Seventy thousand travellers with SAS will see their flights cancelled Friday unless negotiators agree a last-minute deal to stop nearly all of its around 1,500 pilots going on strike after midnight, the carrier said Thursday. Swedish, Danish and Norwegian pilot unions earlier this month called a strike if there was no agreement on wages and other terms after an earlier round of talks broke down without the parties finding common ground. National mediators in the 3 countries have been trying to broker a deal since last week between delegations of the 2 parties. A SAS spokeswoman said negotiations were still ongoing. Should a strike last through the weekend, around 170,000 travellers would be affected in total, she added. <br/>
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Air Canada is the latest airline to remove 737 Max aircraft from its scheduled flights into August with no sign of how long regulators will keep the aircraft grounded. The airline has kept 24 737 Max 8 aircraft in storage since grounding the fleet in March. The carrier has compensated for the absence of the Max by flying passengers on some of their other 163 aircraft currently in service. Air Canada was expecting to receive another 12 aircraft for a total fleet of 36 Max aircraft in July, but deliveries of the 737 Max have been paused by Boeing. As regulators coordinate with Boeing on safety concerns with the Max, Air Canada has removed the Max from its schedules “until at least 1 August.” <br/>
United Airlines CE Oscar Munoz acknowledged key pain points customers face when traveling today, including airlines' increasingly shrinking seat sizes. "I think we are nearing a point certainly that we can't do that anymore," Munoz told ABC News. The interview was conducted prior to the US grounding of the Boeing 737 Max. He said that air travel used to be a thrilling experience but has turned into a laborious process. "It's become so stressful," he told the outlet, "from when you leave, wherever you live, to get into traffic, to find a parking spot, to get through security." Munoz added: "By the time you sit on one of our aircraft ... you're just pissed at the world." He also said that the experience won't be improved by something like coffee or a cookie. <br/>
Avianca CE Hernan Rincon will leave the airline effective April 30, as the carrier and its majority shareholder face increasingly challenging times. Hernan Rincon, who joined the carrier in April 2016, is leaving the airline after just 3 years in the role. Rincon plans to pursue other opportunities, says Avianca chairman German Efromovich. Avianca, Copa Airlines and United unveiled a joint venture agreement in Nov 2018, a plan which involved United agreeing to a US$456m loan for Efromovich's Synergy, the majority shareholder in Avianca. The loan was secured by Synergy's equity and its 516m shares of common stock in the Latin American airline. Synergy has come under increasing pressure in recent months, with its wholly-owned Avianca Brazil filing for bankruptcy protection in Dec 2018. <br/>