An EgyptAir plane that was forced to land in Uzbekistan due to a hoax bomb threat has been cleared to resume its journey from Cairo to Beijing. All 118 passengers and 17 crew on board the Airbus A330-220 were evacuated at Urgench International Airport. The aircraft was searched by Uzbek security forces but no explosive device was found, Egyptian officials said. The chairman of EgyptAir, Safwat Mussallam, said that Flight MS955 left Cairo at 21:55 GMT (23:55 Cairo time) Tuesday and was scheduled to land in Beijing at 07:34 GMT (15:34 Beijing time) Wednesday. During the flight, an anonymous caller telephoned security agents in Cairo to say a bomb was on board the aircraft and the pilot was told to land at the nearest airport. The plane eventually touched down at Urgench, about 840km west of the Uzbek capital Tashkent, at 03:00 GMT (08:00 Tashkent time) Wednesday, Uzbekistan Airways said. "The aircraft was evacuated, searched and the result of the search was negative, we were told by the Uzbek authorities, who gave us the authorisation to take off again," Mussallam said. "We must take any warning seriously," he added.<br/>
star
US airline United and Spain's Iberia are pulling out of Nigeria as the government is urged to release more than $600m in air ticket sales blocked by the West African nation's chronic foreign currency shortage. The IATA's regional manager flew to the capital, Abuja, this week to negotiate with the government after the organisation representing airlines warned: "The inability of airlines to access forex in Africa's largest economy, if not solved, will affect air transport services to, from and within Nigeria and undermine the country's position as West Africa's aviation hub." United spokesman Kevin Johnston confirmed Wednesday that the airline's last flight from Lagos to Houston is June 30. Nigeria is United's only destination in Africa. Iberia left in May, citing "very difficult operating circumstances and dwindling passenger numbers." Most foreign airlines have stopped accepting Nigeria's troubled naira currency after the government stopped their access to foreign exchange from the banks last year. The crisis is blamed mainly on slumping oil prices and the government's delay in devaluing the naira, officially set at 199 to the dollar but selling at currency exchanges at 350.<br/>
In his first annual shareholder meeting as CEO of United Continental, Oscar Munoz acknowledged that six years after United and Continental officially joined in 2010, they've yet to be "successfully integrated." But Munoz said he's committed to making the partnership happen. "We have no plans of unfurling," he said Wednesday. "This company is going to work." Shareholders and employees praised the company's change in tone under Munoz, who took the top job at United in September after predecessor Jeff Smisek resigned amid a federal corruption investigation. But they also questioned how the company's board let things get to the point where a turnaround was necessary and why some post-merger labor negotiations still seemed to drag. Munoz, a member of United's board since 2010, said the board could take some blame for things "we should have been more observant with." He said that's why he's been spending more time on the airline's front lines, working with employees and customers, since returning to work full-time in March after a heart attack and subsequent transplant. At the meeting, Munoz said the airline's labour issues remain a top priority. "It is important that we win back the trust of employees first, then customers," he said. Improving performance and reliability is next on the list, and Munoz said United is making good progress. A video shown at the start of the meeting touted recent changes: a post-merger record for quarterly on-time performance, new international routes, a revamped international business class with sleep pods and luxury pillows, free in-flight snacks and fancier coffee. Once United gets the nuts and bolts right, Munoz said he wants the airline that's "been in the market in a docile way" to be more disruptive and innovative. Among those disruptions are improving the airline's technology and adding new routes, Munoz said.<br/>
Fresh from an April settlement with investors that staved off a proxy fight, United Continental Holdings common shareholders on Wednesday reelected five directors, including two who were chosen to represent the investors and three the airline had named to the board a day before the proxy contest began in early March. At United’s annual meeting Wednesday, a total of 12 directors were re-elected by a majority of the common shareholders, and two others were re-elected to represent labor. As part of the settlement with PAR Capital Management and Altimeter Capital Management LP, which own more than 7% of United’s shares, United soon will add a 15th director by mutual agreement. Oscar Munoz, United’s CE, said after the annual meeting that the panel will look at board candidates in the coming months. He said he expects that person to be in place by the next board meeting, which is slated for September. The settlement with PAR and Altimeter also called for new United director Robert Milton, a former CEO of Air Canada, to be named nonexecutive chairman of the airline. The company said the board went to a meeting after the annual assembly to take that step. The settlement also calls for Munoz to refrain from adding the chairman’s role until 2018, not 2017 as previously planned.<br/>
Lufthansa may cut as many as 2,400 jobs across its catering operations in Europe and reduce the number of sites to seven from 23 in an effort to turn the operations around. Production in the home market of Germany is not profitable, and the company is weighing whether to eliminate 1,700 of the 5,500 full-time positions in the country, spokeswoman Josefine Corsten said, confirming a report in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The number represents a maximum of possible cuts and may be implemented by 2021, with a large number of the employees affected scheduled to retire by then, she said. The proposal is preliminary and a decision may be made in the second half of next year. Caterers are under pressure as airlines cut back on free food and beverages offered on board as ticket prices fall, and low-cost carriers that usually offer fewer such perks grow faster than network airlines. Lufthansa will open a facility in the Czech Republic to test production there, Corsten said, which someday may take over much of the work done elsewhere. Decisions to close facilities in the Dresden and Bremen and a dish-washing unit in Frankfurt have already been taken, affecting about 140 employees, she said.<br/>