A Delta Air Lines pilot hit a passenger as she and two other women fought on the floor of a boarding ramp in Atlanta last week, according to a video. Although the incident happened April 21, the video rocketed around the Internet Saturday - another heated altercation as airlines are under scrutiny for mistreating people following a United Airlines passenger's bloody, forced removal from a flight earlier this month. No one was charged in the incident, including the pilot. A Delta Spokesman said the pilot was trying to de-escalate an ongoing fight. "We became aware of this incident and a video last week and immediately removed the pilot from duty while we completed a thorough investigation," Delta said. "The pilot has since been returned to work as our investigation found that his actions de-escalated an altercation between passengers". <br/>
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Italians are watching Alitalia go into yet another financial tailspin, and a growing number of them believe it would be better for the country if it crashed. Outraged at repeated state bailouts that have cost taxpayers more than E7b over a decade, many Italians are taking to social media to urge the govt to resist the political temptation to rush to its rescue again. An opinion poll published Friday, 4 days after Alitalia workers voted to reject a union-backed rescue plan proposed by management, shows that 77% of Italians believed the airline should be left to fail. Without state support, Alitalia appears headed for collapse. Rival airlines show little interest in buying it, and creditors refuse to lend more money after workers last Monday voted down a rescue plan that would have cut 1,700 jobs and trimmed salaries. <br/>
Garuda Indonesia swung to a Q1 net loss of US$99.1m as fuel costs rose by over 50%. Operating revenue for the carrier rose 6.2% to $909.5m, but costs jumped 21.3% to $1.02b. Fuel was the biggest contributor to the loss with an increase of 54% to $292.3m. The EBIT loss for the quarter was $109.4m, from a $15.8m profit the previous year period. The airline made a $0.8m net profit in Q1 2016. Garuda carried 8.4m passengers in the quarter to end March, an 8.4% uplift from the previous year. RPK traffic was up 15.2% on an ASK capacity increase of 10.9%. Load factor rose 2.7 percentage points to 72.5%. Passenger yield came in at 6.3 cents, a 7.6% drop. CASK rose 5.7% to 5.9 cents. Both Garuda Indonesia and its low cost unit Citilink returned positive growth during the quarter. <br/>