French pilot unions hit out at the possible appointment of Air Canada's COO Benjamin Smith as Air France-KLM's new boss, after several newspapers reported that he was poised to be named to the job Thursday. The appointment would fill a management void after a tumultuous stand-off with unions at French carrier Air France. Former CE Jean-Marc Janaillac quit in May when staff rejected his offer of a pay deal aimed at ending a wave of strikes. The next boss will have to grapple with unions that are demanding fresh talks over wages, and the reported choice of a North American to run a company in which the French state has a stake has already raised hackles among some. "The board of Air France-KLM always makes the worst decisions," Philippe Evain, head of the SNPL pilots' union, said. <br/>
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Delta Air Lines said Wednesday it entered into a codeshare partnership with Kenya Airways on flights to and from Kenya Airways' hub at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Effective Aug 11, Delta's code will be placed on Kenya Airways' flights from Amsterdam, Paris, London, and Accra to Nairobi. Delta code will also be added on Kenya Airways' services to more than 10 cities across the continent. Delta has operated flights to Africa since 2006, but this new partnership runs parallel to its global code-sharing push of late. The airline earlier this week added corporate benefits to its Air France-KLM partnership and is working to extend its existing codeshare partnership with WestJet that would build on the route network within the US and Canada. In March, the Korean govt signed off on the last piece of a trans-Pacific partnership that will allow Delta and Korean Air to expand their flight offerings. <br/>
Delta Air Lines announced Wednesday that the company plans on hiring at least 1,000 flight attendants in 2019 as it hopes to expand the size of its operations. These positions are expected to be highly competitive as the airline hired about 1,700 flight attendants out of more than 270,000 applicants in 2017. The airline announced about a month ago that it is also planning on hiring about 8,000 pilots as plenty of its pilots will have to retire due to the mandatory age of retirement of 65 for a piloting position, according to federal law. This may sound like a lot because Delta only has 13,000 pilots, but there aren’t as many people who aspire to be pilots as before. <br/>
A resolute union is continuing to try to organise flight attendants and fleet service workers at seemingly impregnable Delta. Wednesday the International Association of Machinists scheduled an all-day demonstration at Delta's employee parking lot at the Atlanta airport. Wednesday's demonstration was to include marches, speeches and handbill distribution as the union seeks to collect enough signatures to call on the National Mediation Board to schedule representation elections. Delta has about 23,000 flight attendants and about 16,000 fleet service workers. For an election to be called, a union must submit cards with 50% plus one of the members of each bargaining unit. IAM leaders say they haven’t reached that total for either group, but they are close. A Delta spokeswoman said the IAM is not needed at the airline. <br/>