Bloomberg Air France-KLM Group’s first-quarter loss more than doubled as fares fell and wages climbed following union deals struck by Chief Executive Officer Ben Smith after he took charge last year. The loss jumped to 303 million euros ($339 million) from 118 million euros a year earlier, with higher fuel costs and currency fluctuations also taking their toll. The loss ...
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Boeing 737 skids off runway into Florida river, no fatalities
Bloomberg Boeing Co said it’s helping to investigate how a 737-800 plane arriving from Cuba slipped into a river after skidding off a runway near Jacksonville, Florida. The chartered flight operated by Miami Air International Inc was carrying 136 passengers and seven crew when it left the runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville on Friday evening, Boeing said in a ...
Read More »SAS reaches deal with pilots to end labour conflict
Bloomberg Scandinavian Airlines operator SAS AB reached a deal with pilot unions to end a seven-day strike that left hundreds of thousands of customers in the lurch and may have wiped out profit for the Nordic carrier this year. SAS and the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish pilots agreed on a new three-year wage and labour deal after two days of ...
Read More »India top lender says liabilities biggest hurdle to Jet Air sale
Bloomberg The top lender of ailing Jet Airways India said the burden of reversing the grounded carrier’s negative net worth before it can fly again is the biggest challenge for any potential investor. “Liabilities and losses are considerable,†Rajnish Kumar, chairman of State Bank of India, said. “All these past liabilities and then, profitably, can they fly in future? These ...
Read More »Saudi’s Flynas plans Africa, Balkan hub
Bloomberg Saudi Arabian budget airline Flynas LCC plans to open a hub in West Africa or the Balkans within five years to expand beyond its oversupplied domestic market, according to the airline’s chief executive officer. “Since we are a short-haul carrier, we seek to link those hubs with the current hubs in Saudi Arabia,†CEO Bander Al-Mohanna said in an ...
Read More »Qantas CEO commits to three more years at helm
Bloomberg Qantas Airways Ltd Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce committed to stay on for at least three more years, extending his tenure to the planned start of groundbreaking non-stop flights halfway round the world. A spokesman for the Australian airline confirmed a report in the Sydney Morning Herald that said Joyce, 52, made the pledge at the request of the ...
Read More »Heathrow runway overcomes Mayor, protesters’ opposition
Bloomberg London Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, saw off an attempt by environmental groups to block construction of a third runway that it says is needed to boost flights and compete with rival hubs trying to steal its traffic. Construction, which was challenged by Friends of the Earth, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and other groups after the UK government approved the ...
Read More »FAA starts its bid to restore confidence in Boeing’s Max
Bloomberg The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) took a potentially important step towards rebuilding confidence not only in the Boeing Co 737 Max but also in the agency itself, convening a week-long summit of civil aviation regulators from Brussels to Beijing. Led by former National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Christopher Hart, delegates from eight overseas nations and the European Union ...
Read More »Airbus earnings soar on higher output of rival to Boeing’s Max
Bloomberg Airbus SE earnings surged in the first quarter as the European planemaker churned out higher numbers of the A320 narrow-body jet that’s the biggest global rival to Boeing Co’s grounded 737 Max. The company delivered 126 A320s, a model that appears to have overcome a run of engine manufacturing faults just as the 737 faces questions about its future ...
Read More »Lufthansa halts its low-cost arm’s capacity growth as fare war bites
Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG halted capacity expansion at its Eurowings low-cost arm after the group’s first-quarter margins were squeezed by rising fuel bills and overcapacity that’s sparked a Europe-wide fare war. Europe’s biggest airline is abandoning plans to increase capacity at Eurowings by 2 percent this year. Lufthansa issued a profit warning that attributed a plunge in earnings before interest ...
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