Aviation

  Nairobi / AFP A maverick 72-year-old British pilot taking part in a vintage air rally turned up in South Sudan on Saturday after going missing for a second time when the event arrived in Kenya. Maurice Kirk is one of about a dozen pilots flying vintage biplanes across Africa, but has repeatedly run foul of organisers for failing to ...

  Bloomberg US airlines are posting record profits, awarding hefty pay raises and winning over longtime skeptics like Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The missing ingredient: proof that the industry can weather a downturn. Previous airline booms were followed by busts that eventually forced all the biggest full-service airlines into bankruptcy. The difference this time is an eight-year era of ...

  Bloomberg The biggest version of Airbus Group SE’s A350 wide-body jet made its first flight on Thursday, swelling the twin-engine model’s capacity and casting further doubt on the future of four-turbine planes including the Boeing Co. 747 and the European manufacturer’s own A380. The A350-1000, which departed Airbus’s base in Toulouse, France, at 10:42 a.m. local time, seats 366 ...

  Berlin / AFP Pilots at German flagship carrier Lufthansa stayed away from work for a second straight day on Thursday, forcing the airline to scrap 912 flights and grounding 115,000 more passengers. The airline had already scrapped nearly 900 flights that affected 100,000 passengers on Wednesday after pilots staged a walkout in a row over pay and working conditions. ...

  New York / AP The 50 busiest airports in the US collected more than $183 million last year from travellers using taxis, shuttle buses or other forms of ground transportation, according to Associated Press calculations from data obtained through dozens of public records requests. Fees ranged widely from airport to airport. They were only paid — directly or indirectly ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s long-running pilot dispute reached new levels of bitterness as a failed bid to have a day-long strike declared illegal led a union to retaliate by extending the walkout by 24 hours. Lufthansa canceled 876 flights on Wednesday, disrupting travel for 100,000 people, and could lose a similar number of services on Thursday after the Vereinigung ...

  Paris / AFP The United States has approved a second export licence for Airbus to sell jetliners worth billions of dollars to Iran’s flag carrier, the European aviation giant said. “We confirm that we have received our second licence from the US Office of Foreign Control Assets following the agreement (with Iran Air) signed in January 2016 in Paris,” ...

  Bloomberg Boeing Co.’s aging Super Hornet fighter is getting a lift after Canada said it planned to purchase 18 as a stopgap measure while the government begins a five-year bidding process for new jets to modernize its fleet. The country will enter negotiations with Boeing to “immediately explore” the acquisition of the jets, and a separate competition will be ...

  Suva / AFP Fiji Airways announced on Wednesday it had ordered five new Boeing 737s — reportedly worth $470 million — as part of a fleet upgrade programme at the Pacific nation’s flag carrier. The airline said it would take delivery of two Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft next year and three more in 2018 to replace five earlier-model ...

  Taipei / AFP Taiwan’s troubled TransAsia Airways said on Tuesday it would close down after two deadly plane crashes, massive financial losses and an insider trading probe. Board members reached the decision at a hastily called meeting, with all flights immediately axed. Chief executive officer Liu Tung-ming bowed in a sign of contrition as he told reporters of the ...