BA cabin crew have voted for industrial action over the airline's new "unfair" performance scheme. The 8,800-strong British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association (BASSA), a section of the Unite union, voted 91% for industrial action short of a strike, the union said. Cabin crew say that the new performance management scheme is a needless replacement for the existing, functioning system and have real concerns that its introduction masks a hidden agenda of future job losses. “The BA management should note the enormous strength of feeling against this policy,” Unite regional officer Matt Smith said. “There is a window of opportunity here for BA to allay our members’ fears and change direction”, Smith said. The union said it would not be announcing dates of any industrial action until discussions take place.<br/>
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Typically, major international events like the Olympics or the World Cup are a little-loved speed bump for US airlines, as a glut of leisure passengers displaces higher-paying business customers for several weeks or a month. But for American Airlines long the dominant US presence in South America and other US carriers, the Rio de Janeiro Games are actually poised to be a rare bright spot in an otherwise struggling market for international travel to Brazil. "Usually the Olympics, World Cups, conventions are a negative for revenues because business travelers just stay away because they can't get hotels, because they're worried about the crowds," said American's president, Scott Kirby. "In this case, Brazil is so bad that there is no business traffic or close to no business traffic. And so, this year, I think it will be a positive just because Brazil has fallen so much before." The company added a daily flight from New York's JFK airport to Rio for several days in the beginning of August to coincide with the start of the Olympics and will add a daily flight on that same route for the final weekend of the Games. But it won't make up for the long-term decline that has seen American cut five Brazilian cities from its network and scale back its service to the country over the last year from 90 weekly flights to a current total of, at most, 74 per week. The decline of US-to-Brazil traffic has played out over the last two years, as political instability and a plunge in oil prices have fueled economic turmoil and a drop in the value of the Brazilian real in South America's largest air travel market.<br/>
American Airlines and JetBlue have received final approval from the Cuban government to begin commercial airline service to several airports on the island, clearing the last hurdle for inaugural flights from Miami and Fort Lauderdale. JetBlue, with a flight scheduled to Santa Clara from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Aug. 31, gets the distinction as the first regularly scheduled flight to Cuba in more than 50 years, and American Airlines will follow up the next week with commercial airline service from Miami International Airport beginning Sept. 7. At this point, JetBlue has only received the green light for its flights to Santa Clara, but it also hopes to begin service to Holguín and Camagüey in November. American, which plans twice-daily flights to Holguín, Santa Clara and Varadero and daily fights to Camagüey and Cienfuegos, has received Cuban government approval to land and take off from all five Cuban airports. In all, it will be offering 56 weekly flights to Cuba. American, JetBlue and other airlines have applied to the U.S. Department of Transportation to fly 20 daily routes to Havana, but so far DOT has only granted preliminary approval for the routes. Final DOT approval is expected later this year, and then Cuba’s Civil Aviation Institute must also give its OK.<br/>
Qantas and American Airlines have struck a A$4.3m deal with the Tasmanian government to bring more international visitors to the island state, which a senior airline executive said remains an untapped destination in the global market. The agreement, announced Friday, will give Tasmania broader promotion, including to the Dallas-based airline's 100m frequent flyers. An American Airlines spokesman says the alliance will boost business by making it easier to travel from major international ports to Hobart. "We think that it's really an incredible market that we can grow ... (Australia) is for many Americans the number one aspirational destination on their list of places to go," he told reporters in Hobart.<br/>