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United Continental Holdings, hurt by a big write-down of the value of its slot portfolio at Newark Liberty International and the fact that it paid taxes this year as opposed to last, reported net income of US$588m, or $1.78 a share, on a 5.2% slide in overall revenue to $9.4b. The airline said Tuesday that excluding the special items, its earnings per share of $2.61 beat Wall Street consensus by a nickel. Its unit revenue declined 6.6%, in line with recent guidance. For the current Q3, United said its unit revenue is expected to be down between 5.5% and 7.5%. And its pre-tax margin should hit 13.5% to 15.5%, as opposed to 14.5% in Q2, within guidance. A year ago, United reported net income of $1.19b, or $3.14 a share, on revenue of $9.9b. Excluding items, the carrier earned $1.3b, or $3.31 a share. <br/>

United Continental Holdings completed the last step in an April agreement with 2 airline investors that staved off a proxy fight by appointing a mutually agreed 15th member to its board of directors. Edward “Ted” Philip, COO of the global non-profit health care organisation Partners in Health, was appointed to the airline’s board July 14, United said Tuesday. Philip is a former investment banker, Walt Disney executive and founding member of internet search company, Lycos. He comes to the panel as an independent director. In mid-April, 2 investment firms that hold more than 7% of United’s shares backed off a proxy battle when the airline agreed to put 2 of its representatives on the board and to appoint as nonexecutive chairman for 2 years a director who was 1 of 3 the carrier added to its board before the proxy battle became public. <br/>

United Continental’s new Polaris business class seats are so unique, there’s a patent on them. That’s because every business-class seat is on the aisle, yet United won’t lose any ticket-selling spots. Such updates are part of the airline’s strategy to find US$1b in additional revenues just from selling seats. The other? Adding more seats to its economy class. “Trying to find more unique ways to put more revenue on a plane is something the industry has been driven to do,” Oscar Munoz, United’s CE, said Monday. United spent more than 3 years rethinking business class, said Maria Walter, United’s managing director of product and brand strategy. But United didn’t want to sacrifice a row or more of seats just to give passengers direct access to the aisle. <br/>

A SWISS scheduled commercial flight of the Bombardier CSeries aircraft from Switzerland to the UK had to return to home base Tuesday morning after experiencing a problem with its air conditioning system. Much of Europe has been experiencing a heat wave this week, which may have exacerbated the problem. SWISS said a backup system meant it was possible to continue the flight, but it was decided to return to home base to do the fix. The CS100 was scheduled to go to Prague later that day. The CS100 entered service with launch customer SWISS July 15. On that day, the inaugural flight from Zurich experienced a problem when airport ramp staff disconnected a ground power cable before the pilots pushed the transfer switch to the aircraft’s auxiliary power unit. SWISS has characterised the issues as “minor hiccups". <br/>

Tens of thousands of items of sensitive passenger information have been leaked on the Internet in a large-scale private data breach against Asiana Airlines. The information includes citizen resident numbers, passport information, home addresses, bank account details, phone numbers and family relations records. The information, saved on the company's website for the past several years, is believed to have been compromised. The Korea Times was able to access hundreds of scanned private documents belonging to customers. They are part of an estimated 47,000 documents believed to have been compromised. Computer engineers who analysed the exposed data and the way it was accessed said the scanned documents appear to have been attached to customers' query emails to Asiana. <br/>

Air NZ will allow passengers to use Bluetooth devices "gate to gate'' across its entire fleet. From this Thursday customers flying on any domestic or international flight will be able to operate Bluetooth devices from the departure gate to the arrival gate, provided their devices are set to flight mode. This means customers can remain connected with their wearable Bluetooth tech such as Fitbit devices, Apple watches and Bluetooth headsets, as well as operate a wireless mouse and wireless keyboard during cruise. The airline needed Civil Aviation Authority approval following comprehensive testing conducted across its fleet. The airline said it was a first for a carrier in the South Pacific. Under existing rules cellular, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi must be turned off and flight or airplane mode selected. <br/>

Air NZ has added another renowned chef to its inflight line-up. Award-winning restaurateur Michael Meredith was named as the airline's newest consultant chef, joining current consultant chef Peter Gordon. Renowned for his food and degustation menus at Auckland fine dining restaurant Merediths, the chef will take his expertise sky high to design dishes for Air NZ's business premier menu. Air NZ GM Customer Experience Carrie Hurihanganui said the airline offered visitors their first taste of New Zealand's fresh, high quality cuisine and wine. "We've long held a farm to plane philosophy where menus are crafted around the best seasonal, fresh produce on offer. Michael has a similar ethos at Meredith's and we're excited to see how he translates his expertise from the restaurant to meals served at altitude." <br/>

Air Canada has recently launched its own online travel-fundraising site called Embarq. “We’ve seen a huge increase in the rise of crowdfunding platforms that have made it very commonplace for people to help make one of their dreams into a reality,” said Selma Filali, Air Canada’s director of marketing communications. “We know that millennials have more audacious travel plans than ever before. They really want to see the world but they really lack the funds to make that a reality.” The website facilitates contributions to a travel goal by encouraging users to upload photos or a video story and spread the campaign through social media. Filali said a major incentive for travellers to use Embarq over other sites such as GoFundMe or Kickstarter is the lack of fees, as well as the ability to collect funds even if users don’t reach their set goals. <br/>