Avianca Brasil will trim its fleet and return some leased planes to owners trying to repossess them, a lawyer for the airline said Monday. The attorney, who spoke on condition that he not be identified, also said the aircraft lessors had agreed to grant the airline 15 more days to fly the planes while renegotiating delinquent lease payments. The lawyer who spoke after a closed hearing in bankruptcy court said that details were not final. Without a deal, the airline would have faced the immediate seizure of 20% of its fleet, which is owned by lessor Aircastle, and could have lost more planes in the future. The deal which includes several airplane lessors came together at the last minute. As of Friday the airline had not made any concrete proposals to keep the planes, a source said.<br/>
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Lufthansa will cancel at least 414 flights due to a strike on Tuesday by security staff at eight German airports, including the airline’s hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. The cancellations include 386 flights within Europe and 28 intercontinental services, Lufthansa said on Monday. Airport-security workers in Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Hanover, Bremen, Dresden, Leipzig/Halle and Erfurt plan to walk out from 2 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday as the Ver.di union pushes for higher wages. “Because employers have shown no willingness to make a better offer, the extension of warning strikes has become necessary,” Ver.di board member Ute Kittel said Monday. Talks are due to start again on Jan. 23. Lufthansa said the flight cancellation figures currently don’t yet include its operations at Munich airport, suggesting the total figure will rise. “These are no longer just warning strikes but completely disproportionate,” Matthias von Randow, managing director of the BDL employers’ group, said Monday. “The wages of security control personnel have increased by almost 50% since 2011.”<br/>
Two Indonesian F-16 fighter jets forced an Ethiopian Airlines cargo plane to land on Monday at an airport on Batam island after it had flown into Indonesian airspace without permission, an air force spokesman said. First Marshal Novyan Samyoga said the Boeing Co 777 cargo plane had been secured by air force personnel at Hang Nadim international airport on Batam, an island south of Singapore. The cargo flight ETH 3728 had been flying from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to Hong Kong. Officials at Ethiopian Airlines said the plane had made an urgent unscheduled flight to drop an aircraft engine in Singapore for maintenance. "(The plane) was crossing the Indonesian airspace in accordance with the ICAO Chicago Convention Article 5, by which a non-scheduled flight can overfly the airspace of a friendly country without prior permission," the email said. <br/>
Air Canada will invest C$97.3m in regional partner Jazz Aviation's parent Chorus Aviation, as it extends the Jazz capacity purchase agreement (CPA) by an additional 10 years until end-2035. Chorus plans to use 60% of the investment from Air Canada to purchase nine additional 76-seat Bombardier CRJ900s, which will be delivered in 2020, says Chorus CE Joe Randell on an investors call Monday. As part of the investment in Chorus, Air Canada will receive a seat on Chorus' board and has nominated its CFIO Michael Rousseau to the position. Air Canada has committed to hold its investment for at least 60 months. Randell says the amended CPA with Air Canada provides greater certainty for Chorus, while ensuring increased relevance for Jazz within Air Canada's network. Chorus leases aircraft into Jazz, which operates regional service under the Air Canada Express brand. Story has more financial details.<br/>
A mynah bird was discovered on board a flight from Singapore to the UK. The bird, native to southern Asia, was found around 12 hours into the Singapore Airlines flight to London, which usually takes 14 hours. The feathery passenger had good taste: it appeared in the business class cabin. In a video posted on Facebook, the black bird is seen perched on top of a passenger’s headrest, unperturbed by the activity in the rest of the cabin. When a member of Singapore Airlines’ cabin crew tried to grab it, the black bird flew off. It's not clear how the bird managed to board the 6,736-mile flight. "It was subsequently caught by cabin crew with the assistance of some of the passengers," a Singapore Airlines spokesman said. Upon landing at Heathrow, the bird was then handed over to animal quarantine authorities.<br/>