India's IndiGo airline said Friday there was no financial impact yet from the grounding of Airbus A-320 NEO planes following issues that had risen with the Pratt and Whitney engines fitted on them. The airline's CFO Rohit Philip declined to comment on whether the airline would seek compensation from Airbus Group for the engine issues. India's aviation regulator said late last month that at least two incidents involving A320 NEO planes fitted with the engines flown by IndiGo - owned by InterGlobe Aviation - and privately-held GoAir - were under investigation. Philip said IndiGo is still considering the choice of engine for a pending order of 250 A-320 NEO planes. He said he didn't expect delivery schedules to be affected by the engine issues. The model accounts for only a small part of the IndiGo and GoAir fleets at present, but numbers are set to grow rapidly with IndiGo having over 400 of the jets on order and GoAir set to add more than 100. <br/>
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Nigerian airline Aero has made about 60% of its workforce redundant in a desperate effort to stay afloat, it said Friday. The more than 400 staff made redundant are mainly support staff such as baggage handlers and security workers, CE Ado Sanusi said. "It is very clear that if we did not make the decision the business would die," said Sanusi, adding that the wage bill for an airline with just two functioning planes was not sustainable. It comes weeks after the country's largest airline, Arik Air, went into receivership due to its inability to pay workers. Airlines in Nigeria, which is in its first recession for 25 years because of a slump in oil revenues, have experienced fuel shortages in recent months because the supply of dollars needed to pay for oil products has dried up. The fuel shortages have caused an increase in cancellations and delays to flights across Africa's most populous nation.<br/>
A passenger plane landed safely Friday after one of its two propellers fell off in a near disaster as the plane approached Sydney Airport. The Regional Express Airlines crew reported the right engine propeller assembly separated from the Saab 340 airliner 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of the airport, Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said. "Our propeller has just sheared off but normal controls. Still able to fly," one of the two pilots said in a radio call broadcast by media. Flight 768 was carrying 16 passengers and three crew from Albury, 500 kilometers southwest of Sydney. "Not just the propeller, but the shaft that connects it into the engine have all come off and the assembly has fallen away to the ground," Gibson said. "This is very, very, very unusual. It happens very, very rarely," he added. Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association president Paul Cousin said he had been told the pilot felt vibration then looked out to see the propeller break off. The rapidly spinning parts could have sliced into the fuselage and tail plane as they fell behind, he said. "They were within a whisker of a catastrophic event," Cousin said. "When that propeller let go, they were lucky in the extreme that it sent itself over the top of the wing without doing much damage," he added.<br/>
Southwest says a pressurization issue forced a flight from Phoenix to Atlanta to make an emergency landing in Texas. The airline says its pilots and crew followed emergency procedures to divert and land at the nearest airport when the midflight malfunction occurred Saturday morning. No one was hurt, though the plane's emergency oxygen masks were deployed. Passengers on Southwest Flight No. 118 are expected to arrive to Atlanta about seven hours late. The plane that landed in Amarillo, Texas has been taken out of service for inspection and repairs.<br/>
JC International Airlines officially launched in Cambodia on Saturday, bringing the number of local airlines to five. JC International Airlines CEO Dongyan Huang said the airline was registered as a local company with an investment capital of $50m. She said the airline has two Airbus 320 aircraft with daily flights between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, and Siem Reap and Sihanoukville. Huang said JC International Airlines would first open and serve the domestic market, but would soon expand routes to include Asean member states and China – Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong – as well as South Korea, Japan and Europe. By the end of 2017, JC International Airlines will add three additional aircraft to serve the demand in the kingdom, added Ms. Huang.<br/>