The co-founder of Lion Air has lashed out at Boeing's handling of the accidents as the potential business fallout from the jet's grounding intensifies. Rusdi Kirana said a recent apology by Boeing over the 346 lives lost in the 2 disasters stood in contrast to what he viewed as hasty earlier criticism of Lion Air's pilots. Kirana also accused Boeing of treating him as a "piggy bank". Lion Air has spent tens of billions of dollars on plane orders with Boeing. Kirana is the figurehead for what is now one of the planemaker's largest customers with 187 jets on order and 200 already delivered. Lion Air threatened in December to axe those orders, but has given no further update. Kirana said the contrasting reactions demonstrated that Boeing was taking fast-growing carriers such as his for granted. <br/>
unaligned
Airlines are stepping up the fight against what they see as poorly drafted and enforced passengers’ rights rules. Under the European legislation known as EU261, travellers are entitled to cash compensation for long delays or cancellations that are within the airlines’ control. Now Philip Meeson, executive chairman of Jet2’s owner, Dart Group, has called for changes to the system. At present individual passengers apply for compensation either direct with the airline or through claims-handling firms, which typically take one-third of any compensation awarded. Meeson, is calling for the CAA's existing Passenger Advice and Complaints Team (PACT) to rule definitively on whether a particular flight should qualify for compensation. <br/>
Russia’s Utair Aviation plans to launch its first international flight, a 2X-weekly Ufa-Vienna Boeing 737-500 service, from June 3. Ufa International is one of the Utair’s regional hubs. Up to one-third of the passengers are carried from the airport by Utair flights, the airport said. The airline connects the city with Moscow, Anapa, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Surgut, Tyumen and Khanty-Mansiysk. “In 2017-2018 Utair regional routes traffic grew steadily, the airline increased frequencies and added new routes,” Ufa airport DG Alexander Andreyev said. The Ufa-Vienna service, which will be operated through the end of August, will be the only airport connection with a significant European hub because Czech Airlines has ceased flights from Prague to Ufa. <br/>
The govt has thrown Hong Kong Airlines another lifeline with more time to come up with a coherent restructuring plan, as the indebted carrier pledged to keep flights running during the busy Easter period amid mounting concerns over its finances. The airline made the reassurance, despite repeatedly failing to pay banks, aircraft-leasing companies and suppliers on time, while authorities questioned its turnaround plan drawn for the fourth time since December. With reported losses last year of HK$3b (US$382m) and company bosses appealing to shareholders to inject HK$2b just to keep its flying permit and the business afloat, the fate of the airline has been laid bare. The authority said Monday that the carrier, backed by Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, needed to produce a “concrete plan” to improve its books. <br/>