Savvy travellers have taken advantage of Southwest's generous flight-change policy during each Max flight schedule change allowing them to save money and time on multiple Southwest flights. United and American have rebooked affected travellers on other flights for free or allowed them to make changes without penalty during the Max crisis. But Southwest's system has been more liberal, enabling any traveller to change any flight in the covered travel period for a short window (usually a few days) each time Max flight changes were announced. With the fare difference broadly waived each time Max flight changes were announced, travellers changed existing flights to better times, dates or even eligible nearby airports and/or booked cheap new flights and immediately changed them to pricier flights without paying more. <br/>
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Half of the Jetstar flights in and out of Brisbane Airport were cancelled or delayed Wednesday, with airline workers staging a 24-hour national strike. Jetstar cancelled 48 domestic flights and contacted affected customers at the weekend offering to move them to another flight or give them a full refund. No international flights were affected.. There were 16 Jetstar flights due to depart Brisbane between 6.30am and 9.50pm Wednesday, but 6 were cancelled and 1 was delayed. There were 14 Jetstar flights due to arrive in Brisbane between 6.45am and 10.10pm, but 6 were cancelled and 2 were delayed. The TWU estimated 250 Jetstar baggage handlers and ground crew would strike at the nation's major airports Wednesday. However, Jetstar said only 29 of its staff had notified the company they would be walking off the job. <br/>
A former United pilot is hoping to start a private business class airline this spring. AirChicago is the brainchild of David Koch, a former 22-year United pilot. He's seeking frequent flyers to put down a US$2,500 deposit for the single-seat air shuttle membership service. AirChicago needs a minimum of 1,200 commitments before it can purchase the planes, launch an airport clubhouse at Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling and get the service in the air to 18 markets. Koch, who has also secured $1m in outside investment and is about to launch another funding round, says a minimum of 80 members committed to a single route. “Airlines experience about 20,000 delayed flights a day out of approximately 100,000,” Koch says. “That makes it an unreliable transport system". <br/>
Interjet, the Mexican airline that acknowledged financial challenges in a court filing last year, is stirring concern among lessors by grounding four of its Airbus planes. The company says the jets are undergoing “major maintenance” and that 2 of them will be returned to lessors as it prepares to add newer planes to its fleet. Three of Interjet’s 44 Airbus A320 aircraft haven’t flown since at least October, according to data compiled by online flight trackers. One of its 8 new A321neo models has been on the ground since November. “We have an excellent relationship with our lessors, and we’re working with some of them to restructure our current leasing conditions,” the company said . In a subsequent statement late Tuesday, it reiterated that the maintenance is part of routine fleet management, and 2 of the grounded planes will be replaced with newer jets. <br/>