Hong Kong World Routes, a Caribbean focus for Breeze Airlines, Riyadh Air announces new routes, the cost of strikes for Air Canada, and AI hits Lutfthansa staffing levels.

World Routes breezed into Hong Kong last week and challenged many with some extreme weather from Typhoon Ragasa an uninvited guest. Despite everything, plenty of great meetings and catch-ups, and a big shout-out to the organisers for staying calm in the midst of everything being literally thrown at them during the week.

Talking of breezes, Breeze Airways™ announced its first international routes last week with services to the Caribbean. The airline needs to be competing in these markets if it is to grow, but other carriers will compete on price, and in some cases, frequency, making the next few months interesting with forward bookings closely monitored.

Riyadh Air | طيران الرياض *finally* announced some more routes with five destinations planned in India from 2026. No surprises in their choice of destinations, and Indian carriers currently have some 360 more flights per annum than Saudi-based airlines, with flynas leading, so will the bilateral be renegotiated, or will Saudia drop out of the market? Surely Riyadh Air can’t start with just 360 flights a year?!

Air Canada’s summer strikes wiped out around US$375 million in operating income. Next time the unions consider striking, will they remember the damage to the business and the long-term implications?

Lufthansa announces plans to cut 4,000 jobs by 2030 through increased use of AI. Since it’s hard to predict what will happen in six months' time, reckoning on 4,000 job cuts in five years seems like a lot of guesswork! It could be more or less, who really knows…?