AirlinesAeroflot sues Transaero AirlinesRussia’s Aeroflot has sued Transaero Airlines for RUB5 billion ($79.3 million) in the Moscow City Arbitration Court, which did not disclose details. Aeroflot Group stated it will hire half of Transaero’s 12,000 staff and is ready to offer jobs to 700 pilots; 2,800 flight attendants; 1,000 members of engineering and technical personnel; 1,200 employees of ground handling division; and 300 administrators and managers.
LinkNew Air India Boss's 'Ultimate Challenge'Air India's new boss is betting an 'open door' policy will help defuse years of soured relations with its more than 20,000 staff, paving the way for potentially painful change at the airline. Ashwani Lohani, a 56-year-old engineer and tourism bureaucrat with no experience running an airline, describes his job as "the ultimate challenge".
LinkDelta exceeds expectations in Sept. earnings reportCheaper fuel helped Delta Air Lines Inc. shrug off a slight decline in revenue and post sharply higher third-quarter net income of $1.32 billion. The profit announced Wednesday was slightly better than Wall Street expected. Delta's shares rose more than 2 percent in afternoon trading. The third quarter includes much of the busy summer-vacation season when airlines are most profitable. Delta predicted that it would continue to rack up healthy margins into the winter on the combination of cheaper fuel and solid demand for travel.
LinkDelta aims to attract corporate tech travelersDelta Air Lines is offering targeted discounts up to "several percentage points" to select Silicon Valley tech companies. Unusually, these discounts don't depend on market share or volume commitments. Norma Dean, director for specialty sales at Delta, said Delta shows an "interest in this emerging high-value customer" and wants to be a "lifelong travel partner for future customers."
LinkGulf Air In Final Talks To Buy 50 AircraftGulf Air is in final talks to place an order for up to 50 aircraft to meet the airline's needs over the next decade, the carrier's chief financial officer said. "We are looking at both narrow and wide-body aircraft for replacement of (the) current fleet... and for growth," Sahar Ataei said. She said negotiations with manufacturers were expected to finish by the first quarter of 2016, but did not disclose which manufacturer was preferred.
LinkMH17: Oxygen mask mystery remains unsolvedInvestigators have been unable to explain conclusively why a passenger on the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was found wearing an oxygen mask following the Boeing 777’s destruction over Ukraine. The Dutch Safety Board states that the aircraft was shot down by a Russian-built surface-to-air missile but it has not been able to determine much detail about the situation in the passenger cabin following the initial detonation.
LinkBuk manufacturer blasts Il-86 to support MH17 claimsDefence firm Almaz-Antey has destroyed an Ilyushin Il-86 cockpit in an attempt to prove that a Soviet-era weapon, rather than a modern Russian one, brought down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Almaz-Antey produces the Buk surface-to-air missile system, an example of which was the source of the attack on the Boeing 777-200ER, the Dutch-led inquiry believes.
LinkQatar to introduce A350 service to Australia Qatar Airways is to introduce a daily Doha-Adelaide schedule using Airbus A350 XWB aircraft from May 2016. The new route will be the first A350 schedule flying into Australia, and will capitalize on “the A350’s efficiency and performance” to enable the new 12-hour flight, according to Qatar CEO Akbar Al Baker.
LinkSaratov Airlines to appeal AOC restrictionsSaratov Airlines will appeal the restrictions on its air operator’s certificate (AOC), prohibiting it from operating international flights due to a safety violation. On Oct. 13, Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia, announced it was restricting carrier’s AOC after a safety inspection revealed an airline employee—who was not officially included in the flight assignment and was not a crew member—stayed in the cockpit during a Saratov-Antalya flight on July 19, 2015. The person was later determined to be a close relative of the carrier’s general director.
LinkFirst Singapore A350 breaks coverSingapore Airlines’ first Airbus A350-900 has broken cover, showing the twinjet in the Asian carrier’s livery. The Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines of the SIA aircraft have yet to be attached.
LinkThai Airways restructures international schedulesThai Airways International plans to ramp up services to key European destinations, and will cut back underperforming services to Italy and the US. The Thai flag carrier will add an extra daily flight to London Heathrow from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International from Oct. 25, using a two-class Boeing 777-300ER to complement the airline’s existing daily Airbus A380 service. This will bring the flight schedule to 14X-weekly offering to the UK capital.
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