American Airlines has cut thousands of domestic and international flights from its November schedule as part of the carrier's efforts to reduce disruptions that have afflicted the industry this year. The carrier has scheduled 31,000, or 16%, fewer flights for the month that contains the busy Thanksgiving holiday travel period, data from aviation analytics company Cirium showed. US airlines have been trying to add more buffer into their schedules after a chaotic summer travel season. While demand for air travel has surged this year, most US airlines have struggled to cope with it due to a staffing shortage. American said in an emailed statement that the cuts reflect network and schedule planning throughout the year. "Preliminary schedules are published 331 days in advance and then adjustments are made closer in based on the schedule we intend to operate," the airline said. "We are now loading schedule adjustments approximately 100 days in advance, which is in line with how we adjusted our schedule in 2019 prior to the pandemic."<br/>
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British Airways check-in staff approved a pay settlement that their union said amounts to a 13% raise. BA employees “overwhelmingly backed” the settlement, the Unite union said Monday, after announcing last month that an agreement had been reached to avert strikes at the carrier’s London Heathrow hub. The accord will see workers receive a lump sum worth 5% of their wages in August, a consolidated 5% increase in September, and a further 3% consolidated raise in December. The European aviation industry has suffered unprecedented bottlenecks and check-in chaos at airports from Heathrow to Brussels to Dusseldorf, causing airports to cap capacity. The disruption has been brought on by a blend of labor disputes, staffing shortages and cost cuts during the pandemic that are now coming back to haunt airlines, just as travel roars back.<br/>
Malaysia Airlines has signed a provisional agreement to acquire 20 Airbus A330neos to replace its ageing fleet of A330 widebody jets in a deal that also involves aircraft leasing company Avolon. The airline will buy 10 of the planes from Airbus and then execute a sale-and-leaseback deal with Avolon, with the other 10 leased directly from Avolon, the carrier said on Monday. Industry sources last week told Reuters a deal was expected on Monday. The planes, which will have Rolls-Royce engines, are scheduled to be delivered from the third quarter of 2024 through 2028, the airline said. The fleet upgrade, which includes purchase rights for another 20 A330neos, comes amid signs of a pick-up in demand for widebody jets after a lengthy downturn. From East Asia to the Gulf, several airlines are renewing widebody fleets as international air traffic recovers from its pandemic lows. “The A330neo will not only provide modernisation to our fleet and enhanced operational efficiency, but also meet environmental targets through reduced fuel-burn per seat while keeping passenger safety and comfort at its core,” Malaysia Airlines CE Izham Ismail said.<br/>
The Dutch court handling the murder trial of four suspects in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014 said on Monday it would hand down its verdict on Nov. 17. Prosecutors say the one Ukrainian and three Russian defendants, who are all at large, helped supply a missile system that Russian-backed separatists used to fire a rocket at the plane on July 17, 2014. All 298 people on board were killed. The prosecution is seeking life terms for all suspects. Lawyers for Oleg Pulatov, the only defendant who has chosen to participate in the proceedings through counsel, have argued that the trial was unfair and prosecutors did not properly examine alternative theories about the cause of the crash or the involvement of Pulatov. The other suspects, named as Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky, and Ukrainian national Leonid Kharchenko, are being tried in absentia. Under Dutch law Pulatov, while he is also at large, is not considered to be tried in absentia because he is represented through lawyers he has instructed. The Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was hit over Ukraine’s rebel-held Donetsk region by what international investigators say was a Russian-made surface-to-air missile. The eastern region has also become a key focus of Russia’s nearly six-month-old war in Ukraine.<br/>