The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) said Monday it had filed a lawsuit against Boeing Co alleging that the planemaker “deliberately misled” the airline and pilots about its 737 MAX aircraft. The grounding of the 737 MAX in March has wiped out more than 30,000 Southwest Airlines flights, causing over $100m in lost wages for pilots, the union said. Southwest is the largest operator of the MAX with 34 jetliners in its fleet when the aircraft was grounded worldwide following two fatal crashes that together killed 346 people. The lawsuit, filed in the District Court of Dallas County, Texas, alleges that Boeing “abandoned sound design and engineering practices, withheld safety critical information from regulators and deliberately misled its customers, pilots and the public about the true scope of design changes to the 737 MAX.” A Boeing spokesman said: “While we value our long relationship with SWAPA, we believe this lawsuit is meritless and will vigorously defend against it.” The planemaker will continue to work with Southwest and its pilots on efforts to safely return the MAX to service, he said. “We have to be able to trust Boeing to truthfully disclose the information we need to safely operate our aircraft. In the case of the 737 MAX, that absolutely did not happen,” said SWAPA president, Captain Jon Weaks. <br/>
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Hawaiian Airlines has raised its forecasted operating revenue per available seat mile for Q3 of the year due to better-than-expected yields in long-haul markets, especially international travel, the company says on 7 October. In addition, its economic fuel cost per gallon is expected to be lower than originally forecast. Cost per available seat mile (CASM) and fuel consumption estimates are narrower than earlier guidance. Hawaiian now says that RASM will be between a 0.5% decline and 0.5% increase against the earlier expectation of a 1.5-4.5 % decline, which the company reported at its second quarter earnings report on 31 July. CASM excluding fuel and non-recurring items will be between 4.5-5.5% increase versus the earlier guidance of 3.5-6.5% increase. Economic fuel cost per gallon are now forecast at $2.04 in Q3, down from an earlier estimate of $2.11. The airline says it expects jet fuel consumption to fall between 3-4%, which is on the higher side of the earlier forecast range of 2.5-4.5% decrease. Hawaiian carried more than 931,000 passengers in September, bringing its third-quarter passenger number to “more than 3 million”. Load factor in September rose to 85.5% and to 87.8 percent in Q3, respectively.<br/>
Uganda’s national carrier Uganda Airlines received two passenger planes on Monday, doubling the size of the fledgling airline’s fleet. The airline received two CRJ900 planes from Canadian manufacturer Bombardier, the airline said on its Twitter handle. Each plane can seat 72 passengers. The airline is considering expanding its destinations to include Kinshasa, Zanzibar, Lusaka, Asmara, Hargeisa, Djibouti and Addis Ababa, it said. Uganda Airlines was relaunched in August, with the country eager to take a slice of the region’s growing aviation business that is currently dominated by Ethiopian Airlines. Uganda Airlines expects to receive two Airbus A330 Neo planes soon. The first will arrive by the end of the year, and the second a few months later. The state carrier was founded in 1976 by former dictator Idi Amin but liquidated in 2001 during a broader push to sell off struggling state-owned firms. The airline started flying again last month, banking on passengers from the Uganda’s emerging oil industry and the traditional tourism sector.<br/>
AirAsia and its long-haul subsidiary AirAsia X have filed a MYR479.8m ($114.6m) claim at the Kuala Lumpur High Court against Malaysia Airports (Sepang) (MASSB), the operator of Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s (KLIA) two terminals. The LCC said the claim is for losses and damages the two airlines suffered at KLIA2, the second terminal it primarily operates from, because of MASSB’s negligence in management, operation, maintenance and provision of airport services and facilities. This includes a ruptured fuel line that impeded Pier P operations for more than a month in 2016 and numerous runway 3 closures in 2018. Although not directly related to the lawsuit, KLIA recently announced the partial closure of runway 3 in October after runway improvement works. The feud began in December 2018 when the airport operator sued AirAsia and AirAsia X seeking MYR36.1m in unpaid outstanding passenger service charges. The LCC countersued in January this year for MYR400m in losses and damages over the same reasons; however, the Malaysia Aviation Commission (Mavcom) did not mediate the dispute and a subsequent attempt by AirAsia to seek a judicial review of Mavcom’s inaction was dismissed by the high court in June.<br/>