An Indonesian search team has recovered one of the two black boxes that belonged to the Sriwijaya Air plane that crashed in the Java Sea with 62 people on board, a crucial instrument for investigators probing the cause of the crash. The flight data recorder was found as a team -- including divers and a remotely operated underwater vehicle -- swept the sea floor in search of the black boxes that were on flight SJ 182 when it crashed shortly after takeoff three days ago. Flight data recorders process a flight's information, including pressure, airspeed and altitude. The second black box, the cockpit voice recorder, has not yet been found. Commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto said that the black boxes' underwater acoustic beacons, which send out a series of pings to help searchers find them, had both been detached. He was optimistic, however, that the team would find the second black box soon. Head of the National Transport Safety Committee, Soerjanto Tjahjono, said that authorities would need two to five days to read the recovered black box's data. "We are expecting that through this investigation we can unfold the mystery of this accident," he said. A search team has filled dozens of body bags with human remains and have recovered parts of the plane and debris from the site.<br/>
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The US NTSB has appointed an accredited representative — alongside three other investigators — to participate in the Indonesia-led investigations of the 9 January crash of Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182. Joining the investigators in Jakarta will also be a team from the US FAA, Boeing, as well as GE Aviation. “[The] team has expertise in operations, human performance, airplane structures and systems,” the NTSB adds in a series of tweets. The board is participating under ICAO Annex 13, which call for the country in which an accident occurs to lead the investigation, or pass them to another country. ICAO guidelines also call for officials from the country in which the crashed aircraft’s manufacturer is based to be involved. The NTSB’s involvement comes a day after Indonesian officials retrieved the flight-data recorder from the stricken Boeing 737-500, which crashed into the sea shortly after departing Jakarta. Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), which will be taking the lead in investigations, has suggested that the aircraft had been heading in an unexpected direction following take-off from Jakarta for Pontianak. Investigators have also disclosed that it was likely the aircraft was intact before it crashed into the sea. It has also been reported that the crew did not declare an emergency before the incident, nor did they report any issues with the aircraft before it crashed.<br/>
An airliner was evacuated upon arrival at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport on Monday night after the crew learned of a written threat, Southwest said. No credible threat to Flight 2104 existed, an airport spokesman said after the plane was checked out. The precautions were prompted by a “suspicious message” discovered aboard the flight from Phoenix, BWI spokesman Jonathan Dean said. After landing, the plane was moved to a remote area, the airline said. Authorities promptly boarded the aircraft and transferred the 95 passengers and six crew members to the terminal by bus.<br/>
WestJet has announced it will further prune its network to about 80% of last year's level, including a 93% reduction in international operations, in response to what it termed the "hasty" introduction of new testing requirements by the Canadian government. The airline said that in tandem with the network cuts, around 1,000 staff members will be stood down through a combination of furloughs, temporary layoffs, unpaid leaves and reduced hours. It will also freeze hiring. "Immediately following the federal government's inbound testing announcement on December 31, and with the continuation of the 14-day quarantine, we saw significant reductions in new bookings and unprecedented cancellations. The entire travel industry and its customers are again on the receiving end of incoherent and inconsistent government policy," President and CE Ed Sims said. The airline was responding to the new PCR testing requirement announced by the government on January 3 and in force since January 7. The carrier said that following the new round of cuts, it would only operate around 150 departures a day, a level last seen in 2001.<br/>
Transat, the parent of Canadian holiday specialist Air Transat, is publicly rejecting an unsolicited potential takeover bid as the company waits for regulatory approval of its sale to Air Canada. Transat says on 12 January that contrary to media reports, an outside investor is not offering a premium on the price that had been agreed with its Montreal-based competitor, and that the new proposal lacks sufficient financial backing to keep Air Transat operational through 2021. The airline adds that the offer by billionaire investor Pierre Karl Peladeau is merely a public relations ploy. “This offer, without demonstrated committed financing, appears designed to attempt to adversely influence the regulatory approval process by suggesting that an alternative exists, should the regulatory authorities choose to reject the arrangement between Transat and Air Canada,” says Jean-Yves Leblanc, president of the special committee of the Transat Board of Directors. “We continue to believe that Air Canada’s proposal continues to be the best option for Transat’s future, especially in the context of the pandemic and its devastating effect on airlines,” he adds. Canadian media had reported that Peladeau made the offer to buy Transat should the current planned to tie-up with the country’s legacy carrier fall afoul of competition authorities in Canada and Europe. According to the reports, he has allegedly requested the government of Canada to reject the acquisition, and also purportedly offered C$6 per share, which is 20% more than the C$5 per share that Air Canada will pay. Transat says on 12 January that this is false. <br/>
Middle Eastern carrier Jordan Aviation is seeking to open scheduled services to the USA within the next four months. The privately-owned airline has not detailed its intended route network. Royal Jordanian Airlines already serves routes from Amman to New York JFK and Chicago. While it aims to commence scheduled services by 1 April, Jordan Aviation says it plans to commence charter flights as soon as it obtains government approval. This charter operation would primarily involve transport of people and personal protective equipment. Jordan Aviation has filed a formal request for the services with the US Department of Transportation. It has not provided much information on the specific operation, including the aircraft types it intends to use. Jordan Aviation, which obtained its air operator’s certificate in 2000, lists 12 aircraft in its fleet, including five long-haul jets: two Airbus A330-200s and two Boeing 767-200s, plus a 777-300 registered to Egypt’s Alexandria Airlines – in which Jordan Aviation holds a 40% share. The short-haul fleet includes five 737s – one of which is Egyptian-registered – and two A320s, while the carrier last year also indicated plans to acquire Bombardier Q400s. Five of its 12 aircraft are owned, the others sourced from a number of lessors.<br/>
UK airline Jet2 is extending its suspension of all flights up to and including 25 March because of the “ongoing uncertainty and travel restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic”. However, the leisure carrier notes “a lot of demand” from customers and says it plans to offer “fantastic deals” for flights from this summer onwards. Jet2 has not been operating flights since the start of 2021. In the early days of 2020, its seven-day average had been at 100-160 flights per day. In the last month of 2020 the carrier operated around 10-15% the number of flights in December 2019. Jet2 had in November been hopeful that its winter 2020-21 seat capacity would be only 50% below the previous year’s.<br/>