Following employee opposition, Air Canada has reversed course on an internal memo that prohibited staff from wearing Remembrance Day poppies while on duty. On Monday morning a leaked memo issued by Renée Smith-Valade, Air Canada’s VP of in-flight service, told staff, “I strongly encourage anyone who wants to wear a poppy to observe and respect Remembrance Day to do so when not in uniform.” The memo added that Remembrance Day would instead be commemorated by Air Canada with an “onboard announcement” on its aircraft. According to some employees, managers quickly began instructing flight attendants to remove uniform poppies in compliance with the memo. But a few hours later — after the memo had already generated employee and union pushback — a second note from Smith-Valade confirmed that following some reconsideration the “wearing of poppies is supported.” In a statement to the National Post the airline said “while we do have regulations on non-service pins to maintain a consistent uniform look, we have clarified for our in-flight crews that they can wear a poppy in uniform and do so proudly.” The statement added, “our uniform policy has been revised with this clarification to avoid any confusion in the future.”<br/>
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European officials have denied making a ruling that scuppered a state-funded deal to rescue Northern Ireland's only air link with the US. First Minister Arlene Foster had accused "Brussels bureaucracy" of thwarting the Executive's GBP9m support package for United to maintain its Belfast to Newark service. Her DUP colleague and economy minister Simon Hamilton levelled similar criticism against the EC, claiming its rules on state aid torpedoed the deal. A spokeswoman for the commission said: "To be clear, the European Commission received a complaint alleging that the measure was in breach of EU rules, which it looked into, but we did not take any decision on the matter. The Northern Irish authorities and United Airlines have themselves decided to end their arrangement." United will stop the service in the new year.<br/>
Turkish Airlines has put 30 planes in its fleet into parking positions due to a decreasing number of passengers amid economic contractions and recent terror attacks. Some 12 rented Airbus A330-200 model planes were transferred to the southern resort province of Antalya and parked in front of the second international terminal. Another four Airbus A320 planes, meanwhile, were parked outside the general aviation hangars at Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport. The number of withdrawn planes will gradually reach 30 in the coming days. The carrier currently has 298 passenger planes in its fleet. In addition, Turkish Airlines also canceled flights to a total of 22 destinations, 17 of which were international, due to decreasing demand.<br/>