A retired nurse came to the aid of a baby who had stopped breathing on a Spirit Airlines flight last week from Pittsburgh to Orlando. Tamara Panzino said that she was reading a book with her earbuds in when she "heard a flight attendant say, 'we have an infant not breathing.'" An announcement shortly after asked if there was a doctor on board. The retired nurse ran to the back of the plane to see if she could help. "I didn't know what I was dealing with," Panzino said. "I saw an infant. The head was just back. And blue lips ... And my heart just dropped." Panzino asked some questions and got to work, handing the three-month-old baby to the father. "He held it while I did a sternal rub, kind of an aggressive shake of the chest. Get the baby to react by pinching it. Trying to make it cry or take a deep breath," Panzino said. The baby's color came back, and Panzino did not have to perform CPR. The incident occurred on Spirit flight 1691 from Pittsburgh to Orlando on Thursday, the airline confirmed. "We extend our deepest gratitude to Tamara for coming to the aid [of] our guests, and we applaud our crew for their quick response," the airline said. "Our flight attendants are trained to respond to medical emergencies onboard and utilize several resources, including communicating with our designated on-call medical professionals on the ground, using onboard medical kits, and receiving assistance from credentialed medical professionals traveling on the flight," Spirit said. Panzino said the airline had everything the team needed to respond on board.<br/>
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JetBlue Airways may have won over the board and management of Spirit Airlines in its bidding war with competitor Frontier Airlines for the discounter. But JetBlue still needs to sway shareholders before the deal can move forward. Spirit has scheduled an October 19 shareholder meeting for a vote on JetBlue’s $3.8b takeover offer. Investors in the airline have been down this road before with Spirit scheduling and either postponing or suspending four previous meetings on Frontier’s failed offer. But even if Spirit shareholders approve the JetBlue offer as is expected, the merger still has a steep hill to climb with the Department of Justice. The regulator, whose approval is key to the combination, has yet to weigh in on the merger that would remove a budget competitor from the US market, and make JetBlue the fifth largest domestic player.<br/>
Capital A Bhd, the parent of Malaysian budget airline AirAsia, said on Monday its Teleport cargo arm would add three Airbus A321 freighters to its fleet starting in Q1 2023. The freighters would be leased from BBAM Limited Partnership, Capital A said. Teleport last year began operating its first freighter, a Boeing 737-800 based in Bangkok, as the parent company looked to diversify revenue and take advantage of a boom in e-commerce. Francis Anthony, head of commercial cargo at Teleport, said the A321s would allow it to serve such key markets as China from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. A321 freighters are converted from passenger aircraft into dedicated cargo carriers. BBAM last year ordered freighter conversions of at least 20 of A320s and A321s through to 2025 in a deal with Elbe Flugzeugwerke, a joint venture between Singapore Technologies Engineering and Airbus.<br/>
Vietnam low-cost carrier Vietjet Air has signalled that it will receive Boeing 737 Max aircraft from 2024 to 2028, having recently reaffirmed orders for 200 examples. The carrier made the revelation in an investor presentation for the first half of its 2022 financial year to 30 June. “Vietjet and Boeing [have agreed] to revise the delivery schedule of 200 aircraft [from 2024 to 2028] to fit the company’s growth and recovery after Covid-19,” says Vietjet. “[The] new agreement provides more flexibility for [aircraft] deliveries and incentives for parties in taking new Boeing 737 Max aircraft.” When contacted by FlightGlobal, Vietjet offered no further clarification. Boeing referred queries on the matter to Vietjet. Vietjet’s disclosure follows its announcement at July’s Farnborough Airshow that it reaffirmed the Boeing orders, with the first 50 aircraft earmarked for its Thailand affiliate, Thai Vietjet Air. Vietjet’s Farnborough statement made no mention of the delivery timeframe. According to Boeing’s orders and deliveries data, Vietjet has 200 737 Max aircraft on order. Though Boeing’s web site does not specify the variant, previously the companies have indicated Vietjet is obtaining the 737 Max 200 variant – a high density version of the Max 8. Vietjet’s 737 orderbook stems from two orders. In May 2016, airline chief executive Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao signed for 100 737 Max aircraft in the presence of then US President Barack Obama. At that time, deliveries of these first 100 aircraft were set to take place between 2019 and 2023.<br/>