Passengers aboard a Spirit Airlines flight from Tampa are safe after one of the plane’s brakes overheated and briefly caught fire upon landing in Atlanta on Sunday, airport officials said. The brakes in the landing gear of Spirit Airlines flight 383 from Tampa ignited upon landing, officials at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport wrote in a tweet about the incident. Atlanta firefighters put out the fire and the plane was towed to the gate for passengers to disembark, airport officials said. Spirit Airline said one of the brakes on the plane overheated. No passengers were injured, the airline said. Video posted on social media showed smoke coming from under the plane at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. “The aircraft was towed to the gate where guests safely deplaned without any injuries. Thank you to the Atlanta first responders for immediately meeting the aircraft. The plane will be temporarily removed from service for maintenance,” a statement from the airline read.<br/>
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The fate of Spirit Airlines’ merger with fellow budget carrier Frontier Airlines is growing murkier. Spirit this week delayed its shareholder meeting for a third time, opening the door to more talks from both Frontier and rival suitor JetBlue Airways. The latter two delays each came just hours before Spirit shareholders were due to vote on the Frontier tie-up, a now $2.6b cash-and-stock combination after Frontier recently sweetened the offer in an effort to ward off JetBlue’s advances. JetBlue is offering about $3.7b in an all-cash takeover. Ahead of the most recently scheduled vote, which was slated for Friday morning, it didn’t appear Spirit had enough votes to get the Frontier deal approved, according to people familiar with the matter. Spirit would be on the hook to pay Frontier a break-up fee of more than $94m if it deems JetBlue’s offer superior and scraps its original deal. “We’re working hard to bring this process to a conclusion while remaining focused on the well-being of our Spirit Family,” Spirit CEO Ted Christie said in a note to employees late Thursday after the vote was postponed yet again. Spirit declined to comment further on Friday. JetBlue, for its part, cheered the delay. CEO Robin Hayes said in a statement late Thursday: “We are encouraged by our discussions with Spirit and are hopeful they now recognize that Spirit shareholders have indicated their clear, overwhelming preference for an agreement with JetBlue.” Neither JetBlue nor Frontier offered further comment on Friday.<br/>
As the first signs of travel disruption emerged in the spring, easyJet’s CE was relishing a new challenge after two miserable years of border restrictions because of a pandemic that had plunged the industry into crisis. “It is a good challenge to have, it is customers coming back. We are putting pressure on the system, the airports, the ground handlers, the air traffic controllers, because customers are coming back . . . that is good,” Johan Lundgren said in late March. Three months later and he may rue that comment. Returning passengers have overwhelmed the European aviation system, with easyJet one of the worst-hit airlines in a barrage of disruption caused by staff shortages across every part of the industry. This week the chaos took its first major casualty, with the company’s chief operating officer Peter Bellew resigning after a difficult run. The airline has cancelled 1,760 flights departing from the UK this year — five times the number over the same period in 2019, according to data provider Cirium. “It has been an operational disaster at easyJet,” said Chris Tarry, of Ctaira, an aviation consultancy. The disruption will cost the airline about E200mn, according to Bernstein analysts, pushing it into a loss this financial year, which ends in September. Its share price has also suffered, plummeting 40 per cent to 11-year lows since the start of January as it outpaced the declines of rival carriers. Although not the only airline facing difficulties — British Airways, Lufthansa and KLM have cancelled tens of thousands of flights between them this summer — easyJet’s operating model is at the heart of its problems, leaving it helplessly exposed to the industry-wide disruption.<br/>
El Al Israel Airlines reached a collective agreement with its pilots to restore their salaries to pre-COVID pandemic levels and end months of labour action that led to cancelled flights. Under the deal, which is valid through 2025, salaries will return to previous levels by the beginning of 2023, El Al and the Histadrut labour federation said in a joint statement. Last month, a labour court declined El Al's demand to force pilots back to work after near daily cancellations, ordering both sides to negotiate a deal. Pilots were seeking El Al to abide by a 2017 salary deal. "Israeli airline pilots, including El Al pilots, significantly reduced their salaries so the airlines could survive. Today, with the aviation industry recovering, it is time to return to the previous situation," said Avi Edri, head of the Histadrut's transportation workers' union. El Al in May said it had narrowed its Q1 loss to $66m from $86m a year earlier, after Israel's borders were reopened to foreign tourists and passenger numbers returning to pre-COVID levels.<br/>
Passengers are starting to avoid SpiceJet after a series of mid-air safety failures, according to a survey, dealing a blow to the cash-strapped airline, which has been been summoned by the authorities to explain the lapses. A survey of more than 21,000 travellers conducted by LocalCircles showed that 44 per cent are currently steering clear of India's third-biggest airline due to safety concerns versus 21 per cent who are avoiding Air India and IndiGo, and 18 per cent for Go First. Some 37 per cent of respondents said they do not avoid any particular airline. Losing passengers over incidents involving technical glitches would be a major setback for SpiceJet, which has relinquished its second-highest market share to Go First. Any fallout could further upset SpiceJet's deteriorating financial health. The airline has suffered losses for the last three fiscal years and its shares have plunged 43 per cent this year, making it the worst airline stock in Asia. SpiceJet said that its flights are "absolutely safe, and the safety of our passengers, crew and aircraft is paramount to us". A SpiceJet flight operating a Boeing 737 Max plane was diverted to Karachi due to an indicator light malfunction on Tuesday (July 5). Later that day, a Q400 jet was forced to make a priority landing in Mumbai after its windshield cracked. Another SpiceJet aircraft from New Delhi on July 2 returned to the Indian capital due to smoke in the cabin.<br/>
AirAsia Philippines is targeting to have 24 aircraft in operation by year-end as it seeks to relaunch more routes to international destinations with the reopening of borders. Ricky Isla, CEO of the low-cost airline, told the reporters at an event in Malaysia last week they have 10 aircraft currently servicing passengers and were expecting to add two by the end of this month. Isla also expressed the need to secure bigger planes that are more cost efficient and environment friendly to fly more passengers. Currently, AirAsia Philippines is doing market visits to more international destinations, including the Middle East, as it restores passenger capacity with the return of air travel demand. “We are also flying to Australia where there are also a lot of Filipinos,” he said. Isla said the airline was eyeing to include Sandakan in its Sabah network after recently resuming flights to Kota Kinabalu from Manila. As for demand, the AirAsia Philippines official said that 50% of the daily flight ticket purchases were forward bookings. “We see a lot of improvements such that 30 to 60 or even 90 days [ahead], they are already booking their flights, which we never saw towards fourth quarter of 2021. But starting March and April, there were a lot of forward bookings,” he said.<br/>