German prosecutors said Monday they had closed their investigation into the crash of a Germanwings plane in the French Alps almost 2 years ago, concluding there were no indications that anybody other than co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had been involved in the intentional crash. Lubitz had in the past suffered from depression, but authorities and his airline later deemed him fit to fly. In the months ahead of the crash, Lubitz suffered from sleeplessness and feared losing his vision, but he hid that from his employer. Prosecutor Kumpa said no third party was involved or aware that Lubitz was planning to crash the plane. In France, authorities have been conducting their own separate investigation of the crash. It also seeks to determine eventual criminal responsibility for the crash. <br/>
unaligned
Aer Lingus has assured customers that threatened industrial action from cabin crew over sandwiches and other food won't affect services. Staff took issue with the airline introducing additional snack services which forces them to sell extra sandwiches, ice cream, tea and coffee on transatlantic flights. Now 1,000 cabin crew represented by trade union Impact are set to be balloted. However, staff will not have to work longer hours and will get the same length of time for breaks. The action is currently at a very early stage. "It's a matter that's being considered," an Impact spokesperson said. He said that it was "a lot more complicated" than just serving tea and coffee. Customers on the airline's transatlantic flights will still receive a hot meal under the proposals. <br/>
Frontier Airlines says its COO has left the company, the second high-level departure in less than a month at the airline. A Frontier spokesman confirmed Monday that Bill Meehan stepped down last week and was replaced temporarily by Jim Nides, the company's VP of flight operations. Meehan joined Frontier in 2014 after being CE of aircraft-maintenance provider Pemco and holding executive jobs at Continental Airlines. He left less than 2 weeks after the exit of Deborah Price, Frontier's CP of customer experience. A Frontier spokesman said both departures were due to personal reasons and were unrelated to complaints about widespread cancellations and delays after a winter storm in December. Frontier's previous CE, Dave Siegel, resigned in May 2015 after complaints about the airline soared. <br/>
Russia’s Sukhoi Civil Aircraft (SCA) has completed repairs on 6 Sukhoi Superjet 100s (SSJ100s) grounded by Mexican airline Interjet, the only SSJ100 operator in the Americas. The aircraft resumed operations in the first week in January, the manufacturer said. “The troubleshooting procedure was agreed with the [Rosaviatsia] and carried out under the control of the Mexican aviation authorities [DGAC],” SCA added. The manufacturer sent 22 technicians to Mexico for the warranty maintenance work at the end of last year. It is expected all grounded aircraft will be back in service by the middle of January. Interjet grounded half its 22 SSJ100 fleet at the end of Dec 2016, after SCA identified a minor fault in the tail stabiliser of one SSJ100 during inspections. <br/>
OSM Aviation, the Norwegian firm that supplies pilots to Norwegian, has signed a labour agreement with the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). The memorandum of understanding with ITF, which represents more than 5m transport workers in 150 countries, lays the foundation for further union representation and collective bargaining rights among OSM’s crews. “We now employ 2,700 pilots and cabin crew, and want to offer them long-term and secure jobs. Our agreement with the ITF will help achieve this, and supports the agreements we already hold with a number of unions in countries where we’re represented,” OSM Aviation CE Espen Høiby said. OSM Aviation recruits, appoints, trains and administers flight crew. The company has 9 airline customers, but Norwegian is OSM’s largest client. <br/>