The warning and training requirements set for the now-grounded 737 Max 8 aircraft may not have been adequate, in light of the Ethiopian plane crash that killed 157 people, the chief of Ethiopian Airlines said Saturday. After the Lion Air crash off Indonesia in October, the FAA and Boeing "came up with contents that we incorporated in our working manuals and also briefed all our pilots. But today we believe that might not have been enough," Tewolde Gebremariam said. Ethiopian Airlines insists the carrier's pilots went through all the extra training required by Boeing and the FAA to fly the 737 Max 8 jet. Gebremariam said earlier in the week that the training was meant to help crews shift from an older model of the 737 to the Max 8, which entered airline service in 2017. <br/>
star
Asiana Airlines' credibility among investors further fell Friday after its share trading was halted following an auditor's negative opinion on the airline's financial status, according to analysts and officials Friday. The company will be placed on the bourse operator's watch list, Monday, which many expect will force institutional investors to dump the firm's shares. Trading will resume, Tuesday. The carrier was halted from trading following the audit report by Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers which issued a "qualified" opinion. The auditor explained it gave the negative opinion because it could not obtain evidence of debt from maintenance costs for the carriers' leased aircraft, collectable amounts of assets showing signs of damage and several other valuations of the company's assets. <br/>
United Airlines announced Friday that it has become the first US airline to offer non-binary gender options. Customers now have the ability to identify themselves as M(male), F(female), U(undisclosed) or X(unspecified), corresponding with what is indicated on their passports or identification. As part of its rollout, United has partnered with the Human Rights Campaign and The Trevor Project on employee training initiatives, including teaching employees about preferred pronouns and the persistence of gender norms, LGBTQ competency in the workplace and other steps to make United an inclusive space. United says it will continue working to build “the world's most inclusive airline.” <br/>
TAP said it’s preparing for an initial public offering. The carrier, part-owned by airline tycoon David Neeleman, is readying itself for a sale but can’t be sure when that might be, CE Antonoaldo Neves said Friday. ““It’s very hard to determine the timing,” he said. Neves declined to specify how much of TAP might be sold off, while adding that it’s normal for companies to offer 15 to 30% of their shares in a flotation. TAP plans to lift its annual passenger count to 20m within 5 years from about 16m now as it adds 70 new planes to expand its network and save on fuel. The carrier posted a loss of E118m (US$133m) last year from a profit of E21m in 2017 as it booked restructuring costs, signed union deals and saw its expansion held back by delays at Airbus. <br/>
SIA is stepping up its inflight sustainability initiatives, by introducing new efforts to reduce food waste and cutting back on plastic products. At the SIA’s World Gourmet Forum, the carrier said it would introduce automated data collection, artificial intelligence and machine learning to better predict customers’ consumption patterns and further reduce cabin food waste. SIA said that food product waste varies depending on the flight and passenger profile, but with the data on hand, it can adjust portions served accordingly. The carrier also aims to be plastic straw-free by Sept 2019, by replacing children drinking straws with paper straws, which is the only plastic straw product left. SIA said the changes will reduce about 820,000 plastic straws each year. In additional, the airline plans to replace all plastic swizzle sticks to wooden ones. <br/>
Air China plans to strengthen its Paris-Beijing operation by adding a third daily flight between the two cities from March 2020, according to the CAAC. The intended aircraft type has not been disclosed. Air France also flies twice a day on the route—using Beijing Capital International, as Air China does. But the opening of Beijing Daxing International, scheduled for Sept. 30, will be followed by China Eastern commencing a daily service to Paris. This is an unusual intrusion on a strong route departing from a Chinese state airline’s home city. The CAAC has presumably allowed this to happen because it is prioritising building up activity at Daxing International. With a third pair of daily departure and arrival times, Air China will give China Eastern less opportunity to draw traffic to the Daxing International service. <br/>