Cathay Pacific is to honour first and business-class tickets accidentally sold at economy-class prices, in a move that could cost the airline millions of dollars in lost earnings. While Cathay has not said how much the technical glitch cost the company, the Post spoke to 11 people who had snapped up 18 first class and 8 business-class tickets totalling HK$216,925. Based on the current retail price, the airline should have collected almost HK$5.4m (US$685,800) from them. Several thousand tickets are believed to have been sold during the computer error, which has been blamed on an individual entering the wrong fares into the company’s system for flights between Vietnam and North America. In a tweet announcing its decision to honour the tickets, Cathay said it hoped the move would make 2019 special for its customers. <br/>
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Qatar Airways has bought a 5% stake in China Southern Airlines in a move that further broadens the portfolio of minority investments in airlines abroad. “Qatar Airways regards our shareholding in China Southern Airlines as an important part of our strategic investment in the largest airline in one of the world’s fastest growing aviation markets,” the group’s chairman Akbar Al Baker said. Qatar acquired the shareholding Dec 28. The investment is remarkable in several respects. First, it makes Qatar Airways and American Airlines common shareholders in China Southern. And second, Qatar also owns 9.99% of Cathay Pacific Airways, which operates a hub that competes with China Southern’s in nearby Guangzhou. <br/>
Iberia intends to fight to keep its “Spanish” character if the UK leaves the EU without a deal this March. In a No Deal Brexit scenario, airlines that do not have majority control of their companies in EU countries could lose the right to operate within it. IAG is the product of a merger between British Airways and Iberia that was finalised in 2011. British Airways shareholders have 55% ownership of the company. IAG and Iberia have been trying to negotiate with Brussels to be able to retain their flight permits within the EU. To do this the EU requires companies in the flight sector to prove they have at least 51% control in EU countries. IAG has tried to show that more than 50% of Iberia’s shares are in the hands of El Corte Ingles, which is Spain’s department store group. <br/>
American Airlines’ two top executives, CE Doug Parker and president Robert Isom, plan to make on-time reliability a major focus for the airline in 2019. That was made abundantly clear to more than 120,000 AA employees in a year-end memo this past week. While AA by no means ignored on-time performance in 2018, technical glitches and some really bad weather at the airline’s largest hubs caused AA’s on-time performance to falter — badly at times — during the year about to end. But Parker and Isom think 2019 stands to yield much better on-time results. For one thing, the carrier completed full integration of its legacy American Airlines and US Airways flight attendant groups into a single operational unit in October. <br/>