American Airlines Group Tuesday trimmed its Q1 revenue forecast after cancelling more than 2,000 flights due to the global grounding of Boeing 737 MAX jets and problems with overhead bins in cabins of another Boeing jet that the airline was retrofitting. American said it was too early to project the total cost of the suspended operations of the 737 MAX in the wake of two deadly crashes. The carrier owns 24 of the brand-new Boeing aircraft whose use was suspended around the world in March. The MAX grounding caused 1,200 American flight cancellations during Q1, in addition to 940 cancellations due to American’s decision to remove 14 737-800 aircraft from service after pilots complained that overhead bins were not closing on some recently retrofitted cabins. As a result, American said it now expects here revenue per available seat mile, a closely followed measure of performance, to be flat to up 1% compared with the prior forecast of flat to 2% growth. American said all its 737-800 aircraft will be back in service by the end of April, but the carrier will continue to cancel about 90 flights per day through June 5 as the 737 MAX remains grounded. Because it is still unclear when the MAX jets will begin flying again, American said it cannot yet forecast the cost of the disruption beyond Q1. American has 76 more MAX jets on order, though deliveries are on hold as Boeing works through a software fix, which will need regulatory approval. American cut its first-quarter outlook for margins, citing higher fuel prices. Excluding special items, the company now expects pre-tax margin to be about 2 to 4%, compared with its prior forecast of 2.5 to 4.5%.<br/>
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BA has agreed to end a long-running court battle with the trustees of one of its pension funds over increases in payments to retired workers. The IAG-owned airline and the trustees have been embroiled in a legal dispute since 2013 over a decision to award a 0.2% discretionary increase to members of the scheme — which amounted to half the difference between the retail price index and the consumer price index. The trustees of the Airways Pension Scheme, which has 24,196 members, amended the plan’s rules in 2013 to give themselves the power to grant discretionary pension increases to retirees. Their decision was prompted by moves by the 2010 coalition government to link pension rises for retired public-sector workers to the CPI rather than the RPI, which is seen as a more generous measure of inflation. The government decision also applied to private-sector pension schemes. It resulted in a long court battle between BA and the trustees which raised important legal questions, such as the extent of pension trustee powers. BA won the case in the Court of Appeal last year and the latest round of the dispute was due to be heard by the Supreme Court in July. On Tuesday the trustee directors announced that they had unanimously agreed terms for a proposed out-of-court settlement with BA, bringing the legal action to an end. The proposed settlement still needs to be approved by the High Court.<br/>
BA apologised to passengers following an in-flight scare during which the plane's oxygen masks were mistakenly released. TV screens and lights went dark less than two hours into a Monday morning flight from Singapore to London before an automated voice told passengers to put on oxygen masks, announcing it was "not a drill," said Mitchell Webb, a passenger from England. Flight attendants announced a short time later that the masks were released due to a "technical issue." They also apologised to passengers, though Webb said he wished the pilot would have reassured passengers of their safety. "My mindset given the circumstances was that if a system failed, what else would go wrong on this flight subsequently?" Webb wrote in an email. "We received no communications on the incident itself from them, and we only heard again from the pilot 45 minutes before landing (around 10 hours later) to give us the usual update on weather at the landing location, etc. – with not a single mention or apology regarding the incident that occurred." In an email sent to passengers later that day the airline apologised for "any distress or concern" the deployment of the masks may have caused.<br/>