Qatar Airways' CE said Tuesday the carrier will post a loss this year because 4 other Arab countries have severed land, air and sea links with Qatar. Akbar al-Baker said the ban on the airline flying to neighbouring Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt since last summer has forced it to fly longer routes through Turkey and Iran, and has hit the company's bottom line, but not its expansion plans. "We have increased maintenance costs because we are flying longer routes, we have more fuel consumption, so the cost to the airline is rising and I have already stated that the airline will post a loss this year due to the blockade, but this doesn't mean that we are going to shrink," al-Baker said. "We will keep on expanding and growing the company." <br/>
oneworld
After delaying spending on its fleet for too long during a turnaround program, Qantas faces a possible funding squeeze when it’s time to buy new planes, according to S&P Global Ratings. Qantas needs to increase investment in its aging fleet of 309 planes before the sum required is too large to handle, S&P said Thursday. Shareholder returns may have to be reduced to pay for fleet renewal. The average age of a Qantas plane is just shy of 10 years, older than a typical aircraft at SIA and almost double the figure at Emirates, S&P said. Qantas doesn’t plan to increase capital expenditure this year or the next, creating a “sizable funding task” from 2020 onward, S&P said in its report. But Qantas may be restricted by its own target for net debt as well as an Australian law that limits foreign ownership of the carrier’s shares. <br/>
American Airlines flight attendants — already trying to avoid creating any ugly viral incidents on board flights — have new reason to fret as their jobs grow more complicated and stressful. They now are starting to worry that the iSolve software recently introduced to help compensate passengers on board flights for any problems experienced in the air could lead to more tense situations. The iSolve software only allows compensation to be offered in the form of AAdvantage miles. Furthermore, the mileage compensation doled out through iSolve is non-negotiable on the plane. So if a passenger feels he or she deserves a certain number of miles — or worse yet thinks some monetary compensation is in order — the flight attendant has no leeway in such situations. <br/>