star

Water cannons blasted over United flight 1258 as it left its gate, celebrating that every person on the flight crew, from pilots to gate agents and ramp staff, was Black. The all-Black crew flew from Houston to Chicago on Saturday morning, commemorating Juneteenth, now a federal holiday celebrating the end of slavery. Before takeoff, a celebration of the crew included a speech from Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, a saxophone performance from one of the pilots, Sal Crocker, and water cannons on the tarmac. Turner said the flight crew was a symbol for how far the Black community has come over the past 150 years. "Now, we're soaring amongst the stars," Turner said to CNN affiliate KTRK. "Let me tell you, for our ancestors, my parents, if they were still alive, they would just be amazed."<br/>Just 2.47% of United States aircraft pilots and flight engineers are Black, according to Data USA. But for flight 1258, even the flight dispatchers, both in Houston and Chicago, celebrated their Black heritage. "It is very difficult being a Black person, a Black woman, in the aviation industry," said Deon Byrne, one of the pilots. "There's not a lot of encouragement, and there's absolutely mentorship for the future generation, but when I came in, it was very difficult to find the funding, the resources, and the connections to get started in the industry." Byrne said in the 25 years she's been in the aviation industry, she's never worked with a crew that has even been half Black, which made this experience incredibly unique. Byrne praised United for having its own flight school with scholarships to assist the next generation of Black students trying to become pilots.<br/>

The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) is seeking public feedback on a proposed business tie-up between Singapore Airlines and ANA. The airlines entered into a proposed commercial cooperation on Jan 31 this year, in which they agreed to cooperate on scheduling, pricing, sales and marketing, and other commercial areas. The proposed cooperation will extend to the parties' subsidiaries, SilkAir (Singapore), which is in the process of being integrated into SIA, as well as Air Japan and ANA Wings. The competition watchdog said it received and accepted a joint application as at June 2, and is now assessing whether it would infringe section 34 of the Competition Act, which prohibits agreements or concerted practices by undertakings which prevent, restrict or distort competition within any market in Singapore. SIA and ANA submitted that they overlap on eight air passenger transport routes between Japan and Singapore on a direct or one-stop basis, said CCCS. Both parties said the proposed cooperation is "unlikely to result in any adverse effects on competition". The increment in the combined passenger share of the airlines on five out of eight of the overlapping routes is minimal, both parties said. They added that there is still "intense competition from competitors on the overlapping routes that are direct routes", and noted that the existing low barriers to entry on the overlapping routes would facilitate entry by potential competitors. According to SIA and ANA, the proposed cooperation "is expected to result in significant consumer and economic benefits and efficiencies".<br/>