Iranian authorities appear set to send the flight recorders of the Boeing 737-800 shot down over Tehran to France for download of their data. The issue of reading the data following the event involving the Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, operating from Tehran to Kiev on 8 January, has been mired in political discussion. But Iran’s foreign affairs ministry states that minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has informed Canadian counterpart Francoias-Philippe Champagne that the Iranian authorities will transfer the recorders to France “in the coming days”. “A decision has been made regarding the sending of the [recorders], which will be implemented soon,” the ministry adds. It states that the coronavirus outbreak – which badly affected Iran – has complicated the situation. French authority BEA has the capability to retrieve the recorder information at its Paris facilities. None of those on board the 737-800 survived after two missiles from a Tor-M1 anti-aircraft system were launched shortly after the aircraft took off. Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation indicates that secondary radar contact with flight PS752 was initially lost about 3min after departure, as the aircraft climbed through 8,100ft, and that primary radar tracked it for a further 3min before it came down about 9nm from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport.

Source: Cirium

Alaska Air Group on 22 June is forecasting difficult times ahead for the second and third quarters even as air travel demand begins to slowly emerge. The group is projecting that June capacity will be down 70% year-over-year while revenue will be down 80% year-over-year. Passenger traffic began to increase while cancellations began to decrease in May, but Alaska says "demand remains significantly below historic levels" as the coronavirus pandemic drags on. The parent of company of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air says in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that "if demand continues to improve, we expect to moderate our capacity cuts into July and August to approximately down 60% and down 50% from prior-year levels". So far, the uptick in travel led Alaska on 19 June to resume flying eight aircraft belonging to its regional partner SkyWest Airlines. The carrier aims to take delivery of three Boeing 737 Max aircraft by December, along with 15 more in 2021, depending on the regulatory process to recertificate the grounded Boeing aircraft. The mainline parked 156 aircraft through April, reducing capacity by 78% year-over-year, while revenue was down 87%. The reopening of some state economies and businesses has contributed to a slight increase in travel, driving carriers to return some aircraft to service. At 19 June Alaska had $2.7 billion in cash and short-term investments and continues to cut costs. The air group employs around 22,000 workers, 6,000 of whom have accepted voluntary short-term and incentive leave. Alaska Air Group president Ben Minicucci has said the company may reduce its workforce by 3,000 people in 2021. The Seattle-based holding company expects to burn $150 million cash during the month of June, an improvement from the monthly cash burn rate of $400 million at the end of March. It aims to eliminate cash burn by the end of 2020. The group had 319 aircraft in its fleet as of 19 June, including 225 aircraft in the mainline Alaska fleet. In May it permanently parked 12 Airbus A320 family aircraft and said it would refocus pilot training on Boeing aircraft.

Source: Cirium

Mexican flag carrier Aeromexico says it has no plans to file for bankruptcy, but that it is “evaluating alternatives to move towards a better financial position” after the global coronavirus pandemic decimated its liquidity. The public statement on 19 June comes in response to media reports earlier in the day that said the airline is mulling filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in order to restructure its debt after much of commercial passenger aviation was grounded in the past weeks. “The company hereby informs that it has not initiated, nor has it made the decision to initiate, a restructuring procedure under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code,” the company says. “We are currently identifying additional sources of financing to strengthen operating cash flows,” it says. ”We are also analyzing different alternatives to successfully achieve, in the short and medium term, an orderly restructuring of financial commitments, without affecting or disrupting operations.” Latin American carriers are struggling as the region’s governments have been much slower to respond with support for the air transport industry than in other parts of the world, such as North America and Europe. Billion-dollar aid packages in those regions have helped airlines stay afloat, at least temporarily, and reorganise their operations after passenger demand dropped off sharply when the coronavirus exploded into a global pandemic earlier this year. Chile’s LATAM and Colombia’s Avianca both filed for bankruptcy protection in May in order to shield their businesses from creditors. The airlines say they want to make sure they are able to restart operations smoothly when passenger demand returns and when travel restrictions are lifted. Commercial aviation trade organization IATA has repeatedly criticized Latin American governments’ sluggish response to their aviation industries, and has strongly urged them to intervene on behalf of the sector’s 7.2 million jobs across the region. In May, the body, which represents 290 airlines worldwide, said the goverments had provided less than 1% of the airlines’ 2019 operating revenue in financial aid, making it the least-supportive region in the world. But giving governmet assistance to private companies in countries whose populations are already suffering from economic hardship is a difficult political proposition for many Latin American nations, even though air travel has been able to bridge vast distances across the continent where ground-based transportation networks, infrastructures and systems are sometimes unreliable. Air traffic fell by about 96% in Latin America and the Caribbean as the coronavirus pandemic reached its peak in April, and has yet to make any significant steps toward recovery. While most countries begin to lift restrictions in the coming weeks, Colombia and Argentina expect to have lockdowns in place through the end of August.

Source: Cirium