The chairman of Pakistan’s embattled national carrier has resigned following a fatal plane crash that killed 47 people last week, one of the country’s deadliest air disasters. Mohammad Azam Saigol tendered his resignation on Monday due to personal reasons, PIA spokesman Danyal Gilani said. Saigol’s resignation came after a Pakistan International Airlines plane crashed into a mountain on the way to Islamabad from the city of Chitral after one of the aircraft’s two turboprop engines failed, killing everyone on board. On Monday PIA grounded its 10 remaining ATR turboprop planes for thorough testing in the wake of the crash and another incident in which a plane was recalled to its parking bay after experiencing a fault just before take off at Multan airport. “The process of carrying out shakedown tests of PIA’s ATR aircraft has now started. CAA and PIA’s Quality Control department are taking part in this thorough examination in which PIA’s all ATR aircraft will be inspected one by one,” a PIA statement said Monday. <br/>
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JetBlue Airways Tuesday said it was earning more than expected from checked bag fees and higher-priced fares and it plans to double the money it will return to shareholders via stock buybacks. The New York-based airline said new fares and fees for add-ons it rolled out last year, including a US$20 checked bag charge for its lowest-fare customers, generated an expected US$260m in 2016, compared with a prior forecast of US$200m. As part of the windfall, the carrier is expanding its share repurchase program to US$500m from US$250m through 2019. JetBlue also said it planned to increase flight capacity between 6.5 and 8.5% in 2017, down slightly from 2016's growth. "We are able to grow at a rate higher than the industry average and also deliver (pre-tax profit) margins that are above industry average," CEO Robin Hayes said. When asked about potentially buying CSeries jets from Bombardier Inc , Hayes said. "As an aviation buff, I'm a fan of the plane," he said, but added that JetBlue is not actively looking to order aircraft after a recent deal with Airbus Group SE .<br/>
Gol Línhas Aéreas Inteligentes agreed to sign a leniency accord with federal prosecutors after an internal probe found the Brazilian airline wired money to firms under investigation in a sweeping corruption scandal. In a Tuesday securities filing, Gol did not specify whether the payments were illegal although it said it agreed to pay 12m reais ($3.6m) in fines and penalties under terms of the agreement. The settlement follows inquiries by tax authorities into payments for online advertising made to companies with ties to Eduardo Cunha, the former head of the lower house of Congress, who was arrested in October on bribery charges. At the time, prosecutors said payments to those companies from holdings by the Constantino family, which founded Gol, did not appear to correspond with services of comparable value.<br/>
Airbus and IranAir will finalise a deal to buy aircraft in two weeks, the head of Iran’s flag carrier said Tuesday, adding Airbus has agreed to arrange financing for the first 17 planes. Uncertainty over financing of the deal and political opposition in the United States against Iran have slowed down Tehran’s efforts to import aircraft following the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions this year. Iran signed a $16.6b deal for 80 Boeing passenger jets Sunday and was said to be close to a deal with Airbus, in the biggest package of firm contracts with Western companies since Iran’s 1979 revolution. IranAir CE Farhad Parvaresh said he hoped to finalise the deal with Airbus in two weeks. “There are only a few small remaining issues like financing. Airbus has agreed to provide financing for 17 planes,” he was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency. The first contract is expected to involve some 50-60 jets out of 118 provisionally ordered during a visit to France by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in January.<br/>
Southwest is improving Internet service on its flights with two new WiFi agreements. The airline said it signed a new connectivity agreement with Panasonic Avionics and extended an agrement with its existing provider Global Eagle Entertainment to offer faster Internet service on Boeing 737 aircraft. Both providers use satellites to provide Internet service to aircraft as opposed to air-to-ground technology. By the middle of 2017, customers will be able to surf the web at 37,000 feet three to four times faster than the current speed, said Ryan Green, Southwest’s vice president of marketing. “We want to improve the amount of bandwidth that they have access to while they are in flight,” Green said.<br/>
SkyWest, parent of regional carriers SkyWest Airlines and ExpressJet Airlines, announced Dec. 13 the company has entered into a termination agreement with Bombardier covering the Canadian manufacturer’s residual value guarantee (RVG) agreements on 76 CRJ200 aircraft owned by SkyWest Airlines and American Airlines. Bombardier will pay SkyWest $90m by January 2017 in exchange for the release. “Both the required sale of each aircraft and the cost to SkyWest of returning the aircraft to mid-time condition were points of risk and uncertainty for SkyWest that this termination agreement eliminates,” SkyWest said. Additionally, SkyWest announced it will remove its Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft from ExpressJet service over the next year, as the company transitions from 50-seat aircraft to primarily dual-class aircraft. ExpressJet and American Airlines have agreed to place 12 dual-class CRJ700s into service under a multi-year term, reversing a previously announced early lease return arrangement for the aircraft, the announcement said.<br/>
The regional wing of Singapore Airlines, SilkAir, will launch flights to Colombo, Sri Lanka on 8 April 2017. SilkAir will operate the route with three flights per week, taking over Singapore Airlines' SQ466/SQ467 service as the SIA group further consolidates resources. Singapore Airlines will continue to operate its daily night flight SQ468 and return flight SQ469. The new SilkAir service to Colombo, MI428, will be scheduled on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with a same-day return flight operating as MI427, similar to the current SIA timing. The services will be operated with Boeing 737-800 aircraft, featuring both Business Class and Economy Class cabins.<br/>