Swedish pilots flying for SAS prolonged a walkout over pay to a fifth day, joining cockpit crews at Air France-KLM in hampering travel in the opening week of the Euro 2016 soccer tournament. SAS will cancel 240 flights Tuesday, after 230 domestic Swedish and European services were scrapped Monday, bringing the total to 889 since Friday and affecting more than 100,000 passengers. The strike involves 400 members of the SPF union in a two-month-old dispute about salary and working hours. Flights operated by Danish and Norwegian pilots, partner airlines and long-haul services will operate, the airline said. Pilots flying for EasyJet also plan to stop work Tuesday at Amsterdam Schiphol from 6 am to 2 pm, after labour leaders and the airline failed to agree on a contract for cockpit crews operating from the hub. <br/>
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South African Airways said the airline subsidised its low-cost entity Mango Airlines by sub-leasing planes at a discount to market value, a move that may have given the carrier an advantage in the country’s highly competitive budget market. The carrier sub-leased Mango all 10 of its aircraft “at a significantly discounted cost” while paying the leasing company the market rate, SAA said. The move was a “necessary investment” to support the low-cost entity, SAA said. SAA’s comment on sub-leasing planes to Mango comes after last week’s resignation of Mango’s CE Nico Bezuidenhout, who will become the head of FastJet from Aug 1. The Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s largest opposition party, will request that the Competition Commission start a probe into possible collusion between SAA and Mango. <br/>
United Continental's United Airlines is adding even more routes in the Asia-Pacific region. Using the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, the airline recently launched a 16-hour nonstop flight from San Francisco to Singapore. The airline is also planning more nonstop service from the US to places like New Zealand, a service that launches July 1, 2016. For the last 2 decades, long-haul routes to Asia were dominated by companies such as SIA and Cathay Pacific. For several years SIA ran nonstop service to both Newark and Los Angeles from its home city. Andy Buchanan, MD of International Planning for United said, "The Pacific has always been a historical cornerstone to the United network and we see our San Francisco hub as a way to launch new point-to-point service into the Asia-Pacific region." <br/>