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Alaska Air has announced plans for a codeshare agreement and frequent flier partnership with JAL. Alaska Air has become an attractive partner to Asian airlines looking for extra revenue from connecting passengers to flights within the United States, after it agreed to buy Virgin America for US$2.6b in April. The codeshare agreement between Alaska Air and Japan Airlines will take effect from June 29 pending government approval.<br/>

SriLankan Airlines will sell four new Airbus A350s, a government minister said, two weeks after cancelling an order for four of the aircraft. The state-owned carrier had already sold one of the four planes for a "reasonably good price" to a leasing company and is in talks with airlines over the other three, Deputy State Enterprise Minister Eran Wickramaratne said. Although SriLankan needs more aircraft to expand, it does not need long-range planes like the A350, he said. The airline, which is struggling with debts of around US$3.25b, ordered eight A350s from Airbus in 2014. SriLankan Airlines was a profitable 10-year joint venture with Emirates until the pair split in 2008. Helped by lower oil prices, it posted a group net loss of LKR16.33b rupees (US$113m) for the financial year to March 31, after a LKR31.37b loss a year earlier.<br/>

Qatar Airways has delayed the launch of the world’s longest direct flight — from Doha to Auckland, New Zealand — by two months because of the late delivery of Airbus A350s, an airline spokeswoman told journalists. “I can confirm we are looking at February. It is due to aircraft availability, specifically the delay of delivery of A350s,” the spokeswoman said. Qatar Airways increased pressure on Europe’s Airbus over aircraft reliability last month, saying it had some “issues” with the A350 passenger jet barely a year after it entered service. Its 17.5 hour service to Auckland had been due to start on December 3.<br/>