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A US judge on Thursday said that the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against American Airlines Group and JetBlue Airways Corp would go forward. A trial in the case has been set for Sept. 26. In its lawsuit filed in September in Boston, the government asked Judge Leo Sorokin to order the airlines to end their "Northeast Alliance" partnership, saying it would lead to higher fares in busy Northeastern airports. The agreement allows American and JetBlue to sell each other's flights in their New York-area and Boston networks and link frequent flyer programs, giving them more muscle to compete with United and Delta in the Northeast. The alliance was announced in July 2020 and approved by the US Transportation Department shortly before the end of the Trump administration. American and JetBlue denied wrongdoing and asked Sorokin to dismiss the lawsuit.<br/>

Southwest Airlines’ customer service agents will soon work 100% remotely as the carrier moves to close its reservations centers. “Southwest Airlines just announced they are closing all the Reservation Centers and transitioning to 100% remote work,” said the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the labor union representing the airline’s customer service agents, in a note to members dated Wednesday. The shift is effective Sept. 1, Southwest said, though the airline added that most reservations agents have been working remotely throughout the pandemic. It has more than 3,200 customer service and reservations agents based in Albuquerque, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Oklahoma City, Phoenix and at Southwest headquarters in Dallas. The agents’ main job is to help travelers with reservations and trip changes. The physical locations where agents were based will now be open to other departments for repurposing, a company spokesperson said. The union said in its note that Southwest made the decision without union input. The organization didn’t immediately return a request for comment Thursday. The closures make Southwest the latest company to weigh whether in-office work is necessary, effective and attractive for workers in a post-pandemic culture. Southwest and other airlines are scrambling to hire new staff as travel demand roars back after a two-year slump. “Evolving to a fully remote workforce brings increased flexibility, both in attracting and hiring new Employees from across the country, and in scheduling current Employees who have worked at record efficiency in a remote work environment,” Southwest said.<br/>

Proposed US start-up carrier Connect Airlines is ordering 75 converted ATR 72-600 turboprops, which will be fitted with hydrogen-fuelled powertrains. The firm agreement with Universal Hydrogen also covers an additional 25 converted aircraft. Universal Hydrogen was founded by former Airbus chief technology officer Paul Eremenko, and has an advisory board which includes ex-Airbus chief Tom Enders. Connect Airlines is a planned scheduled airline company which is emerging from Massachusetts-based private jet charter carrier Waltzing Matilda Aviation. It reached a provisional agreement last year with Universal Hydrogen covering conversion kits for De Havilland Dash 8-300s and other aircraft types. “We have committed to being the world’s first true zero-emission airline and the only way to accomplish this in the near term is with hydrogen,” insists Connect CE John Thomas. Deliveries of the aircraft will start in 2025, according to Thomas, who claims that the new airline’s fleet could expand to over 800 aircraft to support a North American route network. “We see the partnership with Universal Hydrogen as the fastest path to zero-emission operation,” he says. Eremenko says the Connect order puts the company “firmly in the vanguard” of the “march” to set aviation on a path to meet emissions targets. “This march will very soon need to turn into a sprint if the industry has any hope of decarbonising in time without having to curtail the growth in passenger volumes,” he adds.He says there will be a need to convert “most of the regional fleet” in the current decade and ensure that newly-built single-aisle aircraft in the 2030s are hydrogen-fuelled. “There is no other way to get there,” he adds.<br/>

Transat’s ambitious plans for the summer are running into Airbus’ manufacturing travails, forcing the Canadian carrier to wet-lease aircraft to fulfill its summer schedule. Transat had expected to take delivery of two Airbus A321LR’s this summer, but deliveries are delayed due to supply-chain constraints at the European airframer, Transat CEO Annick Guerard said on the company’s April quarter earnings results. She declined to specify where the additional wet-leased aircraft will come from or how many, but said they will be sufficient to operate the carrier’s summer schedule. Transat has 10 A321LRs fleet now, and besides the two that have been delayed this year, expects a further five deliveries in 2023-2024. Guerard said. Guerard is the second airline CEO this week to comment on Airbus delays. Earlier in the week, Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi noted that although the European discounter has sufficient lift for its schedule, “If you look at Airbus and Boeing, I mean there are strains in the system. They have issues with their own supply chains, and as a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get access to new aircraft for the next few years.” Airbus is ramping up production of its A320-family aircraft to 65 aircraft per month next year, with plans to increase that to 75 aircraft per month by 2025. Although Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury is confident the airframer can meet its targets, analysts have been skeptical and pointed to suppliers that have struggled to hire enough staff in tight labor markets in the US and Europe.<br/>

The CE of Wizz Air is facing a backlash from pilot unions after suggesting staff should “go the extra mile” to fly when fatigued to help minimise flight cancellations and disruptions. In an internal briefing to staff leaked to the internet, József Váradi said the company needed to “take down the fatigue rate” that has led to staff shortages and cancellations. “I understand that fatigue is a potential outcome of the issues, but once we are starting stabilising the rosters, we also need to take down the fatigue rate,” he said on a video to staff. Varadi added: “We cannot run this business when every fifth person on a base reports sickness because the person is fatigued. We are all fatigued, but sometimes it is required to take the extra mile.” Wizz has been caught up in the barrage of flight cancellations that have hit the European airline industry in recent weeks, with many companies suffering from an acute staffing shortage. The European Cockpit Association, which represents pilots, has written to European safety regulators accusing Wizz of “a problematic corporate safety culture” following the emergence of the video. “The message of the CEO to his air crew is clear: to avoid reputational and commercial damage to the airline, air crew must lower their fatigue rates by flying fatigued and not calling in sick/fatigued,” the letter said. “This reinforces our previously shared concerns about Wizz Air’s deficient corporate culture, where inadmissible pressure is exerted on crew to fly on their days off, to extend flight times under ‘commanders’ discretion’ and to refrain from reporting fatigued. Such corporate behaviour is detrimental to passenger flight safety,” the pilots said.<br/>

Ryanair says it is still insisting that all South Africans travelling on flights to the UK must prove their nationality by taking a test in the Afrikaans language. The policy has caused outrage in South Africa, where many black people associate Afrikaans with the days of white-minority rule. South Africa has 11 official languages and Ryanair has not explained why it chose Afrikaans. The airline runs flights around Europe. In a statement to the BBC, Ryanair said it had to carry out the extra test because of "substantially increased cases of fraudulent South African passports being used to enter the UK". Any airline found to have taken a passenger to the UK on a fake passport faces a fine of £2,000 ($2,500) from the UK authorities. "This is why Ryanair must ensure that all passengers (especially South African citizens) travel on a valid SA passport/visa as required by UK Immigration," the airline said. The British government says it does not require the extra test to be carried out. As well as not explaining why it chose Afrikaans rather than any other South African language, Ryanair did not say whether it carried out similar tests for any other nationality.<br/>

South Africa’s oldest private airline Comair will stop operations permanently after its bankruptcy protection lawyers on Thursday filed an application to liquidate the company which had failed to secure funding to stay airborne after being impacted severely by global pandemic-related travel restrictions. The end of the company, whose neon green aircraft under the low-cost kulula.com carrier had dotted tarmacs across the country’s airports, comes after two years of interventions by bankruptcy protection lawyers, investors and employees to save the 75-year old airline. “We did our utmost to secure the funding, but when we were unable to do so had no option to lodge the application,” Richard Ferguson, the company’s business rescue practitioner, a category of lawyer hired as administrators to save a company from liquidation, said in a statement. “It is an extremely sad day for the company, its employees, its customers and South African aviation.” Comair, along with the national carrier South African Airways, were the two hardest hit domestic airlines after the COVID-19 pandemic forced countries to seal international borders. Tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu said the airline’s closure would have a negative impact on the sector. “We hope the grounding of Comair flights does not result in other airlines raising their prices,” she said. <br/>

Jin Air, the budget carrier unit of Korean Air Lines, said Friday it is resuming the operation of its mid-to-large B777-200ER airplane starting this weekend to meet growing travel demand amid eased COVID-19 restrictions. The aircraft will be added to the Gimpo-Jeju route Sunday, about 16 months after its suspension over the outbreak of the pandemic, the company said in a release. The same plane will also be put into service for international routes in July to meet surging travel demand expected during the summer peak season, it said. Jin Air plans to introduce three more of the same plane in phases once maintenance work, test flights and government inspections are completed. Jin Air first brought in the B777-200ER in 2014. Meanwhile, Jin Air said it will add a B737-8 plane to its fleet in July. The B737-8 is considered eco-friendly for its advanced technology designed to help reduce carbon emissions by being about 15% more fuel efficient than others in the same class.<br/>

Virgin Australia is considering listing in Sydney as early as next year, underscoring the airline's faster-than-expected recovery since collapsing at the start of the pandemic. The Bain Capital-owned carrier was profitable in April and an IPO is possible in 2023, a spokesman said, confirming comments by Jayne Hrdlicka, Virgin Australia's CE officer, to The Australian newspaper. Hrdlicka said that an IPO next year was "not outside the realm of possibility." "It's a lot faster than we thought it would be and we are flattered that this soon after becoming a new company and starting from scratch we're in a position where we're having these conversations, because it's extraordinary," Hrdlicka said, according to the newspaper on Thursday. Air passenger traffic in Australia is almost back to pre-Covid levels, the competition regulator said on Wednesday.<br/>