EasyJet is facing a legal claim brought by thousands of its customers after the airline last month said the personal details of about 9m passengers were breached by a cyber attack. About 10,000 customers have joined the case, making it one of the UK’s biggest group-action personal data claims, according to lawyers. It comes after the low-cost airline said it had been targeted in a cyber attack undertaken by a “highly sophisticated” actor, with the email addresses and travel details of about 9m customers breached. Its investigation also found that about 2,200 passengers had their credit card details stolen. Law firm PGMBM is leading the case against easyJet after filing papers in May. On Wednesday, it said 10,000 customers from more than 50 countries had joined the claim. Tom Goodhead, PGMBM managing partner, said: “This is a monumental data breach and a terrible failure of responsibility that has a serious impact on easyJet’s customers, who are coming forward in their thousands.” EasyJet said: “We are aware that a class-action law firm has filed a claim against easyJet in the High Court and that other firms are advertising their services to do the same. This is not uncommon and just because these firms are advertising does not mean they have a strong claim.”<br/>
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Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) said Tuesday that it has opened an investigation and suspended a senior employee after 38 dead puppies were discovered on one of its planes. "UIA has opened its own internal enquiry during which the head of freight transportation will remain suspended," the group said. UIA, the main Ukraine airline, said it had also suspended the transportation of all animals on its Boeing-767s. Canada has also opened an investigation as the dead French bulldog puppies were found aboard a UIA plane in Toronto on June 13. In all there were around 500 of the puppies on the flight. The surviving French bulldogs, a popular breed in Canada, were suffering from symptoms including dehydration, weakness and vomiting. "Unfortunately the animals' cause of death remains to be established," UIA said Tuesday. In all the flight which landed in Toronto had 550 dogs and 89 cats aboard. UIA ruled out any problem of a lack of air in the cargo hold. "The transportation of such pedigree breeds ... carry a certain risk" which breeders and those who transport the animals by plane understand, the airline said.<br/>
Virgin Australia Holdings bondholders lodged a last-ditch recapitalisation proposal for the struggling airline on Wednesday, seeking to recoup more of their investment and stop its sale to a US private equity firm. The proposal, which would keep Australia’s second largest airline a listed entity, came two days after Bain Capital and Cyrus Capital Partners made final and binding offers to administrator Deloitte. “Our plan offers a sustainable capital structure underpinned by public ownership to provide certainty and support the strong operating plan for the airline,” a spokesman for the bondholders said. The proposal involves a debt-to-equity swap among bondholders owed around A$2b plus a fresh capital injection of around A$1b, one person with knowledge of the proposal said. That would allow bondholders to recoup around 70 cents on the dollar of their investment, the person said. A second source said that return was a future estimate based on share trading expectations. The bondholder statement did not identify those taking part, saying only they included thousands of retail investors. FIIG Securities, Northern Trust Asset Management, Sargon CT and The Bank of New York Mellon are all on the creditors’ committee.<br/>
Administrators in charge of South African airline Comair said on Tuesday they have received a cash offer for the carrier from a company and they would require a week to secure the funding. The administrators, who had been expected to present a restructuring plan for the airline on Tuesday, asked creditors for another week - until June 30 - to finalise the offer before presenting the plan. Comair had to file for business rescue, a form of bankruptcy protection, in May after a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus forced the airlines to suspend all commercial flights. It said last month that it was unable to meet its debt obligations as it was not generating any cash. The administrators said that they have “received a non-binding expression of interest for cash funding in the form of debt, equity and post-commencement funding.” “The practitioners (administrators) require that this interested group make a binding offer, that can be set out with reasonably sufficient detail in the business rescue plan,” the statement added.<br/>
German-Turkish leisure carrier SunExpress is shutting its German division as part of a revamp of its operations which includes concentrating on its core business. Although SunExpress has gradually resumed flights since 1 June, restoring both domestic and international services, it says the coronavirus crisis “hit hard” during April and May. Shareholders of the company – jointly owned by Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines – have opted to cease operations with the SunExpress Germany arm, and carry out an “orderly liquidation” of the carrier, which originally started services in mid-2011. The decision has been made just two months into the tenure of new chief executive Max Kownatzki, who took over from Jens Bischof in April.<br/>
AirAsia group chief Tony Fernandes has hinted at a possible exit from its Indian joint venture, to focus on the Southeast Asian side of business. Fernandes was quoted in Indian media reports as saying that the group would “never say that we would never exit India”. He was speaking at a Credit Suisse webinar. The reports add that India — along with Japan — were peripheral markets for the AirAsia Group. AirAsia India is a joint venture with Indian conglomerate Tata Group. The AirAsia Group and Tata each own 49% of the low-cost carrier. Fernandes was also quoted saying that the partnership with Tata was progressing well, and that the carrier was looking to apply for an international operating licence. AirAsia India’s network comprises 21 domestic points including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, as well as Kolkata. <br/>
Just before 7:30 a.m. on June 22, Southwest Airlines flight 370 lifted off from McCarran International Airport, climbing westward over the Las Vegas Strip with Captain Bob Halicky at the controls. Banking north, the twin-engined Boeing 737-700 with the airline's ubiquitous blue, yellow and red livery leveled off at its cruising altitude of 40,000 feet for its flight to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. For the passengers on board, it was a normal flight, landing twelve minutes early. But Halicky, a 59-year-old Las Vegas resident, had waited nine years for this opportunity. It was the first United States commercial flight with a pilot with insulin-treated diabetes at the controls, according to the American Diabetes Association, a milestone years in the making. "It was super exciting to return to the cockpit and also to be the first ever [type 1 insulin dependent] pilot in America to fly [commercially]," Halicky said after the flight. For years, the FAA didn't allow pilots with insulin-treated diabetes to fly commercial airliners, even as other countries like Canada and the United Kingdom began to ease their restrictions, allowing these pilots to fly commercially provided they did so with a second pilot. The FAA deemed it too high risk. Any pilot diagnosed with insulin-treated diabetes was barred from flying commercially.<br/>
Italian officials voiced outrage Tuesday over an online advertisement by budget airline easyJet describing the southern Italian region of Calabria as lacking tourists because of its history of mafia and earthquakes. EasyJet took down the promotional text on its website, promised to investigate how it originated and said CE Johan Lundgren had sent a letter of apologies to the governor of Calabria. In the original ad promoting flights to Lamezia, easyJet wrote that Calabria offered visitors an authentic taste of Italy, even though it had “bizarre houses” perched on cliffs. “This region suffers from an obvious lack of tourists due to its history of mafia activity and earthquakes and the lack of iconic cities such as Rome or Venice that can attract Instagram fans.” Located in the southern “toe” of boot-shaped Italy, Calabria is indeed home to the ’ndrangheta organized crime syndicate, but it also has spectacular beaches, national parks and other tourist draws. It was largely spared the recent coronavirus outbreak and is eager to see tourists return for the peak summer season. Opposition leader Matteo Salvini of the right-wing League party said easyJet should be ashamed of itself. Calabria's governor, Jole Santelli, said the ad was “offensive, distorted and had a clear racist flavor."<br/>