United Airlines is once again serving hard liquor on its flights, a service it stopped early in the pandemic. Starting Monday, United is selling mini booze bottles in economy class on domestic flights of more than 300 miles "in response to the feedback we've received from both customers and flight attendants," according to a statement from the airline. "The ability to offer a complete food and beverage menu is something that we know is important to our customers," United said. The airline said new contactless payment technology has enabled it to safely resume beverage service. United resumed serving beer and wine, and introduced hard seltzer, in economy class in June. The move to restore liquor comes as incidents of violent and belligerent passengers on US airlines continue to rise. Flight crews have reported more than 5,100 cases of unruly passengers to the Federal Aviation Administration since the start of the year. The agency has said many cases are fueled by alcohol. Last week, the FAA announced fines against 10 violent airline passengers totaling $225,287, the second biggest announcement of fines for unruly passengers since the agency enacted a no-tolerance policy earlier this year. <br/>
star
A US judge on Monday approved Boeing's agreement to acknowledge liability for compensatory damages in lawsuits filed by families of the 157 people killed in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crash. As a result of the agreement filed last week between Boeing and the families, lawyers for the victims will not seek punitive damages and Boeing will not challenge the lawsuits being filed in Illinois. Boeing said last week it was "committed to ensuring that all families who lost loved ones in the accidents are fully and fairly compensated for their loss." Lawyers for the victims noted in a statement last week that Boeing admitted under the agreement "that the 737 MAX had an unsafe condition, and that it will not attempt to blame anyone else" for the crash. All further planned depositions with former and senior Boeing executives were canceled as a condition of the settlement. Boeing's best-selling plane was grounded for 20 months after 346 people died in two 737 MAX crashes - in Indonesia in 2018 and in Ethiopia in 2019. <br/>
Boeing signed a memorandum of understanding with Ethiopian Airlines that will help the airline to bring cost savings to its maintenance operations with Boeing’s 787 landing gear exchange program. “As the fastest growing airline in Africa, much of our success depends on our ability to seek out new ways to drive operational efficiency in our processes,” said Tewolde GebreMariam, Group CEO, Ethiopian Airlines. “As the commercial airline market continues to recover, we believe these services offered by Boeing provide a reliable way to realize more stability and predictability in managing our overall maintenance operations and costs across our fleet.” With the landing gear exchange program, Boeing will guarantee availability of 29 landing gear shipsets wherever and whenever they are needed to support the Ethiopian 787 fleet, enabling more efficient and cost-effective maintenance operations. The Boeing 787 landing gear exchange program greatly simplifies the contracting, scheduling and management of the landing gear overhaul process. Through this program, air carriers can quickly exchange landing gears that need to be repaired or overhauled with a replacement set of certified landing gear from a dedicated resource pool maintained by Boeing.<br/>
EgyptAir Airlines and OEMServices signed a contract on Monday to cooperate in the provision of various spare parts units for EgyptAir fleet. Under the contract, EgyptAir Maintenance and Technical Works will supervise the implementation of the contract, which extends for several years. The contract was signed by CEO of EgyptAir Airlines Amr Nabil, and the CEO of OEMServices Didier Granger. The signing of the contract was witnessed by the pilot the Deputy Minister of Civil Aviation Montaser Manna and the head of the holding company for EgyptAir Amr Abo al-Enein. It came during the activities of the holding company for EgyptAir and its subsidiaries at the Dubai Airshow 2021<br/>
Korean Air Lines said Tuesday it has received regulatory approval from Vietnam for its integration with smaller local rival Asiana Airlines. Korean Air expects the latest approval to help speed up its process to acquire Asiana Airlines. In January, Korean Air submitted documents to anti-trust regulators of 14 countries for the review of its business combination with Asiana. As of Tuesday, it had received approvals from six countries -- Vietnam, Thailand, Turkey, Taiwan, Malaysia and the Philippines -- while awaiting the go-ahead from eight countries, South Korea, China, Japan, Britain, Australia, Singapore, the European Union and the United States, a company spokesman said. Korean Air, currently the world's 18th largest airline by fleet, will become Asiana's biggest shareholder with a 63.9% stake if the acquisition is completed. The nation's two full-service carriers account for a combined 40% of passenger and cargo slots at Incheon International Airport, South Korea's main gateway, below the level that constitutes a monopoly. Korean Air said it aims to launch a merged entity with Asiana in 2024 after completing a takeover process by next year, vowing to streamline their routes and reduce maintenance costs.<br/>
The Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group said on Monday that passenger capacity recovered to 34% of pre-pandemic levels in October, amid a "meaningful resumption of travel" as Singapore expanded its quarantine-free travel scheme. Singapore launched its first vaccinated travel lanes (VTL) with Germany and Brunei in September. To date, Singapore has launched 13 VTLs including Australia, Canada and the US. It will also be launching VTLs with Malaysia, Finland and Sweden on Nov 29. More locations, including Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, were announced on Monday, taking the total number of countries under the scheme to 21. "In October 2021, SIA Group expanded its vaccinated travel lane network to include Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, in addition to Brunei and Germany," said the group. "This enabled a meaningful resumption of travel between Singapore and these countries, and consequently led to an increase in passenger carriage on these routes." The SIA Group includes full-service carrier Singapore Airlines and low-cost carrier Scoot.<br/>