Aviation

Bloomberg Icelandic startup Play Air Hf reported strong bookings for the coming weeks as it started operations with a flight to London Stansted airport. Sales for the latter part of July and August are particularly healthy, fuelled by demand from locals eager to head south for a vacation after more than a year of coronavirus lockdowns, according to CEO Birgir …

Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co will increase its minimum wage to $15 an hour and raise the pay of thousands of airport workers to ensure it retains sufficient staff and can attract new employees to support growth over the next two to four years. The move will affect more than 7,000 employees and take effect from August 1, the airline told …

Bloomberg Kenya Airways Plc‘s head said the government should step in to repay $750 million of state-guaranteed debt to help the East African carrier emerge from the Covid-19 crisis that has battered the industry. The airline is scheduled to resume repayments of the sovereign-backed debt next month, following a moratorium negotiated with lenders following the grounding of most international travel …

Bloomberg Delta Air Lines Inc plans to hire more than 1,000 pilots by next summer to support its expected recovery from the devastation of the pandemic and an expansion of its route network. Domestic leisure travel will return to pre-pandemic volumes this month, John Laughter, Delta’s operations chief, said in a memo to flight-operations employees. Travel restrictions across the Atlantic …

Bloomberg An Indian bankruptcy court ruled Jet Airways India Ltd can resume operations under a new owner more than two years after it collapsed, according to Ashish Chhawchharia, the court-appointed professional running the carrier’s insolvency. Jet Airways, once India’s biggest private carrier, fell into bankruptcy in 2019 under mounting debts. Dubai-based businessman Murari Lal Jalan and Kalrock Capital Management Ltd …

Bloomberg US airlines and their unions want the Justice Department to send a strong message against the rise in unruly passengers with additional federal criminal charges. Several airline trade groups and unions sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling for criminal enforcement that goes beyond the increase in civil charges filed so far this year by the US …

Bloomberg Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA replaced its chief executive officer after exiting insolvency proceedings, as the low-cost airline rebuilds its operations as a regional carrier. The board voted to end the contract of CEO Jacob Schram, according to a statement. He was replaced by Chief Financial Officer Geir Karlsen, who spent about six months as interim CEO in 2019. Karlsen …

Bloomberg Thousands of federal engineers, inspectors and other aviation workers have a new channel through which to report safety concerns without fear of retaliation in an action spurred by the two fatal crashes on the Boeing Co 737 Max. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) unveiled what it calls the Voluntary Safety Reporting Program. The 7,400 people working at FAA’s …

Bloomberg The series of flight cancellations from American Airlines over the weekend will continue to plague travellers. Almost 100 flights from the airline have already been cancelled for June 21, according to a representative from American Airlines Group Inc. That’s following 123 flights cancelled on June 19 and at least 178. “The first few weeks of June have brought unprecedented …

Bloomberg The recovery in Europe’s air traffic hit a new milestone as people take to the skies again for summer vacations. Aside from a brief pickup around Christmas, the continent’s air traffic is at its highest compared with pre-Covid levels since March last year, when continent’s lockdowns really began to affect demand. It rose just above 50% of 2019 levels …