Virgin Australia will buy back a 35% stake in its Velocity loyalty programme for A$700 million ($481 million) from private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners. The airline states in a stock exchange that it has signed a term sheet for the acquisition, which is expected to occur before the end of 2019. In July, the airline disclosed that Affinity was exploring options to exit its stake in the programme, and some media reports indicated that it was likely to seek an initial public offering of the company. Velocity has been a profitable unit for Virgin, reporting earnings before interest and tax of A$122 million for the year to 30 June, as revenue rose 39% to A$411 million. Virgin has not disclosed how it intends to finance the transaction, but it seems likely that it may have to raise additional debt from bank sources or bond issuances. At 30 June the airline had cash and cash equivalents of A$1.33 billion, however it has around A$1.1 billion of debt maturing over the 2020 financial year. That includes a $400 million US unsecured bond redemption and the redemption of its Enhanced Equipment Trust Certificates that were issued in 2013.

Source: FlightGlobal

First Air and Canadian North, as previously reported, are merging. The Canadian North name will survive, but the red and white First Air livery will become the livery for the merged airline. Aircraft are now being painted with the new titles.The two carriers have announced a unified passenger and cargo schedule is now available for booking and will take effect on Friday, November 1, 2019. Together, the merged airline will provide safe, friendly and reliable service to 24 northern communities, from our southern gateways of Ottawa, Montreal and Edmonton, with seamless interline connections to destinations throughout Canada, the United States and beyond.

Source: World Airline News

Start-up regional operator Great Dane Airlines is expanding its fledgling network from Aalborg into its Scandinavian neighbourhood. It is planning to open services to the Swedish capital Stockholm, serving Arlanda airport, as well as the city of Gothenburg. Although flights will commence on 14 November, the services will be relatively infrequent, just once every two weeks. Great Dane says the departures to Stockholm will take place in "odd weeks" and Gothenburg in "even weeks". While there are no air services connecting Aalborg to either Swedish city, both are served multiple times daily from Copenhagen. Aalborg is geographically closer to Gothenburg than to Copenhagen, but Great Dane would be competing with frequent ferry services to Gothenburg out of the Danish port of Frederikshavn. Great Dane uses a small fleet of Embraer 195s. It commenced services in June this year and operates scheduled flights to Nice, Dublin and Edinburgh.

Source: FlightGlobal