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The head of the pilots' union said Thursday that American Airlines is leaving thousands of standby passengers at the gate to make sure that flights depart on time. Nearly 20,000 passengers were denied boarding in February even though there were empty seats, Dan Carey, president of the Allied Pilots Association, said. He called it intolerable. American carried more than 14m passengers last month. The airline has been trying to improve its on-time performance. It ranked eighth among the nation's largest 12 airlines at on-time arrivals in 2016, but rose to third in January, the latest month for which government figures are available. American did not immediately comment. Carey said standby passengers are left behind on about one in six flights, and he blames the airline's policy of closing the door from the gate area to the jet bridge 10 minutes before scheduled departure. He says gate agents are under extraordinary pressure to close the door no matter what, but that passengers should not be left behind if there are empty seats.<br/>

LATAM Airlines Group, the biggest carrier in South America, on Wednesday named a new chief executive of its shrinking operation in Brazil, where a deep recession has battered profitability in recent years. Brazilian Jerome Cadier, currently senior vice president of marketing for the Chile-based airline group, will take over LATAM's operations in Brazil starting on May 1, the company said. The unit's current CEO, Claudia Sender, has been in charge since 2013, about a year after the Brazilian airline then known as TAM merged with Chile's LAN. She will keep the title of president of LATAM Brasil and assume responsibilities for marketing, services and client experience for the larger group. LATAM slashed capacity in Brazil by nearly 12 percent last year and could cut up to 2% again in 2017, the company said last week. Yet the group's CEO Enrique Cueto told Reuters on Monday he expected the Brazilian market to recover in the second half of the year.<br/>