British Airways has applied for regulatory approval to wet-lease 3 Airbus A330s from Qatar Airways in order to overcome schedule disruption caused by Boeing 787 engine maintenance. A regulatory filing published by the UK Civil Aviation Authority shows that BA requested permission to wet-lease the 3 aircraft between June 1 and Sept 30 to "support passenger operations" as it deals with the "impact of aircraft availability within its own fleet as a result of issues surrounding the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 Package C engine". BA seeks to justify the leasing of aircraft from a non-EU carrier on the basis of "exceptional needs". Qatar Airways owns a 20% stake in IAG. IAG CE Willie Walsh said May 4 that "a number" of BA's 787s would be "unavailable" during the late spring and summer months of May, June and July. <br/>
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A US watchdog will examine how well the FAA handled maintenance oversight at American Airlines and Allegiant Air, a budget carrier whose safety standards have come under scrutiny. The review by the DoT's inspector general announced Wednesday follows a CBS "60 Minutes" report that questioned Allegiant's safety standards and the FAA's oversight of the airline. US senator Bill Nelson of Florida called for an investigation after the report. The DoT in a memo said it had launched the audit after finding that the FAA had moved from "emphasising enforcement actions to working with carriers to address the root causes for noncompliance of safety regulations." "American Airlines was shocked to learn of the Office of Inspector General’s review and we stand by our strong safety record," the airline said. <br/>
American Airlines will unveil 5 new gates in Terminal 3 at Chicago O’Hare International Friday as it seeks to grow its flight network from the third-largest hub for the carrier. The 5 new gates, L 20-24, situated near the end of the L Concourse, were built out at a cost of US$70m and entirely paid for by American Airlines, not the City of Chicago. These new gates are not to be confused with gates that were at the centre of a huge controversy tied to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s $8.5b O’Hare expansion and redevelopment plan that he unveiled in March. Just as details of that O’Hare project were set to be made public, American suddenly found out it had been short-changed on gates the airline thought it was promised as part of the expansion deal. <br/>