Southwest Airlines and the union for its mechanics reached an agreement in principle for a new contract Saturday, amid an exchange of lawsuits and more than 6 years after beginning negotiations. The proposed 5-year accord would give mechanics US$160m in retroactive pay, an immediate 20% raise effective April 1, and 3% annual increases each August, according the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association and Southwest. The terms are an improvement from a proposal union members rejected in September, but since increased in part because of the added time they had worked without a new contract. Southwest secured work rule changes that will allow the carrier to become more efficient. The two sides must put the agreement into contract language before it is sent to members for a vote. <br/>
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Kuwait Airways is seeking a US$350m loan that will help the carrier pay for planes, people with knowledge of the deal said. The state-run airline is talking to banks to raise a 5-year facility, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information is private. It’ll be used to make early payments for narrow-body jets, they said. Kuwait Airways has 15 Airbus A320neo narrow-body planes on order as well as 8 A330neos, 5 A350s plus 10 Boeing 777s. It currently has a fleet of 17 planes, according to information on its website. A spokesman for Kuwait Airways didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. <br/>
Saudi Arabian LCC Flyadeal intends to keep its existing fleet of Airbus A320ceos in operation despite its order for Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, the carrier’s CE said. Flyadeal signed for 30 MAX 8 plus 20 options in Dec 2018; first deliveries are not scheduled until 2023 and the operator plans to look for leased MAXs this year and next while awaiting its own aircraft. The airline has issued an RFP for leased aircraft. Given this week’s grounding of the type, CE Con Korfiatis said, “At the moment we’re just assessing what’s going on. We will take a breath while the next little period plays out to understand what’s going on with the aircraft, and then continue.” However, the plan had always been to retain the existing fleet of 11 A320s, given the strength of the market in Saudi Arabia, he added. <br/>
TUI Group's grounding of its Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet will cost the company about E3m (US$3.4m) per week, European analysts say. A TUI spokesperson said the numbers were presented by analysts and he did not want to comment directly. “However, these numbers are not that wrong,” he said. Meanwhile, TUI is looking to lease capacity on short notice as its fleet of 15 737 MAX 8 remains grounded. TUIfly, which planned to receive its first 737 MAX March 12, was forced to postpone delivery after the suspension of MAX operations in Europe. The aircraft remains in the US. TUI Airlines’ 737 MAX 8 fleet operates from Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK and Sweden. The latest delivery would have brought TUI Airlines’ MAX fleet to 16. <br/>
French leisure airline Aigle Azur will make changes in its operations to and from China and Brazil as it continues with long-haul expansion plans, while maintaining services to its established European and African destinations. Beijing service, which the carrier began last year, will be reorganized from May to improve connections with partner Hainan Airlines’ network, resulting in a temporary suspension of Paris-Beijing flights while awaiting approval for new slots from CAAC. Aigle Azur said it would suspend its 3 weekly Paris Orly-Beijing flights from the end of March “for a few weeks,” before starting again with 3 weekly flights at different times. The carrier also said it would add its code to Hainan Airlines from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Shenzhen and Chongqing, adding to the codeshare already on the Xi’an flight. <br/>
*Russia's govt has proposed Pobeda, a LCC subsidiary of Aeroflot, buy Russian-made planes instead of 30 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, the Vedomosti business daily reported Friday. Vedomosti said the proposal was unrelated to Sunday's deadly plane crash in Ethiopia involving a Boeing plane and said the govt wanted Pobeda to buy Russian-made MS-21 commercial passenger planes to support domestic industry. Pobeda last year asked the govt to approve the purchase of 50 Boeing 737 Max aircraft. The company has already signed a contract to receive 20 of them from 2019 to 2021. The govt authorised obtaining 20 of the planes, but has not yet authorised the acquisition of the remaining 30, Vedomosti cited two sources as saying. <br/>