When Boeing’s CE was asked by Congress last month if the company was working to get lawsuits related to the deadly crash of Lion Air Flight 610 transferred from the US to Indonesia, where the accident occurred, he pleaded ignorance. “I can’t comment on that,” Dennis Muilenburg said during the second day of contentious hearings investigating the deadly crashes of two of the company’s 737 Max jets. “I’m just not familiar with the details of that.” But while Muilenburg said he was unaware of Boeing’s legal strategy in cases related to Flight 610, the company’s lawyers have been remarkably transparent. In at least 6 court filings and in-person appearances over the last year, Boeing has made it clear that it is prepared to seek a transfer of the cases out of the US through forum non conveniens, or inconvenient forum. <br/>
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Lion Air has discovered cracks on 2 of its Boeing 737NGs, each aircraft having fewer than the 22,000 flight cycles stipulated by FAA’s threshold for inspection since cracks were discovered on other airline aircraft. In late September, Boeing alerted operators of all 737NG variants that it had notified FAA of cracking on the left and right-hand side outboard chords of the station 663 frame fitting and failsafe straps. Hairline “pickle fork” cracks have been discovered on 737NGs operated by Gol, Korean Air, Ryanair, Southwest Airlines and Qantas. Lion Air operates the 737-800 and 737-900ER, but it is not clear which type was affected. The aircraft have been grounded for repairs. A Lion Air spokesperson said that the inspections were carried out “to ensure security and safety of flights” even though they were not required. <br/>
Allegiant Air has settled a lawsuit against the Teamsters with union pilots agreeing not to strike over changes in the airline's crew-scheduling system. A federal magistrate judge in Las Vegas signed an order Friday that ends the case and makes permanent an injunction against a strike or work slowdown. Allegiant agreed to drop a claim against the president of Teamsters local 1224, and the union and its local agreed to drop a counterclaim against Allegiant. The airline sued the Teamsters last year after pilots voted to authorise a strike. Allegiant said just the threat of a strike could hurt ticket sales, and a judge issued a temporary order blocking a strike. Allegiant and the union are continuing to negotiate over the scheduling issue. <br/>
Ryanair has been named the dirtiest UK airline, according to a new study. A Which? Travel survey found that fewer than half of Ryanair passengers (42%) rated the airline for cleanliness on-board, which the consumer champion found was “significantly worse” than other airlines included in the survey. A quarter of passengers on-board the airline (24%t) added that cleanliness on-board was poor. Which? surveyed almost 8,000 people online during Sept and Oct 2018 to find the dirtiest airlines. Overall, 8 in 10 (81%) of passengers rated cleanliness positively across 42 airlines, both budget and full-service. At the other end of the spectrum, EasyJet and British Airways both ranked as having good levels of hygiene on-board. <br/>
Initiators of a new regional "people's airline" to be based in Switzerland’s capital Bern, have started a crowdfunding campaign to launch it ahead of the 2020 summer holiday travel season. FlyBAIR, which was presented to the public Nov 1, plans to begin operating daily direct flights from Bern to several European holiday destinations in Spain, Italy and Greece from May 1 2020. Later in the year, it hopes to connect the city to a major hub such as Munich, Amsterdam or London. Currently, no commercial airlines serve the airport in the Swiss capital. Passengers must travel to the airports at Geneva, 93mi to the southwest, or Zurich, 75mi to the northeast, in order to reach any other destination by air. FlyBAIR explains that it needs CHF2.5m (US$2.5m) to launch. About 41% of that goal had been reached. <br/>
Jet2 has purchased slots previously held by defunct leisure operator Thomas Cook at Birmingham, London Stansted and Manchester airports. Disclosing the deal, Jet2 did not specify the financial terms. CE Steve Heapy says the slots will enable the airline to continue expansion. "We have been adding more flights and aircraft, resulting in increased capacity, at each of these bases for many years," he states. Schedules data shows that, from Manchester, Thomas Cook operated a total of 34 routes, around a third of them long-haul. The carrier operated 10 routes from Birmingham and 9 from Stansted. EasyJet has also revealed that it purchased Thomas Cook slots at London Gatwick and Bristol airports for GBP36m (US$46m). <br/>