Aviation

  Bloomberg Airbus Group SE said the U.K. Serious Fraud Office has opened a criminal investigation into allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption relating to some of its third-party consultants. The Toulouse, France-based planemaker said in a statement that it’s cooperating with investigators probing its civil aviation business. Airbus had flagged to U.K. regulators and the European Export Credit Agencies ...

  Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co.’s board made no bones about its response to the labor groups that called for the ouster of two top executives: They’re not going anywhere. After the carrier’s four largest unions earlier this week called for Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly and Chief Operating Officer Mike Van de Ven to step down, directors fired back in ...

  Nairobi / AFP When Kenya Airways published the country’s worst-ever corporate results last month, the scale of the loss revealed the effects of several disastrous decisions that the national carrier is struggling to reverse. The airline’s “Pride of Africa” slogan rang uncomfortably hollow when the 26.22- billion-shilling ($259-million) loss was announced, driven by higher borrowing costs and unfavourable exchange ...

  KUALA LUMPUR / AP Malaysia acknowledged for the first time that one of the pilots of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had plotted a course on his home flight simulator to the southern Indian Ocean, where the missing jet is believed to have crashed. Australian officials overseeing the search for the plane last month said data recovered from Capt. Zaharie ...

Bloomberg Air Berlin Plc is introducing business-class seats in Europe in a push to position the airline in a more lucrative segment of the market following years of losses. The carrier will begin reserving the first row of German and European flights later this year for premium customers, who will enjoy priority check-in and boarding, fast-lane security and lounge access ...

  Bloomberg Qantas Airways Ltd. said it doesn’t want the remaining eight A380s it still has on order because the dozen it operates now are sufficient to meet demand, further dimming future sales prospects for the largest passenger plane that’s struggled to find buyers. “Our intention is that we’re not taking those aircraft,” Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce said ...

  CONCORD / AP In a small town just south of New Hampshire’s capital, General Electric runs two plants filled with workers building jet engines for the world’s leading airlines. With 800 workers, GE Aviation is the largest employer in town. But in the next five to 10 years, about a third of those workers are expected to retire. The company ...

  Bloomberg The federal government for the first time has given permission to a private Florida company to fly a spaceship beyond Earth’s orbit and land on the moon. The Federal Aviation Administration gave clearance to Moon Express to land a washing machine-sized vehicle on the moon that would take hops across the lunar surface using engine firings instead of ...

  Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co. Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly pushed back against calls for his ouster by four labor groups, saying the personal attack against him is part of a negotiating ploy. “I’m not going anywhere and neither is Mike Van de Ven,” the company’s chief operating officer, Kelly said in a video posted for Southwest employees. “We have ...

  Bloomberg The US Air Force declared its version of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 ready if needed for limited combat operations, a milestone for the $379 billion program that’s the Pentagon’s costliest. The service’s announcement that the combat jet has an “initial operational capability” reflects progress after early years marked by development setbacks and rising costs. But the F-35 is ...