European airlines which hoped progress in rolling out vaccines­ would lead to some sort of recovery are instead having to face the reality that tighter travel restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus are going to keep demand down in the near term. 

Lufthansa managed to access the capital market again Feb. 4 by placing an additional two-tranche bond generating €1.6 billion ($1.9 billion) and now plans to begin paying back state aid received in 2020.

Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith has reportedly called for the conditions Europe is expected to impose on the Franco-Dutch airline group’s recapitalization to be proportionate.   

The Singapore Airlines (SIA) group reported a net loss of S$141.8 million for its fiscal 2020 third quarter (Q3), despite a 45% quarter-on-quarter improvement in passenger traffic. 

China Eastern Airlines will issue 2.5 billion privates shares to its parent China Eastern Air Holdings, in a bid to raise CNY10.8 billion ($1.67 billion) and improve the company’s financial stability. 

UK air navigation service provider (ANSP) NATS is planning to scale back the use of the transatlantic Organized Track Structure (OTS) as new technology enables aircraft to take their own more fuel-efficient route across the ocean. 

Panama-based Copa Airlines will become the first carrier in the Americas to trial the IATA Travel Pass mobile health app, designed to facilitate air transport amid the pandemic.

Korean Air has managed to achieve an operating profit in 2020 despite the disruption of the COVID-19 crisis, and the South Korean carrier also succeeded in more than halving its annual net loss.