SWISS expects to resume mostly normal service with its fleet of Airbus A220 jets Thursday after temporarily grounding the jets for safety checks of their engines, it said Wednesday. The inspections of Pratt & Whitney engines came after a Geneva-bound SWISS jet had to divert to Paris Tuesday. French air crash investigators classified the engine problem, which disrupted the flight shortly after departure from London Heathrow, as a “serious incident” and said it would be investigated by the US NTSB. The carrier said that 20 of the aircraft had been inspected Tuesday afternoon and overnight. “The engines are in impeccable condition, so these 20 aircraft have returned to regular flight operations,” it added. “We continue to assume that flight operations can be largely resumed Thursday,” added the airline. <br/>
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Air Canada is keeping the Boeing 737 Max off its flying schedule until Feb 14, citing “regulatory uncertainty” that will affect thousands of passengers. The airline had earlier scrubbed the 24 jetliners from schedules until Jan 8. Boeing has said it expects federal authorities to greenlight software changes to the aircraft in Q4, but regulators say they don’t have a set timeline. CCO Lucie Guillemette says the extension until Valentine’s Day will give Air Canada “scheduling predictability” as it rolls out its new reservation system. The airline says it will lease 2 more wide-body aircraft at least through March Break to help compensate for the absence of the Max planes, which make up about 20% of Air Canada’s narrow-body fleet and would typically carry about 11,000 passengers per day. <br/>
No US airline is on a better financial trajectory than United Airlines. But investment analysts have asked whether United is spending too much money, a habit that could hurt the company if this long-rumoured economic downturn occurs sooner rather than later. But speaking Wednesday on their Q3 earnings call, United’s executives said they have a simple plan to combat cost creep. Over the next 6 years, they said, United will use bigger planes in place of smaller ones, a strategy called “increasing gauge.” Larger jets allow United to add more seats per flight. “We have large hubs in big cities across the country, and because of that, we should be the airline with the highest gauge,” United president Scott Kirby said. “But at this point, we’re not. In fact, United is 7-to-8 years behind our large competitors in gauge growth”. <br/>
Slovenia's parliamentary finance committee has proposed that the sale of Adria Airways to German firm 4K Invest be formally examined. The decision follows an emergency committee session Oct 11. It convened after a request from the Levica political party to discuss the "adverse effects" of Adria's privatisation. In a communication dated Oct 15 the finance committee issued a decision stating that the country's Court of Audit should investigate the sale, and the contract, under which the airline was sold to 4K Invest. It adds that the results of this examination should be submitted to the National Assembly, the lower house of Slovenia's parliament, "as soon as possible". Levica had been highly critical of the 2016 privatisation and this was echoed during the committee session by the right-wing SDS party. <br/>
ANA unveiled a telepresence robot Monday that lets people experience faraway places without having to travel there in person. The robot, named Newme, can transmit high-definition 2K video that lets its human user see and interact with the bot's surroundings. ANA plans to debut 1,000 Newme robots by next summer, allowing humans to attend sporting events or go shopping on the other side of the world. Newme, which looks like a tablet atop a pole attached to a moving base, was built by OhmniLabs at Tokyo's Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies. "By placing the world at your fingertips, avatars will open up new possibilities and help reshape everything from business and education to healthcare and entertainment," Shinya Katanozaka, president and CE of ANA HD said. <br/>