United Airlines removed 25 of its Boeing 777-200 airplanes from service this week after discovering it had failed to perform required inspections on the wing leading-edge panels. The FAA said the airline had disclosed the issue to the agency after an internal audit and proposed a plan to complete the inspections. United said on Tuesday it had canceled around 18 flights on Monday night and Tuesday morning to conduct the inspections but did not expect to cancel additional flights because of the issue. “We’ve completed inspections on 10 of those aircraft, and are working with the FAA to return others to service while inspections are ongoing over the next two weeks,” United said Tuesday. The FAA said it was reviewing United’s inspection plan “as well as looking into the circumstances that led to the missed inspections.” In May, the FAA cleared United’s 52 Boeing 777 planes equipped with Pratt & Whitney (PW) 4000 engines to return to service. The jets were grounded after a United flight to Honolulu suffered engine failure and showered debris over nearby cities and made an emergency landing in Denver in February 2021. No one was injured and the plane safely returned to the airport. United said Tuesday the wing leading-edge panel inspections of some of those 777-200s are not related to engines or recent engine work. They said the inspections in most cases can be completed overnight.<br/>
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Avianca is expanding point-to-point connectivity from regional airports in Colombia with the launch of six nonstop international routes, as well as adding two domestic services. The network additions will see the Star Alliance member offer new flight options from Bucaramanga, Cartagena, Pereira and Santa Marta to destinations in Brazil, Chile and the US. Four of the six international routes will begin in December, with the remaining two starting the following month. All six will use Airbus A320-family aircraft. The latest growth comes as the carrier seeks to push through its planned merger with Brazil’s GOL Linhas Aereas and Colombian LCC Viva to form the holding company Abra Group, creating one of the largest airline networks in Latin America. Abra will also have a 10% stake in Chile's Sky Airline. From Pereira, the capital of Colombia’s Risaralda department located in the foothills of the Andes, two overseas routes are being opened to Miami and New York John F Kennedy. Both services will start on Dec. 8, operating 4X-weekly to Miami and 2X-weekly to New York. On the same day, Bucaramanga in the Santander department will receive a new route to Miami, operating three times per week. Santa Marta, a city on the Caribbean Sea in the northern department of Magdalena, will also be connected twice a week to Miami from Dec. 10. The remaining two new international routes will begin in January 2023, linking Cartagena with GOL’s Sao Paulo Guarulhos hub from Jan. 10 and Santiago de Chile the following day. Flights to Sao Paulo will operate three times per week, while Santiago will be 4X-weekly.<br/>
SWISS has become a member of the UN Global Compact Network Switzerland & Liechtenstein. In doing so, the airline is underlining its commitment to the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact and to sustainable development. The UN Global Compact platform is dedicated to strengthening companies in their corporate responsibility. Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) has joined the UN Global Compact Network Switzerland & Liechtenstein. In doing so, the airline is underlining its commitment to the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact in the fields of the environment, human rights, labour and anti-corruption, and to the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. SWISS is joining as a subsidiary of Lufthansa, which has been a UN Global Compact member since 2002. “Sustainable and responsible corporate conduct is a cornerstone of our business strategy,” confirms SWISS CEO Dieter Vranckx. “We view it as our duty to play our part in ensuring more sustainable mobility and a more sustainable economy. We need strong partnerships, strategic collaborations, investments and broad-based alliances if we are to achieve our sustainability objectives,” Vranckx continues. “The UN Global Compact is the prime worldwide network for promoting responsible business practices; and we are convinced that working together, we can make substantial further progress in our sustainability endeavours.”<br/>
Four senior executives from Turkish Airlines have been appointed to International Air Transport Association Advisory Councils (IAC) - namely Digital Transformation Advisory Council, Cargo Advisory Council, Legal Advisory Council and Industry Affairs Advisory Council respectively for a three-year term. The announcement was made following IATA's 78th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Doha. Representing 290 airlines and 120 countries, IATA maintains an international perspective and provides a global voice on behalf of its members, based on the relationships with governments and other industry stakeholders around the world, advocating on behalf of its members on key industry issues. The elected officials are Kerem Kızıltunç, Chief Corporate Development and IT Officer; Turhan Özen, Chief Cargo Officer; Berkant Kolcu, SVP Legal and Compliance and Özlem Salihoğlu, SVP International Relations and Alliances. Kızıltunç has been elected as Vice-Chair Digital Transformation Advisory Council for 2022-2024 period and he is to be assigned as Chair Digital Transformation Advisory Council for 2024-2026 period. These high-profile assignments to 4 of the 9 IATA advisory councils will positively affect the competence of Turkish Airlines in the airline industry.<br/>
Egypt’s state-own airline, EgyptAir, is preparing to re-open its office in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, after more than 8 years of hiatus, Youm7 reported on Monday. The flights were suspended to Libya due to political turmoil. EgyptAir is completing the equipment of its office in Tripoli, in preparation for the return of its regular flights to the Libyan city of Benghazi, besides the operation of some internal special flights. EgyptAir pays special attention to Libya, where many Egyptians reside and work, as well as with the aim of promoting trade and economic ties between both countries. In August 2022, the Libyan News Agency reported the arrival of the first EgyptAir flight to Mitiga airport, located in the capital Tripoli, after an eight-year hiatus.<br/>
Amid the ambitious plan of the Tata-owned Air India to raise its market share substantially to at least 30 per cent in the domestic market, there is a buzz within the aviation industry on the possibility of its merger with Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines. On September 15, Air India unveiled its comprehensive transformation plan, to establish itself, once again, as a world-class global airline. It said over the next five years, it will strive to increase its market share to at least 30% in the domestic market while significantly growing the international routes from the present market share. The plan is aimed at putting Air India on a path to sustained growth, profitability and market leadership. Air India clocked a market share of 8.5% in August while carrying 8.61 lakh passengers. On the other hand, Vistara has maintained its second position in terms of the market share during the last two months July (10.4%) and August (9.7%). Apart from this, Air India has talked about its fleet expansion plan by introducing five widebody and 25 narrowbody aircraft. The airline has also said about getting back its grounded aircraft in service. On the other side, Vistara has 55 aircraft and the number will increase to 60 in the upcoming months. In the winter schedule starting from October end, Vistara will add more flights to Europe as it has planned increasing capacity to Frankfurt and Paris. When asked about the possibility of a merger, an industry insider said there was speculation about the merger particularly after Air India’s announcement of the transformation plan. There will be clarity on this only in the coming months.<br/>
Boeing on Tuesday announced that All Nippon Airways (ANA) will be the launch customer for Insight Accelerator (IA). IA is a new cloud-based digital solution employing artificial intelligence to improve operational efficiency and avoid high-impact service disruptions, the company said. Boeing developed the IA platform based on decades of experience supporting the global fleet and developing rigorous methods while assisting "Airplane-on-Ground" situations, it added. "There are many products on the market for flight data analytics but Insight Accelerator is the most effective tool for our aircraft operation," said Manubu Tono, All Nippon Airways manager of Planning & Administration, Engineering. "It's very innovative, and meets our primary goal of leveraging features in-flight data that indicate a system failure before it happens."<br/>
Air New Zealand said on Wednesday it expects to swing to profit in the first half of fiscal 2023, underpinned by strong recovery in travel demand and forward sales until at least next January. Still, the country’s flagship carrier refrained from providing a comprehensive full-year outlook on a “highly uncertain” second half due to global recessionary headwinds, inflationary pressures, volatility in fuel prices. “The airline notes that fuel prices remain highly volatile and this is one of many factors that have the potential to slow our recovery and significantly impact earnings,” it said. For the first half ending Dec. 31, Air NZ expects earnings before tax in the range of NZ$200 million ($118.00 million) to NZ$275 million, versus a statutory loss before tax of NZ$376 million a year ago. Shares of the carrier were up as much as 7.4% to NZ$0.73, their highest since May 13. The company cautioned investors against “extrapolating first-half FY23 earnings forecast to the full year given the many uncertainties in the trading environment”.<br/>