American Airlines says it expects it will not have the Boeing 737 Max in its schedule until mid-August, the last major US airline to plan through the lucrative summer peak travel season without the new generation aircraft, which has been grounded since March 2019. Earlier in the day United Airlines cancelled all Max flights through 4 September and on Thursday Southwest Airlines said it will not be scheduling the Max until 10 August. Delta Air Lines, Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways do not have any Max in their fleets or on order. “American Airlines remains in continuous contact with the Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation and Boeing,” the airline writes in a note on its website on 14 February. “Based on the latest guidance, the airline anticipates that the resumption of scheduled commercial service on American’s fleet of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft will occur Aug. 18, 2020.” The Fort-Worth-based carrier has 24 Max aircraft in storage and another 76 on order from Boeing. The type’s grounding is in its 11th month following two deadly crashes, and there is no indication when it will be recertificated and return to revenue service. The Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing continue to scrutinize the Max but so far no certification flight test has been scheduled. “American expects to gradually phase in the MAX for commercial service and will increase flying on the aircraft throughout the month of August and into September,” the airline adds. “Since American will gradually phase the MAX into our operation over the course of a month, additional refinements to our schedule may occur.” American’s executives told analysts on its full-year earnings call on 23 January that the airline was forced to cancel about 10,000 flights alone during the final quarter of 2019 due to the grounding. The airline said it expects to book a loss in 2020 similar to the $540 full-year loss incurred in 2019.

Source: Cirium

Avianca Holdings was served with a search warrant at its Bogota offices 12 February by the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia, which sought to collect information related to alleged irregular grants of free and discounted airline tickets, the parent of Colombia flag carrier Avianca disclosed in a 12 February US Securities and Exchange Commission filing. On 15 August, Avianca Holdings had commenced an internal investigation into the allegations and reported the investigation to the US Department of Justice, the SEC and Colombian authorities, the SEC filing states. The ongoing internal investigation is being independently conducted by the law firm Ropes & Gray. Separately, on 3 February Avianca commenced an independent internal investigation into its relationship with Airbus following the airframer's 31 January final agreement to pay a €3.6 billion ($4 billion) fine to settle multiple investigations from French, UK and US authorities for bribery linked to its commercial aircraft and defence divisions.

Source: Cirium

South African carrier Comair warns that it expects to post a loss for the second half of 2019 because of the ongoing Boeing 737 Max grounding and an unpaid debt by South African Airways. The British Airways franchise partner, which also operates budget unit Kulula, says in a notice to the Johannesburg Stock exchange that its earnings per share for the six months to December 31 are expected to be more than 170% lower than the comparable period of 2018. The carrier attributes the loss to increased operating costs from replacing five owned Boeing 737-400s with five leased 737-800s, as well as increased line maintenance costs arising from the transition of its fleet from SAA Technical to Lufthansa Technik. “Furthermore, earnings continue to be negatively impacted by cumulative losses incurred as a result of the ongoing grounding of the Boeing 737 Max 8,” states Comair, adding that compensation negotiations are “underway” with Boeing but remain unresolved as yet. Comair had taken delivery of one Max 8 before the grounding took effect. It was due to receive a second in March 2019 and a third this month. The airline says it has received “no revised delivery dates” from Boeing. Adding to the carrier’s woes, South African Airways last year agreed to pay Comair Rs1 billion ($67.4 million) over the course of a period beginning on 28 February 2019 and ending 28 July 2022, in order to settle a long-running legal dispute over travel-agency incentive schemes. However, Comair states that SAA “failed to make the payment of the capital and interest amount due on 28 December 2019” and is now “in breach of its obligations in terms of the settlement agreement”. The carrier adds that SAA still owes it R790 million but says “the future recoverability of the outstanding amount is uncertain” because SAA has now been placed under business rescue.

Source: Cirium