Former tennis great and now Christian pastor Margaret Court says she will stop using Qantas "where possible" in protest over the Australian airline's promotion of same-sex marriage. "I am disappointed that Qantas has become an active promoter for same-sex marriage," Perth resident Court said in the letter published in The West Australian newspaper. "I believe in marriage as a union between a man and a woman as stated in the Bible. Your statement leaves me no option but to use other airlines where possible for my extensive travelling." Serena Williams' 23 Grand Slam singles titles are a record for the Open era, which began in 1968 — she broke a tie with Steffi Graf at this year's Australian Open. Only one player has won more: Court, who claimed part of her 24 during the amateur era. Australia's other major domestic airline Virgin and its founder Richard Branson also support gay marriage.<br/>
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Malaysia Airlines’ new charter business for its Airbus A380 fleet could eclipse the main airline operations to become the most significant part of the group’s business, its CE said. Irish Independent reported CEO Peter Bellew as saying that the charter business, which is expected to begin in 2019, would do “very well”. “I think it will do very well. I think it may well eclipse what we’re doing in terms of the main Malaysia Airlines,” he reportedly said. The airline will transfer six of its A380 superjumbo jets to a new entity to manage the charter business. The new entity would entail 800 staff, up to 500 which will be new hires. One of the main targets for the charter business are companies that are bringing Muslim pilgrims for the Hajj and Umrah. “We have a lot of requests from very large global holiday travel companies that have a requirement to move vast numbers of people over about a 22-week season from one part of the world to another,” he said.<br/>
Japan Airlines will launch additional flights serving Australia and Hawaii as early as September, revamping its international routes for the first time since undergoing bankruptcy reorganization in 2010. In addition to an existing route between Narita Airport and Sydney and code-share flights, Japan's flag carrier could start serving Melbourne as early as September. It also intends to launch a route between Narita and Kona, Hawaii. JAL accounts for about 30% of air travel between Japan and Honolulu, making it the largest player. But competition is likely to intensify, with ANA Holdings' All Nippon Airways planning to fly the Airbus A380 double-decker to Honolulu starting in the spring of 2019. JAL hopes the Kona route will help it maintain market share. Meanwhile, the carrier will consider halting or reducing the frequency of less-profitable routes. While the weak yen continues to encourage Europeans to travel to Japan, Japanese tourists are hesitant to travel in the other direction due to the recent string of terror attacks in the region. JAL currently operates flights out of Narita and nearby Haneda Airport to Paris, but may stop the Narita flights altogether.<br/>