Pilots at Lufthansa went on strike on Friday, forcing the German airline to cancel hundreds of flights, stranding holidaymakers. The airline said it had cancelled about 800 flights at its main bases in Frankfurt and Munich on Friday, affecting 130,000 passengers, and said it was working flat out to minimise the impact of the strike. Labour union Vereinigung Cockpit had called on more than 5,000 Lufthansa pilots to stage a 24-hour walkout, saying the latest round of wage talks had failed. Strikes and staff shortages have already forced several airlines, including Lufthansa, to cancel thousands of flights this summer, leading to long queues at major airports, frustrating people keen to start travelling again after COVID-19 lockdowns. Passenger Liane Dickson was due to fly to Amsterdam from Johannesburg via Frankfurt, but the second leg of her flight was cancelled before she left South Africa. "It is now 16 hours later and we have no email to say why it happened, what should we do next," she said at Frankfurt airport. "At Johannesburg airport yesterday it was chaos because people didn't know whether they should check in their luggage to Amsterdam or to Frankfurt." The VC union is demanding a 5.5% pay rise this year and automatic inflation compensation thereafter as well as better terms for entry-level pilots.<br/>
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Roll-Royce and Air China have signed a joint venture agreement to set up an engine MRO facility in Beijing. The new joint venture, called Beijing Aero Engine Services Company Limited (BAESL), will support Trent 700, Trent 1000 and Trent XWB-84 engines. When fully operational in the mid-2030s, the facility will support up to 250 shop visits annually. While it will primarily service Air China’s fleet, the facility will also target R-R operators in the Greater China region and beyond. R-R notes that the BAESL facility is an “important part” of its China strategy. It adds: “It aligns in-region growth with in-region capacity providing customer proximity, which supports our sustainability goals by reducing overseas transportation of engines for MRO activity. The new facility will also support the continued expansion of our capable, competitive and flexible global Care Network.” R-R engines power around 60% of China’s widebody fleet. The enginemaker adds that the Greater China fleet makes up about 20% of the global Trent engines flying today. Air China’s Airbus A330, A350 and Boeing 787 widebody fleets are powered by R-R engines. Airline president Ma Chongxian says: “In the future, Air China and Rolls-Royce will continue to deepen our profound partnership and start a new journey of cooperation in the field of high thrust engine maintenance.” Apart from the R-R partnership, Air China is also a majority shareholder in Beijing-based MRO provider Ameco, which is a joint venture with Lufthansa. <br/>
When Singapore Airlines resumed hiring in February after a two-year freeze, the national carrier had aimed to recruit 2,000 cabin crew trainees by March next year. It has hired 1,200 people to date, and now wants to bring in the remaining 800 trainees by December, as air travel continues to rebound from the depths of Covid-19. With borders open, the airline is also considering restarting hiring from places outside Singapore and Malaysia, which it did pre-Covid-19 in China, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan. Like SIA, other companies in the local aviation sector are pulling out the stops to replenish their ranks. From ground handlers, to security staff, cleaners, cabin crew and air traffic controllers, almost all types of airport workers are now in strong demand, amid a tight labour market. Manpower shortages have been a key hurdle for airlines in the Asia-Pacific. In Australia, for instance, a lack of workers has left airlines and airports unable to keep up with demand since unrestricted travel resumed early this year.In Singapore, Changi Airport's handling capacity has largely stayed abreast of growing passenger traffic. Singapore Institute of Technology Associate Professor Volodymyr Bilotkach, who heads its air transport management degree programme, noted that major Asian markets such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan remain restricted, which limits the speed and extent of the recovery in Asia. Overall Asia passenger traffic is expected to hit only 70 to 80% by year end.<br/>
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will take the national carrier’s first direct flight later this month from Auckland to New York, where she will attend the UN General Assembly. Air New Zealand will launch the flight on Sept. 17. In March, it said the 17.5-hour service, among the world’s longest direct routes, was part of an effort to rebuild the nation’s tourism industry after it was decimated by the pandemic. Ardern will host a meeting on targeting online hate speech -- the Christchurch Call to Action Leader’s Summit -- with France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Sept. 20. “I look forward to meeting with heads of state and global tech leaders to continue our important work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online,” Ardern said, according to a statement from her office. Ardern is also expected to tout the New Zealand film industry in a meeting with executives from the Motion Picture Association of America.<br/>