin crew, engineers and ground operations professionals over the next five years," states Ryanair chief executive Eddie Wilson. "Ryanair will create over 5,000 new jobs thanks to the expansion of our Boeing 737 fleet, with 210 Max Gamechangers to be delivered over the next five years which will enable Ryanair to grow to carry 200m passengers per annum by 2025." He adds: "The AFA team have been a recruitment and training partner of Ryanair for many years, and we look forward to continuing to invest in this agreement, which has to date enabled Ryanair to recruit and train over 18,000 highly qualified aviation professionals.” Low-cost competitor Wizz Air in recent days announced its own intention to take on an additional 2,000 pilots over the next decade, as part of its plan to triple its fleet size over the period.

Boeing during August logged 53 new aircraft orders and delivered 22 jets to customers as the tenuous recovery of air travel spurs demand for 737 Max jets and even 787s while shipments of the widebody are paused. The US airframer reported orders for 35 Max jets, eleven 777 freighters and seven 787-9s during August. Orders totalled 31 in July. This brought total new orders for 2021 to 683 aircraft. The final tally stands at 280 orders after factoring in commitments that were cancelled or converted to a different model. Boeing deliveries in August included 14 Max jets, a 777F for DHL Express, a 777F for FedEx, a 767F and five aircraft for military customers. Deliveries dipped slightly compared with 28 shipments in July. During 2021, Boeing has delivered 206 aircraft while Airbus delivered 40 jets during August for a total of 384 shipments so far this year. Airbus remains behind Boeing in aircraft sales during 2021, tallying 269 gross orders and 132 after cancellations. Boeing has shipped no 787's since May. The US Federal Aviation Administration is still reviewing a method proposed by Boeing to inspect 787's that would enable the airframer to resume deliveries of the widebody type.