unaligned

Southwest removed a passenger and her 3-year-old son from a Monday flight after the boy, who has autism, refused to wear a face mask and became upset. Passenger Alyssa Sadler, who was also travelling with her 1-year-old daughter, said that the family was deplaned from the Southwest flight from Midland, Texas, to Houston, Texas. "It was just not a good morning," said Sadler. "He was screaming. He was throwing a fit. He was screaming no, no, no." Sadler told KPRC her son has a sensory processing disorder and doesn't like his face being touched and that she had a medical note explaining the condition. Sadler added the family previously had been able to fly from Houston to Midland without an issue. They were visiting Sadler's husband, who is working in Midland. The Monday flight had left the gate in Midland, but the plane turned around when it became clear the child was not going to wear a mask during the journey. Southwest has a strict mask policy that requires all passengers 2 and older to wear a mask or face covering for the duration of the flight.<br/>

Southwest Airlines , Ryanair Holdings and easyJet are the only three airlines whose bonds are still rated investment grade, S&P Global Ratings said, while estimating a drop of up to 70% in global air passenger traffic for 2020. All three are very low or low-cost carriers largely focused on leisure passengers and short-haul flying, and equipped with strong liquidity, the ratings agency said on Wednesday. With the easing of coronavirus-led lockdowns, there are signs of a rebound in domestic travel, helping budget airlines, although passengers continue to shun international routes. Airlines operating long-haul international flights including American Airlines , United Airlines and Delta Air Lines have been among the worst hit due to the pandemic, forcing them to raise billions of dollars in debt to support costs. "Pre-COVID-19, just over one-third of our global airlines portfolio was rated at 'B+' or lower, and now this has risen to about two-thirds of the total," S&P Global said. The ratings agency's forecast for 2020 global passenger traffic has worsened to a drop of between 60 and 70% from between 50 and 55% estimated at the end of May.<br/>

Southwest CE Gary Kelly said Wednesday he does not expect the airline will be profitable in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, snapping a 47-year streak of posting consecutive full-year profits. "As long as the case counts are high, I think that we have to expect that travel will be relatively modest," Kelly saidt. "We’re continuing to see traffic and revenues down 75% versus a year ago today and to think that would recover to the point we would be profitable I just think is unrealistic.” The company last month posted a $915m loss for Q2. Kelly said it is still burning through about $20m a day. "We're still losing cash every single day," he said. "We've got a long way to go before we can feel like we are out of intensive care." Southwest's has cut its scheduled flights by about 35% to 40%, Kelly added. "The airlines are less full," Kelly said, noting the airline was not booking middle seats. "The solution here is to get our passengers back -- not to try to shrink the airline so radically that we're prepared for a very, very modest travel environment," Kelly said.<br/>

A pilot has won a case against Jetblue after being chronically exposed to contaminated air while flying an Airbus aircraft. Captain Andrew Myers flew with the US airline for 15 years before becoming ill after an “acute toxic inhalation” event in early 2017. The incident left Captain Myers with toxic encephalopathy (a neurologic disorder), neuro-cognitive disorder and visual problems, all of which are potentially permanent. The State of Oregon Workers’ Compensation Board ruled in favour of Captain Myers in a landmark ruling made on 31 July. The decision overturned denials from insurers that Myers was ill as a result of toxic fumes inhaled while flying, and means he will receive wage compensation for at least the next few years, plus be covered for all medical expenses. Historically, the aviation industry has strenuously denied that fumes and contaminated air on planes can cause illness, particularly to those exposed over a long period of time, such as pilots and cabin crew. “It’s the first case in the US to establish that the fumes that injured Myers are dangerous, though Myers is far from alone in his injuries,” said Glen Lasken, Myers’ attorney. “It’s a pretty ground breaking case. It’s a big victory for airline staff and passengers.”<br/>

Virgin Australia co-founder Rob Sherrard has broken his silence over his role in a push by bondholders to take ownership of the bankrupt airline and revealed he has enlisted the help of other former Virgin executives. Hedge funds Broad Peak Investment Advisors and Tor Investments are trying to upend the sale of Virgin to US private equity firm Bain Capital and want ownership instead handed to bondholders owed a combined $2b. Sherrard, who founded the airline as Virgin Blue almost 20 years ago, has been advising the group and on Thursday revealed he was also working with former Virgin CFO Manny Gill, former network operations manager Andrew Lillyman, founding HR manager Bruce Highfield and its former PR boss Heather Jeffery. "In simple terms, we are proud investors and supporters of Virgin Australia and its people," Sherrard said. "We believe in the airline, firmly support the vision of management and are confident that Virgin can return to being a successful airline." Virgin's administrators Deloitte has said the bondholders' plan cannot be considered because it has already signed a binding sale deed with Bain. Despite that, the bondholder are taking court action to try and force Deloitte to put their alternative proposal to a vote at its second creditors' meeting in September.<br/>

Icelandair Group is cutting four Boeing 737 Max jets from its order commitment and revising deliveries of the remaining six as part of a final settlement with the airframer over Max disruption. The company has detailed the settlement after concluding a series of agreements with creditors and stakeholders essential for proceeding with its financial restructuring measures. Icelandair already has six 737 Max 8s and 9s, delivered before last year’s grounding of the type, part of an order for 16. But it says the settlement with Boeing – which mostly remains confidential – reduces its purchase commitment by four aircraft, and reschedules deliveries of the outstanding six. The six aircraft will be delivered from the second quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2022.<br/>

Air Peace, Nigeria’s biggest domestic carrier, agreed to re-employ an unspecified number of pilots fired earlier this month, following talks between their union and the airline’s chairman, Allen Onyema. The negotiations were brokered by Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika, who had appealed “for the recall of the maximum number of pilots that the airline can accommodate without going under,” spokesman James Odaudu said. Air Peace on Aug. 3 fired 69 pilots, according to the Lagos-based ThisDay newspaper. The company, which also cut pay by as much as 40%, said the job cuts were needed because the airline was in danger of collapsing as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.The company, which also cut pay by as much as 40%, said the job cuts were made to prevent the airline’s collapse as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.<br/>

African budget operator Fastjet Group expects to re-register as a private company by mid-September after shareholders overwhelmingly approved a delisting from the stock exchange. The company will “proceed with the cancellation of trading” of its ordinary shares on the London AIM exchange on 24 August. Shareholders voted on 12 August to undertake a share re-organisation, reducing the stock’s nominal value, and ultimately delist the company. Trading in ordinary shares will be transferred to an electronic off-market dealing service organised by financial specialist Asset Match. Fastjet Group will re-register as a private limited company by 15 September, it says. The airline, which started flights in 2012, has been struggling with losses and, while it has retreated from markets including Tanzania and Mozambique, it has been facing continuing pressures – including the coronavirus crisis – affecting its remaining services in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Its major shareholder, Solenta Aviation Holdings, has been providing the company with financial support but had indicated that it would only continue to do so if the AIM listing was cancelled.<br/>

Emirates Airline president Tim Clark is not convinced Boeing is “out of the woods yet” with regards to the certification programme for the 777X, as he awaits definitive details on when deliveries will begin. The Dubai carrier is launch customer for the baseline 777-9 variant of the 777X, which began flight-testing in on 26 January after development delays. However, Boeing disclosed last month that the programme was being delayed again, with deliveries now scheduled to begin in 2022 – two years later than planned at launch. And Clark says that while the delay could be seen as beneficial amid the current industry crisis, it is not necessarily the case if there is a rapid rebound next year. “It will suit Boeing to slow the programme down a little bit. I’m not sure they are out of the woods with regards to the certification programme, given what’s gone on with the Max,” Clark said. “I haven’t had an update of where the [GE Aviation GE9X] engine is at the moment in terms of the problems it had in the early part of last year.” Clark believes the 777X will be affected by the FAA’s increased scrutiny on certification in the wake of the 737 Max accident, with regard to derivative aircraft approved under the FAA’s “changed product rule”.<br/>

Low-cost carrier JetSMART is fast-tracking its expansion plans to Peru and potentially Colombia and Brazil, its CE said, even as airlines, in Latin American in particular, are scaling down their fleets and ambitions. Chile-based JetSMART is in the enviable position of having well-funded private equity backers such as Indigo Partners, which also owns stakes in Denver-based Frontier Airlines and Hungarian carrier Wizz Air, during the pandemic. In expanding to other South American domestic markets, JetSMART will directly challenge the region's leaders, LATAM Airlines Group and Avianca Holdings, both of which filed for bankruptcy restructuring in May due to the crisis. JetSMART CEO Estuardo Ortiz said the pandemic has given the upstart airline an incentive to accelerate aspects of its expansion to deploy its narrowbody Airbus planes to markets with more demand. "We had already thought about flying domestically in Peru, originally maybe in 2022, but we brought that plan forward," Ortiz said. "We are now working to begin operating JetSmart Peru at the beginning of 2021, because clearly we need to bring planes to where there is demand."<br/>