Aviation

Bloomberg The airline that passengers love to hate is figuring out how to arrive on time. Spirit Airlines Inc. rose to third place in the Department of Transportation’s monthly tally of US airlines’ on-time performance in October, with 87.2 percent of its flights arriving within 14 minutes of their scheduled time. That placed it ahead of larger Alaska Air Group ...

Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings Plc pilots in the airline’s home base of Dublin defied a management threat and voted in favour of labour action, throwing their weight behind a European organising campaign seeking better working conditions. Of the cockpit staff who voted, 95 percent said they’d rather strike than accept management proposals to improve employment terms, people familiar with the matter ...

Bloomberg Out in western Canada, the airline world is about to watch a unique business experiment. If it goes as planned, in a few years there will be a new favourite carrier battling for your airfare dollars, regardless of whether you’re a penny pincher or a rich banker. WestJet Airlines Ltd., which flies Boeing Co. 737s in Canada much the ...

Bloomberg United Continental Holdings Inc.’s top communications executive is stepping down after leading the airline’s PR strategy through a tumultuous two-year tenure and worldwide scandal this April. Jim Olson, senior vice president of corporate communications, will resign effective from January 8 to pursue other opportunities, he said in a letter to employees. The decision was his own and he wasn’t ...

Bloomberg United Continental Holdings Inc. is exploring a deal to invest in regional airline ExpressJet to boost its pipeline of pilots and expand service in the eastern and midwestern US, people familiar with the matter said. The Chicago-based carrier is looking at acquiring an ownership stake in ExpressJet among other options in negotiations that are still developing, said the people, ...

Bloomberg Delta Air Lines Inc. said it was resuming normal operations at its Atlanta hub, after a snowstorm forced it to cancel about 375 flights in and out of there earlier in the day. The cancellations came on top of more than 1,000 flights scrubbed on Friday because of the early-season snowstorm. The airline said winter weather in the south ...

Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings Plc has threatened to freeze benefits for pilots in Dublin and move aircraft to other Irish airports if staff go on strike. The discount carrier will scrap promotions, halt transfer requests and cut back recently-granted spending allowances of up to $18,900 per pilot, Chief People Officer Eddie Wilson wrote in a letter to staff. The company may ...

Bloomberg Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co.’s flagship carrier cancelled a planned bond sale after weeks of soaring interest rates that had forced the debt-laden group’s units to pay some of their highest borrowing costs ever. Hainan Airlines Holding Co. had planned to sell $151.2 million of the perpetual securities in China’s local market to repay maturing debt, according to a ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG has to do more to allay European Union concerns about its takeover of most of Air Berlin Plc after offering concessions that won’t fully appease regulators, according to two people familiar with the process. Lufthansa would need to improve upon its offer to cede landing rights of Air Berlin’s Niki arm in order to win approval ...

Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings Plc faces its first-ever strike as crews in Italy prepare to walk out as part of a push for unionisation and company-wide contracts, and staff in six other countriesconsider action. Pilots and flight attendants in Italy plan to walk off the job for four hours from 1 pm local time on December 15, according two unions. Workers ...