The union for American Airlines Group pilots is redoubling its push for time in a Boeing 737 Max simulator, saying aviators should be given access before the grounded plane returns to service. Dan Carey, a veteran American pilot and head of the Allied Pilots Association, appealed to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg a day after testifying before a Congressional subcommittee looking into two deadly crashes of the model. The APA has said that an earlier request for simulator time, which union officials made to Boeing through American, was rejected. “Our participation in every aspect of returning the 737 Max to service and restoring public trust in the airplane is absolutely critical,” Carey said in a letter Thursday to Muilenburg. Carey asked for access to a full-motion Max simulator as soon as possible. American is one of three US carriers operating the Max, with 24 in its fleet, and Carey said more than 4,200 of the company’s pilots will eventually operate the plane once it’s approved to return to the skies. Boeing is preparing a software update designed to prevent the kind of severe, repeated dives that occurred in the two accidents after erroneous readings from a sensor. The fix is meant to lessen the need for additional pilot training. Retired pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who gained fame by landing a disabled jet on the Hudson River in 2009, also testified Wednesday and called for simulator training for Max pilots. “We should all want pilots to experience these challenging situations for the first time in a simulator, not in flight with passengers and crew on board,” he said. Only a few Max simulators have been made and no US airline currently has one. Boeing provided a computer-based training course for 737 pilots transitioning to the Max, which entered commercial service two years ago. <br/>
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Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad said there’s “no proof” Russia is to blame for the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine. The international team investigating the crash levelled murder charges against three Russians and a Ukrainian that it said were responsible for shooting down the aircraft. “I would think a politician is not stupid to act like that,” Mahathir said Thursday. “I don’t think it is true at all.” “We are very unhappy because from the very beginning it became a political issue on how to accuse Russia of the wrongdoing,” he added. “So far there is no proof. Only hearsay.” Almost five years after 298 people died when a Russian-made surface-to-air missile detonated just feet from the Boeing 777 at cruising altitude, the MH17 Joint Investigation Team said it would prosecute Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy, and Oleg Pulatov as well as Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko. At the press conference Wednesday, the Malaysian representative on the investigation team said his government supported the probe, including its latest conclusions. A spokeswoman for the investigation team couldn’t immediately comment on Mahathir’s remarks.<br/>
Airbus called on Thursday for a chance to compete for a blockbuster plane order by British Airways owner IAG, which stunned industry executives at this week’s Paris Airshow by ordering 200 of Boeing’s grounded 737 MAX. Airbus announced a new version of its best-selling A321 with close to 240 orders and commitments in Paris, only to see its grip on IAG’s European short-haul networks damaged by the Boeing deal which analysts said shores up the embattled 737 MAX. Tuesday’s blockbuster order, worth more than $24b at list prices, was partly seen as an effort to preserve competition between planemakers, damaged by the three-month-old grounding crisis. But it jolted Airbus which was caught unawares after signing a smaller order for A321XLRs with IAG. Wrapping up the world’s largest air show on Thursday, Airbus publicly voiced its frustration over the deal and urged IAG to run a competition for the planes, which would be deployed at Vueling, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Level and part of BA. “We would like a chance to compete for that business,” CCO Christian Scherer said, adding that IAG had not issued a formal tender for the narrow-body order.<br/>
Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways said Thursday that yields, a proxy for airfares, have come under "tremendous pressure" due to declining travel demand, especially to and from long-haul destinations. "Whilst we have seen solid improvement in the first half driven by a good first quarter, our passenger revenue outlook for the coming few months has shown signs of slowdown," Cathay Pacific Director, Commercial and Cargo, Ronald Lam said in a statement alongside the airline's May traffic figures. The airline said its cargo business continued to be negatively affected by geopolitical tensions that had resulted in dampened market sentiment. Freight carried declined by 3.9% in May and is down 5% for the first five months of the year, Cathay Pacific said.<br/>