All My Mergers: So You’re Saying There’s a Chance?
JetBlue’s bid to purchase Spirit may not be on life support after all. Days after Spirit postponed its vote on the merger from June 10 to June 30, the ULCC and Fee Champion agreed to open some of its books to JetBlue, giving it access to the same due diligence information Frontier has had for weeks.
Spirit CEO Ted Christie said the Board of Directors “expects to bring the process to a conclusion and provide an update to stockholders” prior to the vote on June 30. An official copy of the statement was only offered to those willing to pay a $9 fee, the rest will have to take our word for it.
Once it received access to the books, JetBlue’s accountants were shocked to find most of the information redacted, with a note over the redactions saying it was blocked by Pike the Otter, Sammy the Squirrel, and Otto the Owl.
LATAM Moves Closer to Exiting Chapter 11
LATAM asked a bankruptcy judge to approve $2.75 billion in new loans to drive the carrier’s exit from Chapter 11 proceedings in the United States.
While taking on new debt to exit bankruptcy is not always a sound financial plan, the carrier says it has a plan, and believes the swelling of demand in the industry is the catalyst it needs to return to the land of the profitable. The money has been secured from several banks plus another $1.2 billion in agreement to refinance and extend its current bankruptcy loan.
The carrier needs permission from the bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York to move forward with its exit loans and its entire restructuring plan.
What’s In a Name? Ask Turkey
When you name your airline after the country it’s based in, there’s one catch — if the country changes names, the airline’s gotta follow suit.
For those who haven’t heard, the country of Turkey is officially changing its name to Türkiye (prounced “TUR-key-yay”), and that change has been recognized by the UN as the new, correct name of the country. The president said the new name “represents and expresses the culture, civilization, and values of the Turkish nation in the best way.” With the name change, the flag carrier of the country is updating its name as well, to Türkiye Hava Yolları.
The name of the carrier translates to, well, Turkish Airlines. So the new name may be accurate, but it’s not terribly clever.
It will repaint all 309 of its aircraft to the new name, but to be budget conscious, the government plans to ask Airbus if it can buy off all the paint that was supposed to go onto Qatar’s A350s at a discount.
- Air Albania finally received a €3.3 million repayment from the Albanian government.
- Iberia’s 20% acquisition of Air Europa was approved by the Spanish government.
- Jeju Air added its first B737 freighter.
- Qatar’s lounge in Singapore reopens tomorrow.
- SAS will receive state aid from Denmark if the carrier can also find private investors to chip in. Anyone interested in going halfsies on the airline should contact the Danish government.
- SmartLynx Airlines Malta received its first B737 MAX 8.
- Starlux now plans to begin flying to the United States early in 2023.
- Vietnam Airlines will add new regional jets in 2023. It’s currently studying the use of RJs in the United States to learn how to make them as uncomfortable as possible for passengers and ensure the overhead bins are deceptively small enough to not hold anyone’s luggage bigger than a handbag.
My family thought it would be a fun prank to glue my deck of cards together into one brick.
I’m having trouble dealing with it.