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American Airlines Group said Wednesday it was seeking shareholder approval for a rights offering plan to avert any hostile takeovers and preserve a $16.5b tax benefit, as the industry grapples with the Omicron coronavirus variant. The No. 1 US airline said it had cumulative US federal net operating loss carryforwards exceeding $16.5b which would be at risk if there is a change in ownership. In January this year, the company had reported a record annual loss of $8.9b due to pandemic-induced restrictions and lockdowns. The airline said it has adopted a tax benefit preservation plan to aid the carrier in reducing its future federal income tax expense. Under the plan, American will issue one preferred stock purchase right in the form of a dividend for each outstanding share of American Airlines common stock. The dividend will be payable on January 5, 2022, the company said, adding that these rights can be exercised by the shareholders only if a person or group acquires a stake of 4.9% or more without the board's consent.<br/>

Scores of flight passengers in the UK were left waiting for more than half a day after their pilot announced that he had tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday. In one of three viral videos shared by English hockey player Darcy Bourne on TikTok, the pilot of the British Airways flight can be heard telling passengers about his Covid-19 test report and about the airline’s efforts to replace him. “What we’re currently doing is looking for another pilot to take my place and that process is ongoing, but it’s not going to happen quickly and at the moment we have got people in the process of trying to find someone,” the pilot said over the in-flight intercom. The announcement was made just moments before the flight pushed back from the gate, according to Stuff. In the second video, Bourne said that all passengers were evacuated from the plane after five hours and given food vouchers worth GBP4 and were asked to wait in the departure lounge. The passengers were later asked to reboard the plane after it was confirmed that the pilot’s Covid-19 test result was a false positive. According to schedule, the flight to Barbados from London’s Heathrow airport is about nine hours. The journey ultimately took 17 hours, and passengers reached Barbados on Wednesday morning.<br/>

Jordan risks the collapse of state airline Royal Jordanian unless it offers financial assistance as other countries have done for carriers, its chief executive said on Wednesday. "Every single airline got assistance from their governments except us," CEO Samer Majali said. "The government has been reluctant to provide the assistance because of the huge burden on the budget," said Majali, who returned to his role in April after a 12-year hiatus to steer the carrier through the pandemic, having weathered regional upheavals for more than 50 years. The only financial aid Royal Jordanian had received was a 50m dinar ($71m) cash injection last year, approved long before the pandemic, Majali said. "Half-baked and temporary, patchwork solutions will not work. Either there is a serious investment in RJ or the airline has no chance of survival," he added. Services to most of its destinations have resumed, setting the airline - which contributes indirectly more than $1 billion to the economy - on course to slash its losses by 55% this year and break-even in 2023, Majali said. But investment was needed. "What is required now is an investment in the airline ... But a decision has to be taken soon," Majali said.He said some 70% of the company's 250m dinars ($350m) of accumulated debt stemmed from having to ground its fleet last year. Profitable before the pandemic, it was the first Arab airline to be privatised in 2007, though the government later regained a majority stake via a series of capital raisings.<br/>

S7 Airlines is claiming to be the first in Russia to use biofuel, having taken delivery of another Airbus A320neo, which was flown from Toulouse using a blend of sustainable and conventional aviation fuel. The airline received the aircraft on 22 December. Leased from AerCap, the A320neo takes S7’s total of the re-engined family members to 27. S7 says the sustainable fuel comprised 10% of the blend, the maximum which could be provided by the Toulouse facility. But even this modest contribution, it adds, reduced carbon dioxide emissions on the flight to Moscow Domodedovo by 7%. The airline is a partner in the newly-established Eurasian SAF Alliance, a group of Russian operators which are co-operating with Airbus and Gazprom to support development of sustainable fuel. S7 aims to be operating services with such fuels within Russia by around 2024.<br/>

Dutch prosecutors on Wednesday demanded life sentences for three Russians and a Ukrainian charged with murder over the shooting down of a passenger jet over Ukraine in 2014. They said the defendants, who are all at large, helped supply a missile system that Russian-backed separatists used to fire a rocket at Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. All 298 people on board were killed. Prosecutor Manon Ridderbeks demanded life terms for all four, named as Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Leonid Kharchenko. Most of the victims were Dutch nationals. The Dutch government holds Russia responsible. Authorities in Moscow deny involvement. Outside the courtroom Piet Ploeg, who lost his brother, nephew and sister-in-law in the crash, said he had waited a long time to hear the prosecution makes its recommendation. "It's a relief that the prosecutors demanded the maximum sentence," he told reporters. Even if the four men were never jailed, "it is just as important that the world knows who was responsible," he said. After years of collecting evidence, an international team of investigators concluded in May 2018 that the launcher used to shoot down the aircraft, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, belonged to Russia's 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade. Prosecutors said on Wednesday the defendants were linked to Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine and played significant roles in the events that led to the downing of the jet. Russians Pulatov, Dubinsky and Girkin and Ukrainian Kharchenko have all denied involvement. On Wednesday Dubinsky told Dutch broadcaster RTL that the hefty sentencing demands were "totally predictable".<br/>

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways will cancel some passenger flights in January because of operational and travel curbs at a time when the Asian financial centre has tightened quarantine requirements, the airline said Wednesday. “The new consolidated schedule will result in several flight cancellations,” the company said in a website notice, without giving details. The carrier declined to comment on the routes involved, but said it would immediately reach out to all affected customers and try to make alternative flight arrangements for them. A travel industry source who was not authorised to speak publicly about the matter told Reuters the cancellations included many long-haul flights to and from Australia, North America and Europe. Cathay’s Australian website said it would only fly to Sydney from Hong Kong in January, with no flights to Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth, which had been destinations in December. For December, Cathay planned to fly no more than 12% of its pre-pandemic passenger schedule, having cancelled many flights because it could not find enough crew members to volunteer for tough rosters here involving five weeks locked in hotel rooms. Hong Kong has tightened travel rules since the Omicron coronavirus variant emerged, and arriving passengers from many countries are limited to citizens and residents who are now subject to three weeks of managed quarantine even if fully vaccinated. The Hong Kong government has a “zero-COVID” policy in line with mainland China as it hopes to persuade Beijing to allow cross-border travel.<br/>

The Qantas international cabin crew have rejected a new enterprise bargaining agreement that would have imposed a two-year wage freeze and worse, rostering conditions for staff. An overwhelming 97.5% of employees voted “no” against the new deal, which is argued to have been an attempt to take advantage of the post-COVID labour environment, and result in worse outcomes for staff long-term. Over 2,561 employees were eligible to vote in the ballot, with 91.2% taking part. The Flight Attendants Association of Australia (FAAA), which is negotiating the new EBA terms, said the deal proposed by Qantas was concerning, given how much worse-off it would leave international cabin crew. Some of the proposed changes, along with a two-year wage freeze, included an increase in standby shifts, and an end to the payment of meal allowances in cash in foreign countries. Instead, Qantas pushed to pay allowances directly to employees, via bank transfer and alongside other allowances, in arrears.<br/>