JetBlue’s plan to add more seats to its Airbus SE A320 planes is running into an obstacle: broken toilets. The Space Flex lavatories supplied by Zodiac Aerospace are crucial to JetBlue’s plan to reconfigure its fleet of A320 jets. The airline will set a “formal review” in November with Airbus and Zodiac to evaluate repairs on the 21 A321 aircraft where the product has already been installed, and determine how to proceed on the A320s, CFO Steve Priest said Tuesday. Last month, JetBlue began fixing the “design challenge” posed by Zodiac’s Space Flex version 2 galley and lavatory product, which is located at the rear of the passenger cabin on the A321s, Priest said. “The last thing we want to do is put this product on our A320 aircraft and then have to bring them back for service,” he said. The Space Flex cabin for the A320 family is designed to optimize space and allow for denser aircraft seating. But "equipment quality hasn’t been up to standard and we’ve seen alignment issues in the installation," JetBlue spokesman Doug McGraw said in an email. "These problems are leading to a high rate of inoperable parts and out-of-service lavatories." JetBlue has said its plan to increase seats on the A320 to 162 from 150 will bring in about $100m in additional annual revenue. Priest said the airline remains “absolutely confident” it will be able to proceed with the denser A320 seat configuration.<br/>
unaligned
Lufthansa plans to scrap the brand name of Austrian airline Niki as it integrates the carrier into its Eurowings budget business, a board member said Tuesday. Lufthansa signed a E210m deal this month to take over insolvent Air Berlin's Niki and LG Walter units, plus some short-haul planes, to cement its position as Germany's biggest carrier and expand its Eurowings budget brand. Eurowings aims to sell flights on current Niki routes under its own brand as soon as antitrust proceedings are completed, Eurowings CE Thorsten Dirks said in Vienna, adding that he hoped for approval by year-end. Dirks, who is also a Lufthansa board member, said Lufthansa would apply for regulatory clearance at the European Commission early next month. Austrian competition authorities have said they will voice concerns in Brussels because they believe Lufthansa, which also owns Austrian Airlines, would be too dominant in Vienna if it also owned Niki. The German cartel office has said it expects the Commission to take a close look and that it would follow the process closely. Dirks expects the Commission's approval to be subject to conditions. "This can mean that we will have to return slots or reduce capacity on certain routes," he said. Leisure travel airline Niki, which flies 21 A320 family jets and employs 840 staff, will continue operating as an independent unit fulfilling current collective agreements, Dirks said.<br/>
Ryanair has delayed its stricter cabin bag policy in the latest turnabout by the beleagured budget airline. The company told its passengers in September that from 1 November they would have to pay GBP5 for priority boarding to avoid having their main cabin bag checked in to the hold at their departure gate. Following the flight cancellations fiasco that grounded 400,000 ticket holders, however, and a continuing fight with pilots over pay, Ryanair said it would delay the new bag policy until mid-January. The airline said customers needed more time to get used to the policy, particularly with the busy Christmas period just weeks away. Ryanair’s head of marketing, Kenny Jacobs, said: “We will delay the introduction of our new cabin bag rules until 15 January 2018, to allow our customers more time to familiarise themselves with the policy changes.” The new policy will prevent passengers from bringing a wheelie-size bag into the aircraft unless they have paid for priority boarding. Passengers who have not done so can still go to the departure gate with a wheelie bag and a small secondary bag – such as a handbag – but the larger bag will be taken away and put in the hold. Travellers will then have to wait at their destination airport for the bag to be delivered on carousels. Ryanair is also increasing the maximum weight for checked-in luggage from 15kg to 20kg.<br/>
Aeroflot low-cost subsidiary Pobeda Airlines has taken delivery of the first of eight Boeing 737-800s leased by Singapore-based lessor BOC Aviation. Before the end of the year, the airline will take delivery of three more of the type. In 2018 it will add eight more 737-800s; in 2019, it will take six more from other lessors. The new aircraft is the first in the fleet that equipped with Split Scimitar Winglet, which Pobeda said will decrease fuel consumption by 1.6%. The Moscow Vnukovo-based carrier began operations in December 2014.<br/>
A commercial airline flight bound for Dallas with more than 80 people on board had to return to an Alabama airport because of smoke in the passenger cabin. A spokeswoman for Birmingham's airport, Toni Herrera-Bast, say an American Airlines flight operated by a regional carrier departed Tuesday morning but to turn around after the pilot reported smoke. The plane returned to the airport at 6:40 a.m. after only 11 minutes in the air. Passengers got off the aircraft on the tarmac before being taken inside the terminal. No injuries are being reported. The twin-engine Bombardier CRJ-900 was carrying 79 passengers and four crew members.<br/>