Sealed beverages and unopened snacks from Air NZ flights will be recycled rather than sent to landfills. The airline, its catering partner LSG Sky Chefs and the Ministry for Primary Industries are involved in a what they say is a world-first scheme to divert 150 tonnes of waste from landfill annually. The waste reduction initiative, Project Green, has enabled 40 Air NZ in-flight products that were previously sent to landfill due to biosecurity controls to be reclassified so they can be reused on future flights if removed from aircraft sealed and untouched. More items would be added. In the first month of running the project across its international fleet, the airline diverted 13 tonnes of waste, including 266,000 plastic cups, 480kg of sugar packets and 3.5 tonnes of bottled water. <br/>
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Air NZ CE Christopher Luxon says businesses that just cut jobs, investment and customer service aren't doing anything useful and needed to think more broadly about their bottom line. "I could get a much higher share price for Air NZ in an instant by cutting jobs, cutting investment, cutting customer service and culture," he said at the airline's sustainability event Wednesday. He said business had a responsibility to define success more broadly than solely in commercial terms. Air NZ's board demanded the company achieved 3 very interdependent goals; commercial returns, enhanced customer experience and a strong people culture within the business. <br/>
The Civil Aviation Authority of Colombia (Aerocivil) has approved Avianca to bring in pilots from other countries on a temporary basis to fly aircraft grounded by striking staff pilots. The Aerocivil approval is for a maximum of 3 months and Avianca said it will start bringing in pilots immediately. Up to now, the airline has had to wet lease aircraft from other airlines to fill some of the gaps in its schedule. Avianca pilots represented by the Colombian Association of Civil Aviators (ACDAC) have been on strike since Sept 20, causing the cancellation of many flights. ACDAC represents just over half of Avianca pilots. Talks between the airline and the union broke down at the end of September after Avianca withdrew a pay offer. Avianca considers the strike to be illegal as the airline provides an essential public service. <br/>
Austrian Airlines must decide on a long-haul fleet replacement in 2018 as the life of its current fleet winds down over the next 2 years. Austrian currently has 11 Boeing 767-300ERs and 777-200ERs. The 767s will need to be replaced first, from 2019-20 onward, according to Austrian CE Kay Kratky. Kratky said that a new long-haul fleet could require an investment of E1b- E2.4b. “This could include younger, second-hand Boeing 777s or even brand-new Airbus A350 XWBs,” he said, adding, “A decision on a replacement must be made soon.” The airline will add its 12th long-haul aircraft, a former Aeromexico 777-200ER, to its fleet in spring 2018, which will “create a capacity increase of 10% and 150 new jobs,” Kratky said. The CE said he expects an all-time passenger record of 12.5m passengers in 2017. <br/>
ANA has conducted an experiment on babies in an effort to curb the instances of crying children on flights. The airline strapped sensors to babies on a full domestic flight with 34 families and 36 children in hopes of better understanding, and eliminating, crying. The experiment may be the beginning of a new era of flying. Devices attached to the chests of babies were designed to detect any change in a baby’s vital signs, including pulse and mental activity. If a change in their condition was detected, parents received a notification on their phone to allow their child to have a drink of water or suck on candies, a recommendation that is concurrent with findings that show that allowing a child to nurse, chew, or suck on candies could ameliorate ear pressure due to cabin changes. <br/>
United Airlines plans to connect more smaller destinations to Los Angeles International airport in 2018, increasing connecting feed over the hub. Potential new destinations include Medford, Oregon, and similarly sized markets, the carrier's president Scott Kirby said Sept 25. "The key to making Los Angeles work is really having lots of connectivity and feed here," he says. United begins new nonstop service to Singapore from LAX Oct 27, and will increase capacity on routes to Hawaii from December. The new destinations planned in 2018 will, in part, feed these new routes and other existing services from LAX, says Kirby. In addition to Medford, which United flies to from its Denver and San Francisco hubs, the carrier serves a plethora of small- to mid-size destinations in the west that it could connect to LAX. <br/>