A handful of US regional airlines recently hiked pilot pay rates amid an industry-wide effort to attract and retain pilots and keep pace with surging travel demand. Thousands of pilots at Mesa Airlines, CommutAir, Piedmont Airlines, PSA Airlines and Envoy Air – all represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) – have secured new contracts with higher wages, ALPA recently said. The pay hikes vary by airline. Mesa pilots will receive a boost of 118% for first-year captains and 172% for new first officers, with wages now starting at $150 per hour and $100 per hour, respectively. Meanwhile, first officers with CommutAir will now start at $72 per hour, with captains at $100 hourly, says ALPA. The agreements also include improved benefit packages and pilot-scheduling stipulations, increased sign-on and retention bonuses and better commuter compensation, says ALPA. Most of the contracts extend until July 2029. “For years, regional airlines have tried to skimp and save on the most important safety feature on any flight: experienced, well-trained and rested pilots on the flight deck,” ALPA president Joe DePete said in a recent statement. He notes the new deals “are an acknowledgement that this approach of shortchanging frontline workers is not working and that airlines must offer competitive compensation packages and work rules to attract and retain pilots.” ALPA and the Regional Airline Association (RAA) are at odds regarding the pilot shortage, with ALPA maintaining that there are enough pilots to meet demand amid the industry’s ongoing recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, pointing to a recent uptick in the number of licensed pilots. Earlier this month, ALPA released figures showing some 8,800 pilots received air transport licenses in the past year.<br/>
general
At least seven flights had to be diverted from Madrid's Adolfo-Suarez-Barajas Airport on Monday due to the presence of drones in the area. The public company AENA, which operates Spain's airports, announced the problem on its Twitter account, explaining that the company and the Civil Guard were "working together to reestablish operations." "Arrivals have been restricted and for the moment, seven flights have been diverted to other airports," AENA added. Professional drone operator Alberto Peinado told Xinhua that drones are not allowed to operate within 15 km of Madrid airport without special permission from the Spanish Interior Ministry and AENA, and prior communication with the airport's control tower. Permission must be requested 10 working days before an operation. Those who do not comply with the rules are subject to fines of between 3,000 and 300,000 euros, or a prison sentence if the drone operator is considered to have endangered lives.<br/>
The UAE has begun operating an air bridge to transport humanitarian aid to those affected by the monsoon flooding in Pakistan. The death toll has reached 1,061 since June, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said on Monday, with 28 more people having died in the past 24 hours. The crisis has forced the government to declare a state of emergency, mobilise the army for relief efforts and call for international assistance. Villages with weak infrastructure from the Sindh province to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have been affected so far, with rescue teams struggling to access many areas. The UAE's Ministry of Defence, represented by the Joint Operations Command, is overseeing the delivery of relief aid from the Emirates, which includes shelter materials, humanitarian needs, food and medical parcels. Hamad Obaid Al Zaabi, the UAE's ambassador to Pakistan, said the first Emirati relief aid plane flew on Monday morning to Pakistan and will be followed by several more in the coming days to provide support.<br/>
Dnata ground crew have begun voting on whether to take industrial action after failing to agree a deal on working terms. The Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) said the current offer to its members amounted to a pay cut and added staff are currently under “enormous pressure from understaffing”. Dnata has responded by saying its pay deal is “highly competitive” and must ensure its overall operations are financially sustainable. The move significantly comes after Qantas outsourced 2,000 in-house ground handling roles to third-party companies, including Dnata and Swissport. The Federal Court twice ruled that decision breached the Fair Work Act, but crucially said those employees won’t be able to get their old jobs back and instead must accept compensation. The vote on industrial action, including potential strikes, opened on Monday and will close on Friday, 2 September. TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said, “Dnata workers are bravely voting to get rights to take protected industrial action because of their shocking treatment despite making huge sacrifices for this company.” “They’ve gone from two years of being shut out of JobKeeper by the Morrison government to being pushed into an agreement with suppressed wages and part-time work with minimal guaranteed hours that’s caused a mass exodus in this industry. Since Qantas illegally sacked and outsourced this workforce, it’s pushed away its responsibility of directly bargaining with workers, and instead is using its massive commercial power to bully companies like Dnata into ultra-low-cost contracts creating a downward spiral of wages and conditions.”<br/>
Business class is becoming increasingly more luxurious, spacious and private. Whether it's custom-designed seat and bed cushions, bespoke fittings and fixtures, or co-branding with some of the biggest names in luxury, business really is the new first class aboard many planes. That's especially true in business class mini-suites with doors, which debuted nearly 10 years ago aboard JetBlue's Mint premium airplanes, and are now found on a dozen or so carriers including Delta, All Nippon Airways, British Airways and China Eastern, with more rolling out every year. Doors make the business class experience better in two ways: first, they add privacy, and second, they avoid what airplane seat designers call the "brush past," where a passenger or crew member walking down the aisle bumps into a seated passenger. If you've traveled in business class, you might already be thinking of some of the seats where that would be particularly beneficial. One might be the several kinds of staggered layouts where some seats are right next to the aisle, but others are well away from the aisle, on the other side of a little console table. Another might be the angled herringbone layout where seats face into the aisle and you end up having to avoid eye contact with the person opposite for the whole flight. Doors obviously help to avoid that. But while these mini-suites with doors are more private than many first class seats, the word "mini" is in their name for a reason: the space for each passenger is, while massive compared with economy, still smaller than first class.<br/>
Boeing today announced an order from UPS for eight more 767 Freighters. The incremental order will increase UPS's 767 Freighter fleet to 108 airplanes, enabling the global carrier to further modernize and sustainably grow its fleet. "The additional 767s will help us continue to deliver what matters to UPS customers around the world. This is a very versatile aircraft that we operate across every region of the globe," said UPS Executive Vice President and President US Nando Cesarone. "With these aircraft, our fleet will continue to be among the most modern in our industry, meeting our customers' needs while improving our efficiency, sustainability and reliability." Air cargo continues to play a crucial role in global trade, from supporting supply chains to expanding e-commerce. The IATA has estimated that global air cargo revenue in 2021 was more than double the revenue in pre-pandemic 2019.<br/>