sky

Delta pilots across the country spent hours picketing at Delta Hubs airports nationwide. Delta pilots in metro Detroit gathered at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Thursday in protest. Delta pilots across the country spent hours picketing at Delta Hubs airports nationwide. Delta pilots in metro Detroit gathered at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Thursday in protest.According to Hartmann, it's been over three years since Delta pilots have received any type of pay increase. He says it's been six years since the pilots last signed an agreement. "We have been instrumental in picking up record amounts of overtime, spending fewer days at home all in order to navigate our way back through COVID to profitability at Delta airlines,” Hartmann said. The nationwide protests were created to send a clear message to Delta management about their desire for this industry-leading contract."One that reflects the value and commitment and professionalism of the Delta pilots,” Hartmann adds. "Delta pilots have been industry leader in leading the company back to a both profitable and reliable airline." Hartmann says he hopes today's protests lead to meaningful negotiations that show the airline's commitment to Delta pilots.<br/>

Delta CEO Ed Bastian on Thursday apologized for recent flight cancellations and delays, as US lawmakers raised questions about ongoing industry-wide disruptions. Persistent staffing shortages and booming demand have led to frequent flight cancellations by airlines on both sides of the Atlantic, causing chaos for vacationers as the summer season swings into gear. Delta has canceled over 400 flights since Monday - including 89 on Thursday - according to flight-tracking website Flightaware.com, as severe weather exacerbated staff shortages. "If you've encountered delays and cancellations recently, I apologize," Bastian said in a LinkedIn post and email to customers. In May, Delta said it would cut about 100 daily departures to improve operations through early August. There are increasing questions on Capitol Hill about flight disruptions. Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Thursday led by Representative James Comer wrote Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg seeking a staff briefing and expressing concerns the department "does not have a serious plan to address deteriorating flight schedules." The Republicans asked if Buttigieg will use department tools "to ensure the airline industry is able to operate at peak efficiency without stranding millions of families."<br/>

Delta has agreed to pay $10.5m to settle allegations that it falsified information about deliveries of international mail that it was contracted to carry, including mail sent to US soldiers deployed overseas. The Justice Department said Thursday that Delta was hired by the US Postal Service to collect mail from several locations including Defense Department and State Department installations. Delta is the latest airlines to settle similar accusations. The Atlanta-based airline was supposed to scan mail that it hauled to document when it was delivered. Federal officials accused Delta of falsifying records to avoid penalties for mail that was late or sent to the wrong location. Delta won several contracts for international mail-hauling beginning in 2009, and submitted false records from 2010 to 2016, according to the settlement. Delta did not admit liability, and it was not required to pay the government's costs to investigate and pursue the matter. “With this matter now concluded, we look forward to continuing to move USPS mail and freight for our shared customers across our global network,” the airline said. The head of the Justice Department’s civil division, Brian Boynton, said the settlement showed the department’s commitment to go after contractors who don’t meet their obligations “and misrepresent their failure to perform.”<br/>

Air France is negotiating further job cuts with trade unions, Le Figaro reported on Thursday, having already culled thousands of positions through voluntary departures over the past two years. France's flagship carrier is in talks to shed nearly 300 ground-staff positions through voluntary redundancies at French airports serving domestic flights, including Paris Orly and Marseille, the paper reported. The airline hope to finalise negotiations by the end of July, it added. An Air France spokesman declined to comment. Under CE Ben Smith, who joined from Air Canada in 2018, Air France-KLM has sought to cut costs, improve French labour relations and overcome governance squabbles between France and the Netherlands, each shareholders in the company. In 2020, with air travel hammered by COVID-19, Air France said it was cutting 7,500 jobs over two years, including 1,000 at sister airline HOP!.<br/>

Dutch airline KLM has paid back the last part of loans granted by the Dutch government during the COVID-19 pandemic, it said on Thursday. The Dutch arm of airline group Air France-KLM said it had paid back E277m after earlier repayments totalling E665m. The airline had been given E942m in loans by the Dutch state in 2020 as the pandemic crippled international travel.<br/>

Korean Air’s plan to raise to capacity as Covid travel restrictions continue to ease will come as some of its grounded aircraft are returned to service and the airline prepares to introduce its second new aircraft type this year. The SkyTeam carrier is set to take delivery of its first Airbus A321neos in September, having introduced its first Boeing 737 Max 8 in March. “I’m very happy with the aircraft, it’s very economical, very reliable,” Korean Air CE Walter Cho said of the Max during a media round table at the recent IATA AGM in Doha. Korean Air ordered 30 Max 8s in 2015 and, after taking delivery of the first of the type in February, is operating three Max 8s. “Our fourth one is with Jin Air,” he says, referring to the airline’s low-cost unit. “Our plan is to put eight Max’s there [Jin Air] and it will keep its NGs,” he says. Cirium fleet’s data show Jin Air operates 21 Boeing 737-800/900s. Korean Air is also preparing for the arrival for the first of 50 A321neos. “They should be coming in very soon,” says Cho. “We have three deliveries this year from September. The A321 will have full-flat seats and will be used in Asia for long-distance routes.” The airline is currently at about 30% of pre-Covid capacity levels as border restrictions in the region have slowly begun easing. It has outlined plans to lift this to around 50% by adding frequencies and capacity from July. That includes deploying Airbus A380s onto its Hong Kong and Tokyo Narita routes by September, on top of plans to operate the superjumbo on New York flights in July. ”Nine out of 10 [A380s] were stored,” says Cho. ”We are in the process of destoraging one at this time, and will probably have three by the end of the year, and the rest shortly [after]. Passengers love the plane and we have a lot of business class seats on it, so it’s a very good aircraft to fly on high demand routes.”<br/>