Kenya Airways cancelled several flights Sunday after some crew members failed to turn up for work, the latest blow as the airline struggles to avert a strike called by its pilots. "Some of our outsourced staff, including cabin crew, have stayed away from work from Friday and we are working with their employer to resolve any issues they may have," the airline said. Flights to the Kenyan city of Mombasa, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Juba in South Sudan, Lusaka in Zambia, Harare in Zimbabwe and Maputo in Mozambique were cancelled because there were not enough crew members to fly safely. Kenya Airways later said that normal service had resumed but offered no further details. Pilots union KALPA has called an indefinite strike, scheduled to start Tuesday, to protest against the management of the airline. <br/>
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Kenya Airways’ chairman has said he will step down this year as the crisis blighting the lossmaking airline escalated Sunday when outsourced staff failed to turn up for work, forcing flights to be cancelled. The disruption comes 2 days before the pilots’ union is set to begin industrial action in protest at management’s perceived failure to turn the company round after 4 years of losses despite a court ruling any strike would be illegal. Pilots are demanding that Dennis Awori, Kenya Airways’ chairman, and Mbuvi Ngunze, its CE, are replaced. Awori, who took over as chairman in November, said he would quit as chairman “in this quarter”. But he denied it was in response to the demands. “I took on the responsibility for a year to embed the turnaround plan,” he said. “The half-year results show the plan is working.” <br/>
Delta Air Lines’ Trainer, Pennsylvania, oil refinery is expected to incur an operating loss of about US$100m for the full-year 2016 after posting operating profits in both 2014 and 2015. The refinery, which Delta purchased in 2012, had a $45m operating loss in Q3 2016, reversed from an operating profit of $106m in the 2015 September quarter. The refinery’s Q3 revenue fell 23% year-over-year to $971m. Delta CFO Paul Jacobson said that the refinery’s Q3 loss was “driven by lower crack spreads”—the difference between crude oil prices and the actual price of jet fuel. Even as oil prices rise, with per barrel prices hitting a 2016 high of $54 earlier this week, Jacobson said crack spreads are remaining consistently narrow. For that reason, Delta is anticipating a $100m full-year operating loss by the facility. <br/>
Air France-KLM Group has announced a year-over-year 3.7% capacity increase for the upcoming northern winter season. The airline group announced 52 new services compared to a year ago, most of them to be performed by its Transavia LCC arm, although many of the “new” services are continuations of services begun over the summer season. The group also intends to continue its move upmarket in terms of on-board facilities in a bid to differentiate its product from that of competitors. This trend was being assisted, the group said, by continued infusion of new or refurbished equipment; by the end of the 2016-17 winter season, KLM will have 8 Boeing 787s in its fleet, while Air France’s first 787 will be introduced in Jan 2017, with Cairo its initial routing. <br/>