Brazil’s domestic air traffic grew in 2019 by only 0.8% while capacity was reduced by 1%, completing a decade characterized by market maturation following years of double digit growth in the early 2000s. According to data published by Brazil’s Civil Aviation Authority ANAC, 96.67 million passengers were transported in South America’s largest market last year, compared to 95.94 million travelers a year before. The disappearance of the country’s fourth largest airline, bankrupt Avianca Brazil, can hardly be noticed in the official traffic figures as its traffic was swiftly absorbed by its competitors. Comparing December figures, more than six months after Avianca Brazil's last flight, Brazil’s third largest airline, Azul, sees its market share jumping from 18.8% in 2018 to 23.3% last year. LATAM Brazil also picked up a significant part of the market abandoned by Avianca Brazil, transporting 37.7% of domestic traffic, compared to 31% in 2018, putting it back into the head-to-head race with Gol with for the market leadership that has dominated Brazil’s aviation market for many years. Gol itself only improved moderately from carrying 37.9% to 38.6% of the local passengers. The combination of growth with a 1% reduction of seat capacity in the market led to a systemwide average load factor of 83.8%, the highest in Brazil’s aviation history. Internationally, and taking into account only Brazilian carriers, the three market leaders together transported 9.1 million passengers last year, led by LATAM, absorbing about two-thirds of the traffic. This is 2.6% less than 2018, a decline that worsened over the year, with a 13.4% drop in international passenger traffic reported in December.

Source: Cirium

Middle eastern nations Qatar and Kuwait have widened travel bans to include Singapore, in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Kuwait is advising its citizens to defer unnecessary travel to Singapore, and urging them to leave the country, media reports indicate. The Qatari embassy issued a similar statement on 9 February, advising citizens to "wait until the conditions related to the coronavirus calms, except for the most urgent need". Singapore is a key regional hub with over 400 connections to nearly 150 cities, according to Cirium schedules data. As of 11 February, there are 45 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the city state, the highest count outside of mainland China if the cases originating from a cruise ship are excluded from Japan's figure. An increasing number of nations have also cautioned its citizens about travelling to Singapore. Neighbouring state Indonesia is warning its citizens to take extra care, while the UK government has advised citizens returning from Singapore, among other nations with a significant number of cases, to monitor for coronavirus symptoms within 14 days of return.

Source: Cirium

Airlink is to maintain services on four routes from which franchise partner South African Airways is withdrawing at the end of the month. The business rescue practitioners appointed to lead cash-strapped SAA – after it was placed in formal restructuring in early December – announced on 6 February that the Star Alliance carrier would drop a string of flights as part of a wide-ranging streamlining of its network. That included all its domestic flights except Johannesburg-Cape Town, regional flights from Johannesburg to Abidjan, Entebbe, Luanda and Ndola, and intercontinental services to Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Munich and Sao Paulo. But private South African carrier Airlink – which has a franchise agreement in place with SAA – says it will continue to operate the domestic route linking Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth, as well as services to Ugandan city Entebbe, Ndola in Zambia and the Angolan capital Luanda, after SAA stops doing so . "We want to reassure travellers that as far as Airlink is concerned, it is business as usual. Our schedule and operations are unaffected by SAA's latest network cuts," states Airlink chief executive Rodger Foster. Airlink had in January reached an amended agreement with SAA to replace their franchise agreement with a new commercial arrangement. Under the revised deal, Airlink will continue to operate flights under the SA8 code until switching to its own 4Z flight code from 11 June 2020. At the time, Airlink said that while SAA remained "an important strategic pillar in Airlink's strategy", the new arrangement gives Airlink "the freedom to extend its commercial reach, develop more routes and frequencies on an independent basis and extend or establish additional agreements with other leading international airlines".

Source: Cirium