THAI on Monday said it has found a new president and CE, almost two years after the retirement of the national carrier’s former head. The board has recommended the recruitment of Sumeth Damrongchaitham, 53, after details such as salary are agreed, the airline said. Sumeth is listed on the website of the Ministry of Finance as president of state-owned property manager Dhanarak Asset Development Co Ltd. He was also COO of music and entertainment group GMM Grammy PCL. If appointed, he will take control of an airline struggling for growth in an environment of high fuel costs and competition from low-cost carriers. The selection is the culmination of a search that began in September 2016 after Charamporn Jothikastira retired at 60, the compulsory retirement age for employees of state-owned firms. Aviation Business Unit VP Usanee Sangsingkea has been acting CEO while the airline struggled to find a qualified replacement.<br/>
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SIA says that Vistara's pending addition of international routes will fit well in the group's route portfolio. At its latest results briefing, SIA CE Goh Choon Phong says that "because of the traffic between India and Singapore, we know that there will be synergies". This, Goh adds, is "for the obvious reason that they can actually tap into the traffic that we can feed from Southeast Asia and Southwest Pacific". Vistara has previously said that it will operate its first international service in H2 of the year, after already having achieved the minimum fleet size of 20 as per Indian aviation regulations to apply for international routes. Vistara CE Leslie Thng revealed that this will be a medium-haul route "of between five to nine hours". Pointing to this, he suggests the carrier will acquire widebodies, since such services "would require a different aircraft type". Vistara is a 49:51 joint venture between SIA and Tata Sons.<br/>
Air NZ's international routes will bear the brunt of oil prices near a 3 and a half year high as stiffer competition and the cost of flying vast distances set a higher bar for the national carrier than the domestic market, analysts say. The airline last week raised its domestic airfares 5% in response to meet the rising cost of its operations, including labour, fuel, goods and services, but kept international fares static. That comes at a time when Brent Crude oil prices, at US$79.41 a barrel, are near the highest level since November 2014, and a weaker New Zealand dollar pushes up the cost of imports. Salt Funds Management director Matthew Goodson said the real sensitivity for Air NZ will be on international routes because fuel tends to be a higher percentage of the cost of goods sold when planes fly so much further. "Competitors have the same pressures, but they may have different hedging programmes, because everyone hedges their fuel costs to varying degrees, that's really where those cost pressures will play out," Goodson said, referring to the practice of using a tool to fix fuel prices from wholesalers to protect from rising costs. The carrier hedged about 3.12m barrels, or 70% of estimated fuel consumption, in the first six months of calendar 2018, which it projected would generate an unrealised gain of $30.7m, according to its February 14 hedging position.<br/>
Air NZ has dropped the price of its WiFi to $30 a sector. When it was introduced about 10 days ago the price was $40 a sector but today the airline said Monday it had now been cut. The Weekend Herald reported the $40 pricing and the reaction of a customer who said he felt he was "burning money" for the service on a three-hour flight to Melbourne. The cost is the same as that on long-haul routes. The airline last week said the prices were under review. A spokeswoman said Monday this remained the case. "We're still exploring customer demand, satisfaction and pricing options and we expect that pricing will evolve over time," she said. The reduced price brings it more into line with other airlines on long-haul routes. Cathay Pacific and United charge just under $30 for flights of around 12 hours. Emirates offers the first 20MB of data free. Four of Air NZ's Boeing 777s have WiFi and the airline will roll the service out throughout the next 18 months. The airline has said last week it had seen "fantastic" uptake and promising performance of the service.<br/>
Federal prosecutors say a 22-year-old man working as a contract baggage handler at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport has pleaded guilty to stealing guns last year from the luggage of three Bellevue, Washington, police officers. Mack Stewart faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine at his sentencing hearing set for Sept. 11. Stewart entered his guilty plea Monday. US Attorney Ryan Patrick says the three officers had returned home to Washington Oct. 4 on a United flight from Houston to Seattle when they discovered their service weapons missing. About a month later, Stewart was found with one of the guns when he was pulled over for a traffic stop. <br/>