oneworld

Japan Airlines Monday slashed its full-year earnings outlook, and warned its fiscal H1 net profit nosedived owing to a slump in its international business. While falling oil prices have helped carriers' profits - fuel is often an airline's single-biggest expense - the loss of a fuel surcharge imposed to deal with previously sky-high crude prices was taking a toll on the bottom line, the carrier said. For the six months through September, JAL said its net profit shrank to Y71.4b (US$682m), down more than 30% from a year ago. The firm also warned that full-year net profit would come in at 161b yen, down from a previous estimate of Y192b for the fiscal year through March. JAL's full-year revenue is now seen at Y1.28t, against Y1.34t projected earlier. The revisions were "primarily due to weaker demand in international passenger operations and less revenue per passenger both in international and domestic than expected", the airline said.<br/>

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants on Friday issued a memo to its more than 25,500 member American Airlines flight attendants detailing initial results of independent testing being conducted on new uniforms that debuted in late September. The memo said the initial testing showed "a detectable amount of several substances/chemicals" in the uniforms. The chemicals listed in Friday's memo include pentachlorophenol, tetrachloriphenols, trichlorophenols and free and partially-releasable formaldehyde. These chemicals are different than those listed in a memo from AA management last Wednesday. The chemicals named in AA management's Wednesday memo were found in the fabrics in testing done by AA prior to the rollout of the new uniforms on Sept. 20. APFA said in its memo on Friday that the results of its independent test of uniform fabrics showed that the amounts of chemicals found in the uniforms were not outside "accepted limits under Oeko-Tex Standard requirements for certification of textile products."<br/>