Three months after taking over at Air France-KLM SA, Jean-Marc Janaillac says the loss-making airline has big problems, including high costs, an unwieldy corporate structure and a lack of trust among different parts of the company. "What is striking is the fact that we are working in an industry that is growing and we are not growing at the pace of the industry," Chairman and CE Janaillac said. "In terms of competitiveness we are lagging behind our competitors and our cost structure is still too high," he said. "We still have work to do." Franco-Dutch Air France-KLM has struggled in recent years with weak demand and overcapacity across the industry. It has been striving to cut costs to compete better with deep-pocketed Gulf airlines and fast-growing European low-cost carriers. Janaillac is due to unveil a new project called "Trust Together" in early November to answer questions about the company's future strategy, map out goals and plans for how to compete in an increasingly difficult global market. Janaillac said the company also had key strengths, such as its brand names and two important hubs, but it still needed to increase productivity, lower costs and streamline its structure. He said he was not expecting the lack of trust he found between parts of the organization after the 2014 pilot strike and between parts of Air France and KLM, which merged in 2004.<br/>
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Garuda Indonesia denies there were snakes loose on board one of its flight, as they were instead indigenous legless lizards that managed to get out of the cargo compartment, an official of the company said Wednesday. Three of the lizards escaped the airplane's cargo compartment during a flight from Merauke, Papua, to Jakarta on Tuesday, Garuda’s VP of corporate communications, Benny S. Butarbutar, said. "The animal physically looks like a snake, but after an examination and checking of the documents, they are lizards and not snakes," he said. The lizard was of the Lialis burtoni species, commonly called legless lizards, Benny said. The airline acknowledged its plane was carrying a cargo of live animals in a wooden box that had air holes and was covered in a sack. The cabin crew caught the lizards and secured them immediately. No flight disruptions were caused by the incident, Benny said.<br/>
China Southern Airlines has signed an agreement with Boeing to buy a dozen B787-9 jets worth $3.3b in the latest sign of booming Chinese demand for air travel. Each of the 12 mid-size jets comes at a catalogue price of $271 million, the Guangzhou-based airline said on Wednesday, adding that the aircraft will be delivered in stages from 2018 to 2020. "The acquisition will strengthen the construction of Guangzhou hub, thus maximizing the operational efficiency and enhancing the competitiveness of the group," China Southern said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange. China Southern's deal follows similar fleet expansion moves by rivals such as Air China and China Eastern Airlines.<br/>
China’s civil aviation authority is investigating a “near collision” after an Airbus A320 passenger jet took off from a Shanghai airport runway on Tuesday just as an Airbus A330 was taxiing across its path. Both planes were owned by China Eastern Airlines, the news portal Eastday.com reported. The incident happened at about 11.54am on Tuesday as Flight MU5643 was preparing to take off at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. Just as the aircraft’s captain was given permission to take off from the airport’s air traffic control centre, he quickly discovered that another A330 plane was traversing the same runway, the report said. The captain quickly decided to carry on with the take-off – and his plane lifted off just above the taxiing aircraft, the report said. No one in either of the aircraft was injured, it said.<br/>