American Airlines Group Tuesday won about US$15.3m in an antitrust lawsuit that accused airline booking service Sabre of harming competition and charging grossly inflated booking fees. The Manhattan federal jury awarded nearly $5.1m, a fraction of the up to $73m American Airlines was seeking at trial. But the sum automatically will be tripled under federal antitrust law. American Airlines was suing under the name of US Airways, the carrier it merged with in 2013. US Airways had filed the lawsuit in 2011. American Airlines welcomed the verdict, saying it hoped the jury's finding that Sabre had violated federal antitrust law in a 2011 contract with US Airways could result in changes in how the airline's services are sold. The jury rejected a separate claim that Sabre conspired with its competitors to not compete with each other. <br/>
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As a fourth round of uniform testing is expected to begin soon at American Airlines, several top executives at the airline have begun to wear the controversial outfits in an apparent attempt to help prove they are not toxic. An American Airlines spokeswoman confirmed that some of the carrier's top management are already wearing — or are about to wear — the uniforms. Those expected to slip into the new uniforms include AA VP of Flight Service Hector Adler. The new uniforms have become a focus of growing concern at American since they were first rolled out Sept 20. According to the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, the union representing the carrier's flight attendants, some 2,000 members have reported symptomatic reactions to the new uniforms. <br/>
LATAM Airlines Group is estimating its 2017 operating margin will be in the 6%-8% range in 2017, a 1.5 point boost over the company’s 2016 range of 5.5%-6.5%, according to LATAM’s preliminary guidance for 2017 released Dec 19. The airline group estimates the Group’s company-wide full-year 2017 capacity growth will be between 0% and 2%; up one point from between a 1% contraction and a 1% gain in 2016. International capacity will grow between 0% and 2%, a 3 point decrease from 2016. Brazilian domestic capacity will decrease between negative 2% and 0%, a 10 point decline in capacity cuts compared to 2016. For LATAM’s domestic services in Spanish-speaking countries, the Group plans to increase capacity between 4% and 6% in 2017, down 2 points from 2016. <br/>
Australian air safety investigators leading the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 now believe that the plane is not in the current search area in the southern Indian Ocean. “There is a high degree of confidence that the previously identified underwater area searched to date does not contain the missing aircraft,” the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said. The ATSB said “Given the elimination of this area, the experts identified an area of approximately 25,000 sq km as the area with the highest probability of containing the wreckage of the aircraft. The experts concluded that, if this area were to be searched, prospective areas for locating the aircraft wreckage…would be exhausted.” Australia’s Transport minister Darren Chester said the search is unlikely to be extended. <br/>