Seeking to reassure travellers, United Airlines CE Oscar Munoz has promised to board his company’s first Boeing 737 Max jet to take flight once regulators clear the aircraft to fly again. Munoz made the promise after United’s annual shareholders meeting Wednesday. He said the company also will take steps to educate customers and employees about why United feels it’s safe to resume flights of the 737 Max. Boeing has said it completed its software fix for the anti-stall system implicated in 2 crashes in October and March. However, the company has not yet submitted final paperwork to regulators or scheduled a mandatory test flight with FAA. Acting FAA administrator Daniel Elwell repeated that his agency won’t lift the grounding of the Max until it is safe. He said people eventually will get back on the plane. <br/>
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Avianca was a failing airline with 37 outdated planes when German Efromovich purchased it out of bankruptcy in 2004. Over 15 years the he built it into a regional powerhouse as Latin America’s second-largest carrier. But for all its success, the company is now back on a rocky foundation. Its stock price is down by almost 75% since it went public in 2011 and its bonds are trading in distressed territory amid concerns it will struggle to refinance debt. Avianca’s Q1 loss was the biggest since 2015. The man most responsible for the mess is the same who so recently was treated as a hero -- Efromovich. The self-made millionaire imperilled the airline’s future by last year offering up his 51.5% stake in Avianca as collateral on a loan from United Continental. His holding company BRW Aviation quickly breached terms of the contract. <br/>
EVA Air—which remains banned from flying over Mainland China—continues to wait for overflight permits for direct service from Taipei to Europe via China. As a result, the carrier is forced to operate longer routes between Taiwan and Europe via Russian airspace or Southern Asian routes. For political reasons, Taiwan has been restricted from using northern China’s airspace on flights to Europe. The carrier often must make detours and many flights to Europe must go farther south, depending on the season and wind conditions. EVA Air declined to mention operational costs for such long-haul flights. Europe is a relatively small part of EVA’s network, representing about 10% of the carrier’s business. “But it is strategically very important,” EVA GM-Austria and CEE Edward Ho said. <br/>