United Airlines is bringing back to its schedule this fall nearly 30 international routes. Among the regions, countries and destinations to which the Chicago-based carrier will be resuming or adding flights in September are Asia, India, Australia, Israel, Latin America, the Caribbean and Mexico. United plans to operate in September 30% of the international schedule it operated in September 2019, a five-point increase compared with August 2020, the airline states. Chief executive Scott Kirby had said during United's 22 July second-quarter earnings call that United has been taking steps to ease European Union travel restrictions in order to restore international routes. Earlier this month, Kirby and chief executives at International Airlines Group, Lufthansa and American Airlines drafted and sent a letter to EU and US officials asking them to adopt a joint Covid-19 testing program. International bans on US travelers are particularly damaging to United, which had the most international capacity in January 2020 among major US carriers. United had 10.1 billion international ASM's in January compared to 7.9 billion ASM's for Delta Air Lines and 7.5 billion ASM's for American Airlines. United is also adding in September 40 daily flights to 48 domestic routes and is resuming service between the US mainland and Hilo and Kauai in Hawaii. "We continue to be realistic in our approach to building back our international and domestic schedules by closely monitoring customer demand and flying where people want to go," Patrick Quayle, United's vice president of international network and alliances, states.

Source: Cirium

Russian operators are restarting international services after the government started clearing restoration of links with countries including Turkey, the UK and Tanzania. Aeroflot is reopening its links from Moscow Sheremetyevo to Istanbul and London Heathrow on 1 August, both routes being served by Boeing 777s. Aeroflot’s budget sister carrier Pobeda is similarly scheduled to fly to Istanbul from Moscow Vnukovo on 1 August, while Turkish Airlines will fly to Vnukovo, as well as to St Petersburg and Rostov-on-Don, over the next three days. Turkish carrier Pegasus Airlines is scheduled to operate Istanbul-Moscow Domodedovo on 1 August. Services to Turkey will be “significantly increased” from 10 August, says Russian federal air transport regulator Rosaviatsia. Aeroflot will expand to the resort of Antalya, while S7 Airlines, Ural Airlines, Nordwind, Azur Air, Rossiya, and others are all planning to open connections. While domestic passenger numbers on Russian operators in June reached 2.8 million – still 60% down on the previous year – they barely registered any international activity. Rosaviatsia recorded little more than 40,000 international passengers during the month, around three-quarters of which were travelling between Russia and countries outside of the CIS.

Russian flag carrier Aeroflot slipped to a net loss of Rb26.2 billion ($356 million) in the second quarter, from a profit of Rb2.73 billion a year ago, but is now seeing a "gradual recovery" in domestic flights. "To support this positive trend, management plans to continue the implementation of strict cost-optimisation measures," the SkyTeam member stresses, noting its "constant dialogue with partners to improve terms and conditions in order to preserve jobs and the company's business and weather the current global crisis". Passenger turnover plunged 92% in the second quarter, amid a near-total cessation of international flying – excepting repatriation missions – and "a significant reduction in domestic flights due to quarantine-related travel restrictions in certain regions of Russia". Financial results prepared in accordance with Russian accounting standards show second-quarter revenue down 85%. Across the year's first half, passenger turnover fell 57% and revenue 52%. "Management's decision to decrease capacity by 47.8% had a positive impact on costs," says Aeroflot. As unit passenger revenue dropped 15%, the airline's first-half net loss trebled to Rb42.4 billion, despite a "40%-plus" increase in cargo revenue as the widebody fleet was repurposed to carry freight. The first-half cost of sales tightened 34% to Rb178 million. Aeroflot says this was a result not just of declining operational volumes but also of "large-scale cost-optimisation measures".

Source: Cirium