Aviation

Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co. will reduce by half the amount of experience prospective pilots must have flying jet or turboprop aircraft as it accelerates hiring this year. Applicants will need to have 500 hours of “turbine time” starting February 7, down from the 1,000 hours previously required, the airline confirmed. The change, outlined in a memo to pilots, “will allow …

Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Air France-KLM are in talks to buy bankrupt UK airline Flybe, the Telegraph reported, without saying where it obtained the information. Lufthansa and Air France-KLM are considering an offer because they are interested in Flybe’s seven pairs of take-off and landing slots at London’s Heathrow airport and five pairs of slots at Schiphol in Amsterdam, …

Bloomberg Families of 737 Max crash victims say Boeing Co. violated terms of a 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement with the US government when the company pleaded not guilty in Texas last week to a fraud charge tied to its role in hiding flight-control flaws from regulators. In a motion filed in federal court, lawyers for the relatives claimed the aircraft maker’s …

  Bloomberg A FedEx Corp. widebody jet flew over the top of a Southwest Airlines Co. plane in Texas after an air-traffic controller cleared the passenger plane to take off from the same runway that the cargo aircraft was preparing to land on, aviation authorities said. The US National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation into the close call …

Bloomberg Elon Musk and Philippine tycoon Henry Sy Jr. will introduce their satellite broadband service in the Southeast Asian nation this quarter. Delays in the production and deployment of low earth orbit satellites pushed back the venture’s plan to start offering high speed, low latency internet in December, Sy’s Data Lake said. SpaceX’s Starlink plans to offer its service in …

  Bloomberg Hong Kong will hand out 500,000 air tickets to bring in much-needed visitors as part of a global publicity campaign. The city’s leader John Lee announced the giveaway at the launch of the Hello Hong Kong campaign at a briefing, saying it was “probably the world’s biggest welcome ever.” Lee highlighted a number of events coming up including …

  Bloomberg Finnair Oyj will stop selling amenity kits, and other popular Finnish products on board its aircraft by the end of the month, reacting to slowing demand for in-flight shopping. The move has the added benefit of reducing the overall weight of the aircraft, Finnair said, at a time when carriers are seeking to cut their fuel bills. In-flight …

  Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co. named a new executive to oversee technology investments and data platforms, just over a month after the carrier suffered from an operational meltdown that forced it to cancel more than 16,700 flights. Lauren Woods, who has been with the company since 2010, was named chief information officer and senior vice president of technology, taking over …

  Bloomberg Air New Zealand Ltd. is attempting one of its biggest-ever passenger recoveries, trying to rebook some 9,000 travellers stranded around the world or stuck at home, unable to fly due to floods in Auckland. With spare capacity on airlines already limited, the task has turned into a complex logistical puzzle for the New Zealand carrier. Some passengers are …

  Bloomberg The US and India plan to share advanced defense and computing technology, including the potential joint production of General Electric Co. jet engines, as the Biden administration seeks to shift New Delhi away from Russia and counter China. Details of the plan, known as US–India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies, bolster Washington’s broader agenda of strengthening military, …