Iran has agreed to compensate the families’ of the foreign victims of a Ukrainian passenger plane that was shot down by Iranian forces outside Tehran in January, Sweden’s foreign minister said on Thursday. “We have signed an agreement of mutual understanding that we will now negotiate together with Iran about amends, compensation to the victims’ next of kin,” Foreign Minister Ann Linde told Swedish news agency TT. Iran had denied for days its involvement in the plane crash but then announced that its military had mistakenly and unintentionally shot down the Ukrainian jetliner, a Boeing 737 operated by Ukrainian International Airlines. All 176 people on board were killed. The Iranian admission followed US and Canadian intelligence reports indicating that Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces had downed the aircraft. Tehran blamed “human error” for the shoot-down. The jetliner went down Jan. 8 on the outskirts of Tehran during takeoff, just hours after Iran launched a barrage of missiles at US forces in Iraq. Asked whether Iran will really pay compensation, Linde replied,“ there is no doubt about that.” “We expect that we will be able to have the first concrete negotiation meeting in a very short time,” Linde was quoted as saying. Her press secretary said that the International Coordination and Response Group “has now achieved its primary objective of agreeing on a memorandum of understanding to enter, jointly as a united group, into negotiations with Iran on full reparations for the victims.”<br/>
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JetBlue expects to avoid involuntary job cuts among at least some employee groups because enough workers have accepted voluntary leave or early-out programs to match the carrier’s scaled-down operations. More than enough volunteers have come forward in the customer support department, the airline said in a memo to workers Thursday. JetBlue also confirmed an agreement not to furlough any pilots involuntarily until May 1, in exchange for unspecified short-term contract concessions to help cut operating expenses. In areas where an insufficient number of employees applied for the programs, executives “believe we can be successful in filling the gaps with additional reduced hours or short-term time off programs,” Mike Elliott, JetBlue’s chief people officer, said in the note. Those areas include airport workers and some parts of its system operations department. In the memo, JetBlue warned employees that it’s difficult to predict changing travel demand, “making it equally hard to plan our staffing.” The deadline for flight attendants to decide on taking the voluntary offers is July 9.<br/>
Wizz Air is attracting more passengers than long-time market leader Ryanair as it races to restart flights following the easing of coronavirus lockdowns. CEO Jozsef Varadi has been building up operations faster than rivals, helped by Wizz’s focus on Eastern Europe, where the pandemic has had less of an impact, and a cost base that’s the lowest in the region. Wizz carried more than 500,000 customers in June, compared with 400,000 at larger rival Ryanair, after restoring more than 25% of its usual summer capacity. The tally was still down 86% on last year and Wizz’s flights operated with only 52% of seats occupied -- well below the breakeven point for most airlines. In the same month last year it filled 95% of capacity. Ryanair’s push to crank up services has been held back by rules requiring people arriving in Britain, its top market, to self-quarantine. <br/>
Jeju Air's planned takeover of smaller budget carrier Eastar Jet appears to be on the brink of falling through as Jeju Air asked Eastar Jet to settle all of its debts by mid-July to proceed with the deal. In March, Jeju Air signed a deal to acquire a controlling 51.17% stake in Eastar Jet from Eastar Holdings for 54.5b won as part of its expansion strategy despite the new coronavirus' growing impact on the airline industry. In a letter sent to Eastar on Wednesday, Jeju Air called on Eastar to pay off all of its debts estimated at up to 100b won (US$83m), including unpaid wages to its employees, delayed payments to subcontractors and office operating expenses, by July 15, a tall order that cannot be met by cash-strapped Eastar Jet. "We sent a letter to Eastar yesterday to demand overall debt payments in the following 10 working days. Unless Eastar meets our requirements, we could notify them that the deal is no longer valid," a Jeju Air spokesman said. But the company did not clarify the value of the unpaid debts. In response, Eastar immediately sent a letter to Jeju Air on Thursday to explain its current financial status and seek understanding from the country's biggest budget carrier over the unpaid debts, Eastar Senior VP Kim You-sang said. If Jeju Air does not accept Eastar's explanation, the acquisition deal is widely expected to be scrapped.<br/>
Emirates has processed close to 650,000 refunds over the past two months, refunding over 1.9b dirhams ($517m), it said Thursday. The carrier is operating a limited numbers of flights on a reduced network after the coronavirus pandemic brought global aviation to a near halt this year. Emirates expects to process more than 500,000 refunds in the next two months, CCO Adnan Kazim said.<br/>
The Namibian government is weighing several options regarding the future of struggling national carrier Air Namibia, new Finance Minister Iipumbu Shiimi told parliament on Thursday. Shiimi said it was important to have a national airline but said state-owned Air Namibia’s current model, including its new business plan, is neither sustainable nor affordable. He said the airline, which operates two Airbus A330-200 planes, four Airbus A319-100 aircraft and four Embraer ERJ 135 jets, has over 5b Namibian dollars ($295m) in debt, including leaseholds. More than 7b Namibian dollars is needed in the current financial year alone for the new business plan to be implemented, Shiimi said, without giving details of the new plan.<br/>