A federal judge in Chicago signalled he may let dozens of lawsuits against Boeing over the crash of a Lion Air plane be resolved in Indonesia. US District judge Thomas Durkin said during a status hearing Thursday that US Supreme Court and appellate court rulings appear to support the idea of a venue change. “The law is pretty favourable to move this case,” Durkin said. “I haven’t decided the motion, but plaintiffs” should read case law that set precedent on when and whether similar cases can be moved to a foreign jurisdiction, he said. Where the claims are litigated will influence settlement talks, which have been taking place with a mediator since July, according to the judge. Durkin said the case can’t move forward until he rules on the venue. <br/>
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Delivery delays to Boeing’s 777X jetliner are holding back Emirates’ growth and could affect the carrier’s fleet plans, airline president Tim Clark said Thursday. Emirates has 150 of the new model on order, of which 8 were originally slated for delivery next year, and has yet to firm up orders for 40 of Boeing’s mid-size 787 jets. Clark said launch customer Emirates no longer expects to receive the first 777X before “April or the Q2” of 2021. “That has conditioned everything else,” he said. “First of all I want to know when the thing’s going to come,” he added. “Our fleet plans are very much driven by when these aircraft are going to be delivered to us.” <br/>
Southwest Airlines said Thursday it was postponing the return of Boeing's 737 MAX jets to its flight schedule until Feb 8, the latest delay for the plane. The airline had previously planned to keep the jet off its flight schedule through Jan 5. United Airlines and American Airlines have canceled flights involving the 737 MAX until January. "With the timing of the MAX's return-to-service still uncertain, we are extending the MAX-related flight schedule adjustments through Feb 8," Southwest said. "The revision will proactively remove roughly 175 weekday flights from our schedule out of our total peak-day schedule of more than 4,000 daily flights." Earlier this week, Southwest's pilots union forecast that the grounded Boeing 737 MAX airplane would return to the skies around February. <br/>
Air Baltic, the second-largest European operator of Airbus A220s, is following guidelines on engine checks in the wake of a series of failures which affected the SWISS A220 fleet. But the Latvian carrier points out that it uses "a different variant" of the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G engine "in contrast" to the aircraft operated by SWISS. Air Baltic has 20 A220-300s and was the first to receive the variant in Nov 2016. The airline had experienced its own grounding in Oct 2017 when it suspended operations with the fleet – then comprising 7 aircraft – to carry out engine checks. It stated at the time that the inspections related to an "external engine accessory" and that, as a launch operator of the CS300, it had expected to undertake upgrades during the early period of operations. <br/>
European safety regulators have restored the third-country authorisation to Turkmenistan Airlines which had been withdrawn early this year. The carrier had been forced to resort to wet-lease operations to maintain European services following the withdrawal. It subsequently enlisted Lufthansa Consulting, in February, to assist with supporting a return to compliance with EASA criteria. Turkmenistan Airlines says it took "immediate action" to address the "difficulties in satisfying relevant requirements" for third-country operators. It states that EASA carried out an audit at the carrier's base in Ashgabat at the end of September, and reauthorized the airline Oct 11. Lufthansa Consulting worked with the airline to oversee management system changes and implementation of other matters. <br/>
Iraqi Airways is inviting bids from European operators to conduct services on its behalf to European destinations. The carrier says it is looking for wet-lease offers, or "viable" alternative proposals, to serve a schedule to European cities under its traffic rights. Iraqi Airways is prohibited from operating within EU airspace, having been individually blacklisted 4 years ago. The airline says any candidates must be European-registered and hold a valid European air operator's certificate. "Applications shall only be entertained from airlines operating the most modern aircraft fleets," it states, indicating that the average fleet age should not exceed 6 years. Aircraft should also have a 2-class configuration including a business-class cabin. <br/>
Norwegian and JetBlue Airways have signed a letter of intent to form an interline agreement, enabling passengers to fly between Europe and the Americas at low cost and with a single booking. The two companies will connect more than 60 US and nearly 40 Caribbean and Latin American destinations to Norwegian’s network through New York JFK, Boston Logan and Fort Lauderdale airports—from which Norwegian currently offers more than 20 nonstop routes to Europe. Under the proposed interline agreement, passengers will also be able to check in their luggage through to their final destination. The partnership is planned to launch next summer, with customers able to book tickets early next year through both airlines’ websites and travel agents using the GDS booking system. <br/>