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ANA will introduce the Airbus A380 aircraft on its route between Narita International and Honolulu in spring 2019. The airline also said it is considering using the aircraft, with around 500 seats, on its route between Tokyo’s Haneda and Honolulu. The double-decker A380 is about twice as big as the current aircraft on ANA’s Honolulu routes. ANA president and CE Osamu Shinobe said Monday that introduction of the A380 is unlikely to lead to an excess supply of seats. Shinobe said both the Narita-Honolulu route and the Haneda-Honolulu route currently have seat-occupancy rates of 90%. Hawaii is one of the most popular destinations for Japanese tourists. The A380s used on the routes will be painted with a design featuring the Hawaiian green sea turtle known as “honu” in the Hawaiian language. <br/>

United Airlines has taken a close look at an all-new jetliner that Boeing engineers are developing for trans-Atlantic flying, and it likes what it sees. “What we’ve seen so far is very, very interesting to us,” Andrew Levy, United’s CFO, said Tuesday. “We certainly hope Boeing launches the airplane. We think there is a need for it.” An endorsement from United, a large Boeing customer, would go a long way toward making the business case for so-called middle-of-market jetliners. Boeing has honed its design to seat between 225 and 260 passengers, while working to bring production costs in line with prices that airlines are willing to pay. United had been among the sceptics of the jets that Boeing has been developing for years to fill the gap in its product line-up between the largest narrow-body 737 models and smallest 787 Dreamliners. <br/>

United Airlines has been on a hiring binge, boosting overall headcount 5% last year to 88,000, the highest total since 2012, according to a recent securities filing. But the company is pruning elsewhere, cutting 450 jobs, mostly in middle management. Overall, pilots are doing particularly well. The airline had 11,454 pilots at the end of 2016, up 8% in 2 years and 15% higher than in 2011. Flight attendant headcount is up 9% in the past 2 years to 22,779. That's about 6% higher than 2011. Pilots signed a 2-year contract extension last year that brought them 13% raises. Flight attendants signed a 5-year contract that means raises of 18% to 31%, depending on seniority. Not all employees saw their fortunes improve, however. The number of passenger-service employees has dropped 21% since 2012 to about 12,000. <br/>

The first of 5 Airberlin Airbus A320s, operating in Austrian Airlines colours, launched March 7 on services from Vienna, Austria to Skopje, Macedonia. The flight is part of a 6-year wet-lease agreement between Airberlin and the Lufthansa Group. Under the agreement, Airberlin is wet leasing 38 Airbus A319/A320 aircraft—which are stationed at German and Austrian airports—to Lufthansa and its subsidiaries Eurowings and Austrian Airlines. Eurowings is taking 33 of the aircraft and Austrian is taking the remaining 5. The deal also includes a codeshare between Lufthansa and Airberlin equity parent Etihad Airways. “With the 5 aircraft from Airberlin, we will take advantage of market opportunities to strengthen our leading position at our hub Vienna,” Austrian CE Kay Kratky said. <br/>