Aviation

  Beijing / AFP A Chinese pilot has been suspended, his airline said, after social media footage showed he told passengers to deplane and protest against a flight delay, the latest outburst over the country’s notorious air transport services. The flight, operated by Lucky Air, was scheduled to leave the tourist destination of Xishuangbanna for the southern city of Kunming ...

  AFP / Bloomberg German heavyweight airline Lufthansa cancelled a further 890 flights on Wednesday as pilots remained on strike in a long-running wage dispute. Lufthansa said some 98,000 passengers were grounded by the walkout, which flight crew extended to long-haul flights after Tuesday’s action affected only short-haul services. The airline has sought to limit the impact of the strike ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG lost a German court bid to prevent pilots from resuming strikes on Tuesday in a labour dispute that has caused almost 4,500 flight cancellations this month. The Munich Labor Court denied the airline’s request for an injunction preventing the two-day walkout at the mainline Lufthansa brand, putting the pilots on track for their longest-ever work ...

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabian low-cost airline Flynas expects to decide “very soon” on an order for as many as 100 planes from either Airbus Group SE or Boeing Co. that it previously targeted for mid-2016. The carrier will communicate a decision to the planemakers “within the next few days or weeks,” Flynas Chief Executive Officer Paul Byrne said in a ...

  Bloomberg Bombardier Inc. is on track to overcome delays in shipments of engines for its brand-new C Series jetliner by the end of next year, according to the head of the company’s commercial aircraft unit. “It’s going to take mostly through 2017 to get right back on track,” Fred Cromer, Bombardier’s commercial aircraft president, told reporters Monday in Mirabel, ...

  Bloomberg Ask a harried air traveler about the basics of modern flight, and you’ll probably elicit surprise when they discover commercial airplanes fly only as fast as they did in the 1950s. Given the range of aerospace advances in the past half-century, plus the technological leaps in almost every other area of human endeavor, it seems reasonable to ask: ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG refused to give in to pilot demands for a higher wage offer, with their union now set to extend a walkout to Tuesday and Wednesday this week making the current conflict the longest ever protest by cockpit crews at the German airline. Pilots at the mainline Lufthansa brand will strike on short-haul services on Tuesday ...

  Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business It has been a month of milestones for Etihad Cargo. The freight division of Etihad Airways recorded its busiest month ever in October, uplifting 53,785 tonnes of cargo and surpassing its previous best, achieved in November 2014, by 501 tonnes. This reflected growth in perishables traffic from Africa, US inbound and outbound traffic, and ...

  Bloomberg India is considering buying and leasing small planes to local carriers as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to connect remote towns and villages by air, people familiar with the proposal said. To succeed, Modi’s plans would need small, 20-seat aircraft, which are usually not leased out by traditional aircraft-renting companies, the people said, declining to be ...

  Bloomberg International Airfinance Corp. Ltd. is seeking to raise at least $1 billion to buy 18 Airbus Group SE planes that will be leased to Saudi Arabian Airlines, according to three people with knowledge of the plan. IAFC is exploring options including 12-year amortizing loans to pay for 10 A330-300 jets and eight A320 narrow-bodies due for delivery in ...