Etihad Airways has abruptly ended talks with Tui, the world’s largest tour operator, over the creation of a new European leisure airline as the proposed joint venture fell victim to strategic changes at the Gulf carrier. The complex deal would have seen Tuifly, the German budget flights group, merge with part of its Etihad Airways-backed rival Air Berlin, to create a new airline capable of carrying 15m passengers a year on a fleet of about 60 aircraft. On Thursday, Tui said that the Air Berlin-controlled Austrian carrier Niki “is no longer available for a joint venture”, leaving the parties to abandon negotiations that have been ongoing since October last year. One person briefed on the breakdown of talks said Tui’s management was informed of the decision on Wednesday. Tui executives were told that Etihad was no longer willing to split off Niki from Air Berlin, as the UAE-based group sought new solutions to rescue the struggling German airline, the person said. The Gulf airline said: “Etihad has taken this decision following many months of negotiations, in good faith, during which time the parties have been unable to reach agreement on the final nature of such a joint venture.” <br/>
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Nobody at Southwest told Louis Freeman he would be the first black pilot in the airline's history when he was hired in 1980. "It never occurred to me," Freeman says, "but when I got here I was the only pilot of color — it didn't take long to figure out." Freeman went on to become the first black chief pilot — a management job — at a major US airline. His most memorable flight carried the body of civil rights icon Rosa Parks to her final resting place. The NAACP had asked the airline to put together an African-American crew. Freeman made his last flight as a Southwest Airlines captain on Thursday, a few days before turning 65, the federal retirement age for airline pilots. As he strode toward the gate at Dallas Love Field, Freeman donned his captain's cap for the last time and reminisced about joining Southwest after six years flying for the Air Force. On Freeman's first flight as co-pilot, he had a moment of panic when the captain gave him a routine command. The weight of being an airline pilot had suddenly hit him. It went beyond that first flight. "I put a whole lot of pressure on myself because I had to get it right," Freeman says. "I had to be perfect because I wanted them to hire more of us." The color barrier in airline cockpits wasn't broken until the mid-1960s. Southwest was less than a decade old when Freeman joined and had just 20 planes and fewer than 200 pilots.<br/>
Flybe Group set out plans to keep a lid on capacity as it contends with increasing competition and slowing growth in consumer demand. The company said on Thursday that moves to slow its expansion had already provided some benefits and that it would cut capacity in the second half to leave it broadly flat for the year to March 2018. Performance in the current financial year to June 5 had shown a 4.6 increase in passenger revenue per seat, Flybe said, adding that it had sold 45% of its capacity versus 44% at the same point last year. "Forward booking trends point to unit revenue improvements that we view as encouraging," Liberum wrote in a client note, adding that headwinds for the company were starting to "moderate". It has a "Buy" recommendation on the stock. The company reported an adjusted pretax loss of GBP6.7m for the year to March 31, against a GBP5.5m profit the previous year. Flybe said that IT costs were lower than expected at GBP4.8m, having warned in March that it expected a charge of between GBP5 and 10m related to a systems upgrade. It has been contending with industry-wide challenges where larger European airlines have driven down fares by adding more seats to boost their market share in a period of lower oil prices.<br/>
A mechanical problem was the reason behind two days worth of cancelled flights from Bush Intercontinental to LAX on Spirit Airlines. A company spokesperson said the door on the plane would not close, which meant it was taken out of service. The repair took a day to complete before the aircraft could be returned to service. Spirit operates two departure flights to LA out of IAH daily. The broken door caused three flights to be canceled. The airline said the cancellations had nothing to do with the pilot union negotiations underway. Stranded passengers were put on other airlines by Spirit. The company said those who couldn't be placed on other flights Wednesday were booked into hotels. The Thursday afternoon flight out of Houston departed on schedule at 2:45 p.m.<br/>
Turkish low-cost carrier Pegasus Airlines is embarking on a major expansion of services to and from Ankara. Although Ankara, in the interior of the country, is the nation’s capital, most international and domestic flights operate through Istanbul’s two airports—Ataturk International and Sabiha Gökçen. From later this month, Pegasus will be adding eight new routes operating out of Ankara Esenboga Airport to and from Trabzon, Antalya, Adana, Van, Gaziantep, Erzurum, Diyarbakir and Balikesir-Edremit. The airline will then be flying 11 domestic routes from Ankara, adding to the current three routes to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, Izmir and Bodrum. The expansion of flights serving Ankara is part of a strategy to create new hubs beyond Istanbul in an attempt to open up new markets. Turkey has a population of almost 80m and Pegasus already operates a dense domestic network covering around 30 destinations. “Our vision is to transform Ankara into an international flight hub,” Pegasus CEO Mehmet Nane said.<br/>