Australia has criticised China for pressuring Qantas to list Taiwan as a Chinese territory on its website. Qantas said Monday that it would comply with the request from China, which considers self-ruling Taiwan a breakaway province. China made the same request to more than 40 other airlines, a move the US has called "Orwellian nonsense". Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop said Qantas alone should decide how it runs its website. "Private companies should be free to conduct their usual business operations free from political pressure of govts," she said Tuesday. Bishop's comment comes amid diplomatic tensions between the nations over proposed new Australian laws designed to prevent foreign interference. <br/>
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Air traffic control strikes are more of a threat to European airlines this year than a rise in fuel prices, the CE of IAG said Tuesday. Global airlines have slashed their forecast for industry profits in 2018 due to a spike in fuel costs, but in Europe, there is an additional threat to profits from the cost of flight cancellations associated with air traffic control strikes. "From a European context, the thing most impacting is ATC strikes and the ongoing ATC environment which is a mess," IAG CE Willie said. "It's destroying traffic through Europe." A4E has estimated the economic cost of ATC strikes in the EU was E13.4b between 2010 and 2017. Ryanair said earlier Tuesday that ATC strikes and shortages caused it to cancel 1,100 flights in May compared with 43 in the same month last year. <br/>
Akbar Al Baker, the CE of Qatar Airways, stirred up the gender debate Tuesday when he said only a man could do his job. His comment highlights a gender diversity problem in the aviation sector and comes at an awkward time for the industry as Baker has just become chairman of IATA’s board of governors. In response to a question about the underrepresentation of women in Middle Eastern airlines, Baker said of his job as head of Qatar Airways: “Of course it has to be led by a man, because it is a very challenging position.” He later said that he had not meant women in general, rather that there was no particular woman ready to succeed him at Qatar. He added that the airline had more than a third of female staff and women up to senior vice-president level. <br/>