Delta said it will start paying flight attendants during boarding, a first for a major US airline and an initiative that comes during a unionization drive for the Atlanta-based airline’s biggest work group. Usually, flight attendants are paid starting when the aircraft doors close. Delta plans to begin the boarding pay, half of flight attendants’ hourly rates, on June 2, according to a company memo. The carrier is also increasing boarding time for narrow-body flights to 40 minutes from 35, which the company says is “one of several steps we’re taking to add resiliency to our operation.” The pay changes were announced as a union campaign by the Association of Flight Attendants that started in late 2019 picks up steam again as the Covid pandemic crisis wanes for airlines. Delta’s more than 20,000 flight attendants are not unionized, unlike those at other major US airlines. “As we get closer to filing for our union vote, management is getting nervous,” the AFA said late Monday in a statement. The organization is the country’s largest flight attendants union, representing cabin crews at United, Spirit, Hawaiian, Alaska and Frontier, among others. “In this case, they also know that changing domestic boarding time from 35 to 40 minutes without adding a benefit would create an uproar — just as the ‘test’ in Atlanta did back in October,” the AFA said, referring to a test of the new procedure last fall.<br/>
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Indonesia’s state airline Garuda Indonesia is seeking $936m from a rights issue that will be held after it completes its court-led debt restructuring, according to its chief executive Irfan Setiaputra. The debt restructuring is expected to be finalised by May 20, and the company hopes the rights issue will be completed “this year”, Irfan said. The rights issue will be done in two stages, business news website Kumparan reported, citing a document from a parliamentary taskforce overseeing the restructuring process. The first round will be held in September to raise $527 million to accommodate the recently approved 7.5t rupiah state-capital injection, and the second round near the end of 2022 at $409m for a “strategic investor”. The funds will be used towards the costs of restructuring, restoration, and for plane leases among others, it added.<br/>