A Virgin Affair

Regulators from the European Union didn’t allow Air Transat to sell itself to Air Canada. A merger, they said (during the pandemic), would harm consumers. But now Transat has an alternative path, involving another Canadian airline. It’s forming a joint venture with Toronto-based Porter, an airline expanding domestically and across the U.S. border with Embraer E195-E2s. In fact, it placed an order for another 25 units last week, in conjunction with the joint venture announcement. The two carriers already codeshare, but now the cooperation will extend to areas like pricing and scheduling. Simply put, Air Transat needs traffic feed to support its intercontinental expansion, while Porter needs traffic feed to support its continental expansion.

Speaking of expansion, EasyJet plans to grow faster than many of its rivals next summer, in part because others are constrained by aircraft and engine shortages. Wizz Air, most notably, has its growth plans in disarray because of required engine inspections. EasyJet has a different concern, one familiar to European airlines. It can’t seem to make money in the winter. Across the entire 12 months that ended in September, the orange-clad LCC earned an operating margin of just 6%.

Well, at least it wasn’t negative 6%. That was SAS’s ugly figure for its fiscal quarter covering the months of August, September, and October. Currency woes and suboptimal labor productivity were specific headaches during the period. If SAS is nevertheless feeling somewhat optimistic, however, it’s because an exit from bankruptcy is near, supported by Air France-KLM.

Across the ocean in South America, Abra — that’s the parent company of Avianca and Gol — has a new CEO. And in North America, a court ruling on the high-stakes JetBlue-Spirit merger could come soon.