Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes will not cancel its orders of Boeing’s 737 MAX plane, the model which was involved in two fatal crashes, newspaper Valor Economico reported Gol’s CE as saying Tuesday. “We will not cancel our orders,” CEO Paulo Kakinoff said. “The 737 MAX is probably the best airplane ever made.” Gol is going through a significant fleet transformation and has bet heavily on the Boeing 737 MAX, with over 100 planes scheduled to be delivered in the next few years. The airline has so far received seven aircraft, which it grounded after an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed in March, the second accident involving that plane model in a span of five months. Kakinoff added that he thinks it is possible that the 737 MAX planes will fly again by July. That decision is in the hands of regulators around the world.<br/>
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Ryanair said Tuesday its pilots based in Portugal have voted for a labor agreement for the next four years, taking another step to head off any risk of another round of damaging strikes ahead of its peak summer season. The agreement governing pay and conditions was negotiated between Ryanair and the Portuguese pilot union SPAC to cover all of the airline’s directly employed pilots in Portugal, the carrier said. Ryanair has been struggling with labor relations since it bowed to pressure to recognise unions for the first time almost a year ago. The airline had said in October that it had reached an agreement with its Portuguese pilots on seniority and home base issues, looking at the time to end a damaging series of strikes that had hurt its business. It had said that the Portuguese deal - covering issues such as leave allocation and promotion - would allow talks with Portugal’s SPAC union on a full collective labor agreement.<br/>
The Italian state-owned railways group has asked government to delay a deadline to present a binding offer for troubled carrier Alitalia until end-May, two sources close to the matter said on Tuesday. Ferrovie dello Stato, which is in talks with Delta on the rescue of Alitalia, said last week it needed more time to iron out a business plan for the carrier.<br/>
Wizz Air said its net profit for the year to end-March would be in the upper half of its E270-300m guidance, reflecting robust demand across its central and eastern European markets. The London-listed airline said Tuesday its load factor increased 2.6 percentage points year-on-year to 94.1% in March, and its new year had started well, with revenue per available seat per kilometer forecast to rise 4% in Q1.<br/>
Virgin Atlantic is to replace the traditional flying woman painted on its planes with new figureheads including a black man, an Asian woman and a gay man in rainbow lycra. The airline will ditch the Varga Girl that has adorned its fleet for the last 35 years in favour of a more diverse set of icons. The flying woman, wearing a red dress that unpeels into a Union flag, was inspired by the second world war pin-ups of Alberto Vargas, later a Playboy illustrator. She will start to give way to a total of five new characters, including two more securely dressed women, when new planes arrive. Virgin said the new icons represented its ambition for gender and diversity balance in the workplace, and support for people of all sexualities. The icons will be unveiled as the airline adds new long-haul A350 planes to its fleet from this summer.<br/>