AirlinesIceland's Play Has Financial Backers Lined Up Icelandic low-cost startup PLAY has reportedly secured the backing of powerful financial supporters. As such, CEO and chairman Skuli Skúlasson says the airline is ready to seize any market opportunity that opens up, noting the ongoing problems at flag carrying Icelandair.
LinkRyanair's CEO Likens Lufthansa To A 'Drunk Uncle At A Wedding' Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary doesn’t mince his words when it comes to talking about the aviation industry. Yesterday, the executive had a strong opinion on Lufthansa. He feels that the German group is being greedy with state aid and likened it to a drunken uncle at a wedding.
LinkKorean Air Posts Significant Q1 Loss Due To Coronavirus Following the lead of several other airlines, Korean Air has also reported losses for the first quarter of this year. The flag carrier of South Korea’s revenue decreased to ₩2.35 trillion ($1.9 billion), which is ₩689 billion ($559 million) less than the first quarter of 2019. Altogether, the consequences of the global health crisis have caused the airline to record a ₩57 billion ($46 million) loss.
LinkDelta's Boeing 777 Retirement Means The A350 Will Fly To Sydney As it announced Thursday, Delta Air Lines is getting ready to retire its 18-strong fleet of Boeing 777s. This means that the carrier will deploy its modern Airbus A350 on the route between Sydney and Los Angeles by the end of 2020.
LinkRyanair Tells 250 Office Employees Not To Return To Work In June European low-cost giant Ryanair has today announced it will not bring back 250 of its staff when it reopens its offices in June. Office facilities in Dublin, Stansted, Madrid and Wroclaw are slated to open on June 1st, but the affected workers will be asked not to return.
LinkSingapore Airlines Keeping Quiet On A380 Retirement Plans On the back of the first loss in Singapore Airlines’ history, the company has shed some light on its future fleet plans. While the oldest 777s and the A330-300s are due to be phased out, nothing was mentioned about the superjumbo A380. Will it return for SIA eventually, or will the airline follow others and remove it from the fleet?
LinkStarlux Airlines Set To Resume Operations In June Just months after its inaugural flight, Taiwan’s Starlux Airlines was forced to halt operations. However, the airline has now planned its return to the skies for June as the global aviation industry begins to show the green shoots of recovery.
LinkDelta Air Lines To Resume 2 Routes To London & Frankfurt Delta Air Lines announced yesterday in a statement its plans to resume transatlantic flights. Starting on the 21st of May, the airline will begin thrice-weekly services between Atlanta and Frankfurt as well as Detroit and London. Although the flights will mainly cater to the increased cargo demand, a few seats will also be available for customer travel.
LinkRestart Failure Leaves Croatia Airlines Operating A Triangle Route Croatia Airlines has reduced its network capacity just three days after it started resuming routes it had discontinued as a result of COVID-19. On Monday, the Croatian airline launched domestic flights to Split and Dubrovnik from Zagreb. As of yesterday, some of these rotations have been merged into triangle routes. Others have been canceled, just days after they resumed.
LinkWhere Do Pilots Sleep On A Plane? Where do pilots sleep onboard aircraft during long haul flights? Depending on the plane and the trip, pilots have access to a private bunk area near the cockpit, a private ‘cabin,’ or a sectioned off business class seat.
LinkAmerican Airlines Is Operating A 29 Mile Flight In Colorado Earlier this week, we wrote about how the US government’s coronavirus relief funding was forcing US carriers to operate inefficient and low-demand routes across the country. We had focused on regional airports in Colorado as an example. Well, as an unintended consequence of continuing service to these small airports, American Airlines now operates the shortest domestic route by a major US carrier.
LinkDelta May Have Too Many Staff As Aircraft Retirements Continue One of the world’s biggest airlines, Atlanta based Delta Air Lines, is warning its pilots to expect mass layoffs later this year. Delta’s pool of 14,500 pilots will be nearly double what it needs in a post-pandemic flying environment. John Laughter, Senior Vice President of flight operations forewarned pilots in a memo sent to them today.
LinkSAA's Rescue Practitioners Spent Over $500 Million Since December On Friday, it was announced that business rescue practitioners have spent over $500m on troubled South African Airways since they were called in to try and save it in December. The majority of the expenditure was for salaries, while the rest went on fuel, lease payments, and operational costs.
LinkCathay Pacific Records Over 99% Decrease In Passenger Numbers Last Month Cathay Pacific has reported its passenger numbers for April 2020. The Hong Kong-based carrier recorded decreasing capacity by 97% in response to the global coronavirus pandemic. However, even with this capacity reduction, the passenger load factor was a paltry 21.7%, with a year-on-year decrease of 99.6% when compared to April 2019 numbers.
LinkLATAM To Lay Off 1,400 Employees South American giant, LATAM Airlines, announced on Friday that layoffs were coming. The carrier, which is the largest in South America, expects to lay off 1,400 employees as the coronavirus pandemic continues to take its toll in Latin America.
LinkUnited Will Offer Status & Miles To Employees Who Depart Voluntarily A leaked internal memo reveals that United Airlines is offering its employees special benefits if they decide to leave their jobs at the airline. The memo, leaked by Business Insider yesterday, was sent to management and administrative (M&A) employees. What are these benefits and could they be enough to encourage some workers to resign? Let’s find out.
Link20,000 Layoffs Coming At Air Canada A recent company memo has revealed that Air Canada plans to cut roughly 20,000 jobs from its workforce within the next three weeks. With a total employee count surpassing 38,000, this represents over half of the airline. The move is a response to the significant drop in passenger air travel in recent months as a result of COVID-19 travel restrictions.
LinkThai Government Open To Bankruptcy For Thai Airways It was announced on Thursday that struggling Thai Airways International (THAI) could file for bankruptcy as an option to enable its rehabilitation. Ministers have discussed plans to save the national carrier, but ultimately the decision will be made by the cabinet.
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