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Jetstar will cancel 120 domestic flights on Friday and over the weekend as the airline’s pilots, ground crew and baggage handlers take industrial action to demand a pay rise and better working conditions. Thirty flights will be cancelled on Friday, 44 on Saturday and 46 services on Sunday, and all passengers flying between 13 December and 20 December will be able to request a full refund. Other passengers will have their flights rescheduled, be moved to different planes or transferred to Qantas flights as the budget airline copes with protected industrial action from two different workers’ groups, after wage negotiations broke down. Jetstar said it expected 80% of flights to go ahead, and “95%” of customers will make it to their destination on the same day. International flights will only be “minimally” affected, it said. Two different groups of Jetstar employees are planning protected industrial action. Baggage handlers and ground crew, who are members of the Transport Workers Union, will be taking a series of two-hour work stoppages on Friday. Pilots, part of the Australian Federation of Air Pilots, will be taking action on Saturday and Sunday. This will involve four-hour work stoppages on both days.<br/>

Wizz Air plans to set up a low-cost airline in Abu Dhabi next year to tap into growth markets across the Middle East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent. The airline, to be called Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, will be a joint venture with state-owned Abu Dhabi Development Holding, ADDH, which will own 51 per cent. It is expected to start flying in the second half of 2020 with three Airbus A321neo aircraft, rising to 50 over the next 10 years. The move is a departure for Hungary-based Wizz Air, one of the largest low-cost airlines in central and eastern Europe. The new carrier will be the group’s first established outside Europe. In May 2018, it set up a UK airline in part to ensure it can keep operating in the UK after Brexit. CE Jozsef Varadi said the decision was founded in his belief that the “centre of aviation” is going to shift from west to east, noting that airports in western Europe were increasingly constrained and more expensive. The new airline would have access to markets with a total of 5bn customers. Wizz Air Abu Dhabi will begin flying on routes between Europe and the Middle East, but will expand to the Indian subcontinent and Africa in the longer term. “In 10 years . . . we expect to have around 50 aircraft carrying about 15 to 20m passengers so we will be a sizeable carrier,” said Varadi.<br/>

Ryanair's outgoing COO Peter Bellew considered himself a "dead man walking" after a March performance review and resigned after being ordered to work at the airline's Austrian business, he said Thursday. Bellew was speaking in court during a case brought by Ryanair to delay him joining rival easyJet for 12 months until 2021. Ryanair has said Bellew possesses information of competitive value covered by a non-compete clause. Former Malaysia Airlines boss Bellew denies he is subject to the clause and plans to start working with the British airline at the start of next year after working out a six-month notice period. The court hearings, which have gone on for longer than the four days initially expected, have included assessments of Bellew's performance and an accusation, rejected by CE Michael O'Leary, that Bellew was bullied. Bellew, who was being questioned by his own counsel and Ryanair's, said "shouting and screaming" by O'Leary during weekly management meetings indicated that O'Leary was not entirely happy with his performance. But Bellew said he was "absolutely shocked and devastated" when O'Leary at a March 2019 annual performance review said that his position as COO would be reviewed after 12 months unless his performance significantly improved. Bellew told the court that he understood that to mean he was a "dead man walking."<br/>

Southwest said Thursday it had reached a confidential compensation agreement with Boeing Co for a portion of a projected $830m hit to operating income in 2019 arising from the grounding of its 737 MAX aircraft. The airline, the world’s largest 737 MAX operator, said it would share with its employees proceeds of about $125m from Boeing. Southwest said it continues to discuss with Boeing further compensation related to the MAX grounding, adding that the details of the talks and the settlement were confidential. Boeing declined to make an immediate comment. Southwest, American Airlines and United are scheduling flights without use of the aircraft until early March 2020, nearly a year since the plane was grounded after crashes killed 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia. FAA chief Steve Dickson confirmed on Wednesday the agency will not unground the MAX before the end of 2019. Southwest CE Gary Kelly said the March date was based on FAA approval in December and would likely need to be pushed back again.<br/>

Southwest will share about $125m with its employees after reaching a partial settlement with Boeing over damages from the grounding of the airplane maker's 737 Max. But the president of the pilots union at Southwest says that the amount doesn't fairly compensate employees for wages they've lost from flights being cancelled due to the grounding. Southwest, which had about 59,000 employees at the start of the year, said Thursday that the settlement covers only a portion of its projected damages from the Max grounding. It declined to provide more details on its ongoing negotiations with Boeing. The Dallas carrier has been among the hardest hit by the grounding of the Max in March after a pair of deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. Without the planes, Southwest has been cancelling about 175 flights each weekday. Southwest had 34 Max planes when they were grounded and expected more to be delivered this year. Southwest reported in October that the grounding had cost it $435m in operating income during the first nine months of the year.<br/>

Mesa Air Group reported a net profit of $12m for its Q4 2019, down from $19m during the same quarter in 2018 as Phoenix-based regional carrier Mesa Airlines expands its fleet. Operating revenue during the quarter rose 6% year-on-year to $188m, compared with $177m during Q4 2018, Mesa reported on 11 December. Revenue was partially offset by higher operating expenses, which rose 15% year-on-year from $136m to $157m during Q4. Mesa operates regional flights on behalf of United and American Airlines as United Express Airlines and American Eagle, respectively. On 3 December United awarded Mesa with a 12-year capacity purchase agreement to operate 20 new Embraer E175s for United Express, which will be owned by the Phoenix-based carrier. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in May and are expected to be completed by the end of 2020, Mesa CE Jonathan Ornstein said during an earnings call. Mesa was able to secure this long-awaited deal in part because “we continue to invest in staying ahead of the pilot and mechanic hiring curve”, Ornstein says. He adds “we are paying down a significant amount of debt” to complete purchases of its existing aircraft.<br/>

South Korean regional startup Hi Air will launch domestic turboprop operations this month, manufacturer ATR said. The carrier has obtained its air operator’s certificate and will start with a route between Seoul Gimpo Airport and Ulsan. Hi Air has two ATR 72-500s that were delivered earlier this year. The aircraft had previously been operated by Air Tahiti. Although ATRs have been previously operated in South Korea, Hi Air will be the only current ATR operator in that country. Hi Air is based in Ulsan, a city in Korea’s southeast. The startup intends to initially focus on domestic routes before launching short-haul international flights.<br/>