Mahan Air has been forced to cancel its Paris flights over "sanctions", its customer services team said Tuesday, weeks after Germany banned the airline. "We have been told that (flights to France) have been cancelled ... as of the first of April," an operator at the airline's office in Tehran said The Paris schedule will be scrapped "because of sanctions" by the French, the source said. Mahan, the Islamic republic's second-largest carrier after Iran Air, flies up to 4 services a week between Tehran and Paris. Germany imposed a ban on Mahan in January, which the foreign ministry said was necessary to protect Berlin's "foreign and security policy interests". That decision came amid broader sanctions adopted by the EU against Tehran over attacks on opponents in the bloc. <br/>
unaligned
Richard Branson is planning to cut air stewards' pay below the minimum wage, whistle-blowers claim, as they threaten strike action over Easter. In cuts branded "unfair" by staff, Virgin Atlantic air stewards' base salaries will increase marginally while allowance benefits, which make up a third of their pay, will be halved. Angry staff say that under the regime they would have to dip into their own pockets to pay for basic food and drinks at the "plush" hotels booked by the company. The deal currently being offered, the airline crews claim, means that they will be earning below the minimum wage and that their annual allowances of around GBP7,500 will be cut in half. Virgin Atlantic has denied the claims and insisted that no one would end up being paid less than the minimum wage. <br/>
French carrier Corsair is to phase out its Boeing aircraft over the next 5 years, in favour of an expanded, all-Airbus fleet which includes a trio of leased A330-900s. Under a strategy unveiled by new majority owner Intro Aviation, the airline will grow from its current 7 long-haul aircraft to 13 by 2023. Each of Corsair's 3 Boeing 747s will be replaced by 2 A330s, says Intro. It adds that a lease deal for 3 A330-900s was signed March 15, for commissioning by 2021, and that 3 other A330s will join the fleet as the 747s are withdrawn. A further 3 aircraft are to arrive in a second phase between 2021 and 2023. Intro says the shift to an all-A330 fleet will "improve the quality of the product", allowing the airline to adopt new cabin layouts, simplify its operations and "significantly" reduce operating costs. <br/>
Frontier Airlines pays among the lowest wages to fight attendants in the industry, and some say they often can’t afford to make ends meet. They want a raise, and soon. Their union, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, has been in contract negotiations with Frontier since 2016, and in Nov 2018, 99% of the union’s members voted to authorise a strike if those negotiations stall. Though the National Mediation Board is guiding talks, AFA-CWA’s patience appears to be running thin. The union’s international president, Sara Nelson, wrote to Frontier members March 6 to tell them that the union would demonstrate in Denver if a new contract isn’t reached by March 20. It’s a major test for the union, which made national headlines earlier this year after Nelson called for a general strike to end the government shutdown. <br/>