A Boeing lawyer said the aircraft maker has reached settlements in more than 60 wrongful death cases filed after a 737 Max 8 plane flown by Lion Air crashed in Indonesia last year. Attorney Dan Webb told US District judge Jorge Alonso in Chicago Thursday that Boeing has reached agreements involving 63 or 64 plaintiffs filed by families and estates of the Lion Air victims. Webb made his comments during a status hearing on separate litigation involving claims from the March 2019 crash of a 737 Max plane flown by Ethiopian Airlines. All the lawsuits have been working their way through the federal court system in Chicago, where Boeing is based, as the company tries to fend off allegations that both crashes were the result of design flaws in its 737 Max aircraft. <br/>
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Gol is holding talks about expanding ties with American Airlines and United Airlines after parting ways with long-time US partner Delta Air Lines. The carriers are discussing whether to establish codeshare deals, Gol CFO Richard Lark said Tuesday. That would be a step up from Gol’s existing interline agreements with American and United. “We are in discussions with both United and American about converting those interlines into codeshares, and we may have both of those as codeshare partners,” Lark said. An agreement could be reached with one or both of the US airlines “over the next couple of months,” he said. Delta has not indicated when or how it intends to sell its Gol stock, Lark said. The US carrier owns a 9% stake, according to Gol. <br/>
US would-be start-up Avatar Airlines has again submitted ambitious business plans to regulators, after failing in previous attempts to obtain a declaration of financial fitness. Avatar claims that it plans to raise US$300m to fund the acquisition of 14 Boeing 747-400s configured with 581 seats. It has also set out intentions to fund expansion to a fleet of 30 747-8s through an IPO in 3 to 5 years' time. The US DoT has yet to respond to this latest iteration of the company's strategy. It dismissed a previous filing by Avatar in 2017, after several years of trying to obtain more detailed information about the company's plans for a private placement to raise $300m, and describing its application as "largely deficient". Avatar claims it can tap the advertising market to provide the income stream necessary to cut fares to "ultra-low" levels. <br/>