The US Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether airline workers who supervise baggage handlers play a large enough role in interstate commerce to exempt them from having to arbitrate their employment-related claims and allow them to sue in court instead. The court on Friday granted Southwest Airlines Co's petition for review of a March ruling by the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals that said workers involved in loading and unloading cargo that crosses state lines are "engaged in interstate commerce" and exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act. The arbitration act generally requires courts to uphold agreements workers sign to arbitrate legal disputes but exempts seamen, railroad employees and other workers who play a key role in moving goods across the country. Arbitration of workers' individual legal claims can be far cheaper for companies than defending against class actions in court, which can lead to multimillion-dollar judgments and settlements. The 7th Circuit said the exemption applies to Southwest's "ramp supervisors" because they are integral to air travel, and revived a proposed class action seeking overtime pay. The 5th Circuit had come to the opposite conclusion in a separate 2020 case involving Lufthansa workers with the same job.<br/>
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Sir Richard Branson has given Virgin Atlantic a cash injection in a GBP400m funding round to support the airline as the outlook for the travel sector darkens. Branson’s Virgin Group, which owns 51% of the airline, has invested GBP204m, while US carrier Delta has committed GBP196m, maintaining its 49% stake in the British carrier. The new funding agreed on Monday came as the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant and travel restrictions across many parts of the world have begun to hold back the fragile recovery of the travel industry. Bookings for transatlantic flights have been hit by between 30 and 50% following the outbreak of the new variant and travel restrictions, said Shai Weiss, Virgin Atlantic’s CE. “This has had an impact, and I would say it is dampening demand materially,” he said. The disruption has come at a difficult time for Virgin Atlantic, which had hoped the full reopening of transatlantic travel on November 8 would mark the start of a full recovery in passenger numbers. The airline’s long-haul model has left it badly exposed to the crisis, and the company has had to raise cash multiple times over the past two years. But Weiss said he hoped the GBP400m would be a “permanent solution” to its financial problems and that profitability should come by 2023. “I am loathe to predict the future, but this is meant to be setting up the company for long-term success . . . We were doing quite well during the past few months and especially since the opening of the US border,” he said.<br/>
Ryanair dove headlong into the controversy over illicit government parties, ripping U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his cabinet in a Twitter post over the alleged flouting of social-distancing rules. The discount carrier’s social-media team on Monday tweeted an image that listed mock government responses to coronavirus alert levels, ranging from “Small gathering with wine and cheese” to “Full on rave.” The post was retweeted almost 7,000 times and generated more than 500 replies. Some web users were aghast, calling Ryanair inappropriate or insensitive to the real suffering caused by Covid. Others applauded the Irish airline for using levity to point out government hypocrisy.“On one level this is unprofessional. On another it’s showing what a shocking state our government is in when companies can openly mock them,” said Twitter user Alan1975. “They must be confident that most of the public will be in agreement with them. Time for change.” The broadside isn’t totally out of the ordinary for Ryanair, whose outspoken CEO Michael O’Leary has excoriated government officials over their handling of the Covid crisis. He also compared the bailout of Deutsche Lufthansa AG to a “drunken uncle at the end of a wedding, drinking from all the empty glasses.” Ryanair’s social media team is often irreverent, though as users pointed out, the company also accepted government aid after criticizing handouts to competitors.<br/>
Low-cost carrier VietJet swung to the black for the third quarter of the year, amid a significant decline in costs. For the three months to 30 September, the airline eked out a D559b ($24.3m) gross profit, compared to the D3.4t loss it posted during the same period last year. Quarterly revenue fell about 5.5% year on year, to D2.7 trillion, but was outpaced by a 39% decrease in costs, to D2.1t. On a nine-month basis, however, VietJet was still in the red, posting a gross loss of D2.3t. This was a steeper loss compared to the first nine months of 2020. Consolidated revenue for the nine-month period was down 26% year on year to D10.2t. Vietnam in recent weeks eased domestic travel restrictions, after battling a particularly lethal spike in infections caused by the Delta variant of the coronavirus. VietJet, for its part, states that it has already resumed all domestic flights out of Ho Chi Minh city and Hanoi, and expects to reinstate its international flights “in the coming time”. VietJet in early November also announced plans to lease up to three Airbus A330s, which it later said will be used for flights to Europe, with Moscow the first destination to be served in 2022. <br/>