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Kenya Airways said it will cut about 600 jobs as part of a plan to return the airline to profit after it reported the largest loss in Kenyan corporate history last year. “We will embark on a restructuring process that will result in approximately 600 members of staff being declared redundant or redeployed elsewhere,” the airline said Thursday. The company currently employs about 4,000 people, according to its annual report. The airline is already shrinking its fleet size by almost a third, to reverse the US$253m annual loss it reported in July. The measures are part of a reorganisation plan developed by McKinsey & Co. Last month, the airline appointed PJT Partners Inc. to advise on how to restructure the company’s balance sheet and raise long-term financing. <br/>

Delta Air Lines and its pilots, represented by the Air Lines Pilots Association, are seeking US federal govt mediation in their labour negotiations. The airline and ALPA’s Delta master executive council (MEC) have jointly filed with the US National Mediation Board for mediation in collective bargaining contract talks. Though the ALPA Delta MEC said that NMB “will assume control of the process and a federal mediator will take control of the calendar and oversee negotiations,” it also said that it and Delta “have committed to continue meeting on a regular basis, even without the presence of the mediator.” The Delta MEC endorsed a tentative labour deal with Delta management in June 2015 and sent it to the airline’s nearly 13,000 pilots for a ratification vote, but the rank-and-file flight deck crew rejected it by a 65%-35% vote in July. <br/>