Central European budget carrier Wizz Air has established a new base at Rome Fiumicino. Wizz Air says it will station four Airbus A321s in the Italian capital and launch 32 new services. The airline has within just over a year deployed 19 aircraft across Italy, where its network spans 261 routes to 91 destinations across 33 countries. Its Italian capacity has increased more than 80% since its first base in the country was established in spring 2020. Chief commercial officer George Michalopoulos states: "Our expansion in Rome underpins our commitment to continue investing in Italy and supporting Italy's economic recovery as well as offering consumers a wide range of affordable destinations at low fares. "In the last 12 months we have allocated 19 based aircraft to Italy, and will continue to invest in the market, doubling our presence in the next three years, launching further operating bases and new domestic and international routes. "Our brand-new A320neo-family aircraft as well as our enhanced protective measures will ensure the best possible sanitary conditions for travellers while operating with the lowest environmental footprint." The average age of aircraft in Wizz's Italy-based fleet is 0.9 years.

Indonesia AirAsia will completely suspend all scheduled flights for one month from 6 July, in line with the government's emergency community activity restrictions. The suspension will cover Indonesia AirAsia's domestic and international routes from 6 July-6 August, the carrier says in a 3 July statement. The airline's charter and cargo flights to support repatriation missions, delivery of goods and other essential interests will continue with strict health and safety protocols. "We will continue to evaluate the development of the situation and are ready to re-open our scheduled flight services at any time if the situation improves," it adds.

Air New Zealand carried 844,000 passengers in May, a noteworthy progress from 67,000 passengers in May 2020, when the country was under strict lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The carrier boosted capacity, as measured in available seat-kilometres, by 377% year on year, while revenue passenger-kilometres increased by 749%, it says in a 1 July filing to New Zealand's Exchange. Passenger load factor gained nearly 27 percentage points to 61%. On domestic routes, the airline carried 739,000 passengers as compared to 59,000 passengers in the year-ago period, whereas figures on Tasman/Pacific routes increased to 101,000 from 5,000 in the year-ago period. The airline says it increased domestic capacity by 653% year-on-year, while revenue-passenger-kilometres gained 1,155%. On Tasman/Pacific routes, capacity increased 849% while revenue passenger-kilometres rose 2,440%. Passenger load factor on domestic routes advanced almost 33 percentage points to about 82%, while the load factor on Tasman/Pacific routes improved over 34 percentage points to 55%. The number of passengers on long-haul routes fell by 8% year-on-year to 4,000 and passenger load factor slid nearly 11 percentage points to nearly 22%. In its last trading update dated 18 June, Air New Zealand says its domestic capacity stood at about 90% of pre-Covid levels, while corporate demand averaged about 80% of historical levels for the previous three months. Passenger volume on international long-haul routes, however, remain at less than 5% of pre-Covid levels.