Air China Ltd has received the green light from Beijing to push ahead with mixed-ownership reform of its air freight logistics business, the firm said late on Friday, signaling a potential shake-up of China's cargo carrier market. In a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange the carrier said its state-owned parent, China National Aviation Holding Company (CNAHC), had received the approval from China's top state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission. China's long-awaited mixed ownership reforms will allow private capital to invest in firms run directly by the central government, and are part of an ambitious revamp of the country's sclerotic and debt-ridden state sector. "CNAHC will start to push forward the mixed-ownership reform in air freight logistics," it said, adding the move would likely affect the listed company and some of its subsidiary firms. Domestic media has previously reported China's top airline freight carriers could merge to form a cargo transport giant.<br/>
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United Airlines and Chicago airport officials missed a deadline for answering questions from by key US senators about the dragging incident aboard a United Express plane. The company and city say they want more time. Four leaders of the Senate Commerce said Friday it was unacceptable that the airline and city had not answered questions about the April 9 incident. Their deadline passed Thursday. In a letter to the senators, CEO Oscar Munoz said United Continental Holdings Inc. needed until April 27 to thoroughly investigate the matter and review policies including how it handles "oversold situations." He apologized again for the "shameful treatment of one of our passengers." Chicago aviation commissioner Ginger Evans asked to have until April 26 to answer questions. The top two Republicans and top two Democrats on the Senate committee asked United about its policy for bumping passengers off overcrowded flights, and whether the airline handled cases differently once passengers had boarded.<br/>
Documents show the man overseeing Chicago's investigation into the dragging of a passenger from a United Airlines plane was hired despite his termination from the Illinois Tollway amid sexual harassment allegations. Deputy Aviation Commissioner of Security Jeff Redding told the Chicago Tribune he had a consensual relationship with a toll collector but that wasn't the reason why he thought he was fired. However, the Tribune obtained a Tollway memo in which an assistant Illinois attorney general wrote that Redding's behavior "raised serious sexual harassment issues" and "warranted immediate termination." The memo is based on an interview with the unidentified toll collector who describes instances when she felt compelled to have sexual relations with Redding. According to the memo, the employee said Redding "expected sexual favors or money in exchange for work-related advancements or favors, and that threats were made by Redding indicating her job could be in jeopardy." Redding, who was hired under a Democratic administration, said he believes he was terminated during the first year of Gov. Bruce Rauner's term so the Republican could hire his own workers. Redding strongly denied the female employee's allegations of coercion. "That's not true, that's not true, that's not true. That's absolutely not true," said the 54-year-old Redding, who is a former Chicago police officer. He said if he made a mistake it was having a relationship with a subordinate. He called encounters outlined in the Tollway memo "fictional" and said the first time he heard about the allegations was when the Tribune told him about them. Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans said she didn't know about the Tollway memo when she interviewed Redding for the job. She recalled his explanation for leaving the Tollway was that he was swept out by an incoming administration. It's not clear if the allegations against Redding in his previous job have any bearing on the United Airlines investigation.<br/>
United Continental said Friday CEO Munoz will not become chairman in 2018, under an amendment to his employment agreement approved after an uproar over the treatment of a passenger. In a reversal of his earlier employment agreement, Munoz has opted to leave "future determinations related to the Chairman position to the discretion of the Board," United said in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The company also said it would revise its 2017 executive compensation to more directly tie incentives to improvements in customer satisfaction. In 2016, Munoz made $18.72m. "United's management and the Board take recent events extremely seriously, and are in the process of developing targeted compensation program design adjustments to ensure that employees' incentive opportunities for 2017 are directly and meaningfully tied to progress in improving the customer experience," the filing said. <br/>
State-owned Air India is hiring over 80 junior pilots for its wide-body Boeing B777 and B787 aircraft to meet the shortage of cockpit crew. The process to induct these first officers or co-pilots is in the final stage and they are expected to join Air India by next month, an airline source said here. Air India currently has about 170 co-pilots to steer its 15 B777 and 23 B787 planes as against a requirement of over 370, the source said.It is scheduled to take delivery of four more Boeing 787 as well as three B777 between July this year and March next year. The airline operates these planes majorly on its long and ultra long haul routes. “As many as 95 candidates were selected for the simulator test after they cleared the written examination. Of these, 85 could clear the simulator test and they are now in the process of joining Air India,” the source said. These candidates are already type rated on narrow body Boeing 737 and conversion as pilots for the wide-body B737 can be done easily, he said.<br/>