United said Wednesday it is working to resume flights to Cuba later this year that it suspended in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The airline said it has been working for months to relaunch service but faces hurdles. It asked the USDOT for a waiver for 30 additional days as it works to resume service. United previously flew seven flights weekly to Havana from its Houston and Newark hubs. United said it needs to "undertake significant work including re-negotiating multiple contracts with service providers that have lapsed, building out necessary infrastructure in Terminal 3 at Havana’s airport where United is being relocated." United said given the challenges it is concerned it cannot resume flights by an Oct. 31 USDOT deadline. On Monday, the Biden administration agreed to expand US flights to Havana, adding 13 weekly American Airlines departures from Miami and a weekly JetBlue Airways departure from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. That is on top of the typical six daily American Airlines flights and three JetBlue flights weekdays to Havana from the Florida airports.<br/>
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United faces potential disruption in one of its most lucrative overseas markets as 300 workers at London’s Heathrow airport begin voting in a strike ballot over pay. The poll of staff employed in operations, customer services and baggage handling will run until Oct. 11, the Unite union said Wednesday. United’s UK employees are in dispute with the US company over what Unite called real-terms pay cuts amid a cost-of-living crisis. It said the carrier has offered a raise of 5% this year plus an additional payment, followed by 4% in 2023, at a time when inflation is running well ahead of those figures. “To make matters worse, bosses want to tear up a long-standing agreement barring the use of outsourced workers,” Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said. “These are red lines the workers won’t cross.” The union said disruption at United would threaten as many as 18 flights a day into Heathrow, the leading destination for US carriers in a trans-Atlantic market that’s rebounded faster from the Covid crisis than most other long-haul sectors. A UK spokeswoman for United didn’t immediately comment. <br/>
Turkish Airlines is severely constrained in its growth ambitions by the lack of available narrow- and widebody next-generation aircraft and could add as many as 70 new aircraft in 2023, Chairman Ahmet Bolat told aviation journalist Kurt Hofmann. "I’m planning to open new routes, but missing widebodies. If I can find them right now, we could easily buy 20 more next-generation widebody aircraft - B787s or A350s - ready to come in 2023," Bolat said. The carrier had hoped that once the FAA had recertified B787 production, deliveries of the carrier's ten remaining firm-ordered B787-9s (of which eight are already built) would have progressed smoothly. Bolat said that this hope had proven misplaced, and "nobody knows when Boeing delivers[sic] our B787s". The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows that Turkish Airlines currently operates fifteen B787-9s. To compensate for the B787s' absence, the airline scooped six A350-900s originally assigned for Aeroflot earlier this year. Four of them have already been delivered, with the other two due to follow by year-end. In addition to these aircraft and eleven A350-900s already in Turkish Airlines' fleet, the carrier has a further 13 on order from Airbus.<br/>
Tata Sons may be looking to consolidate its airline business. The 150-year-old group is bringing its multiple airlines—Air Asia and Vistara—under Air India, a company it launched decades ago and was later nationalised. Last year, Tata Sons re-acquired Air India from the Indian government. The merger is still being planned, The Indian Express reported today. “Consolidation process is likely to start with the merger of AirAsia India into Air India Express, to be completed over the next 12 months,” it said quoting unnamed sources. The Tata group has 17 publicly listed companies involved in businesses ranging from salt-making to retail to car-making. Its airline portfolio includes 83.67% ownership in AirAsia India and a majority 51% holding in Vistara. Now, the Tatas reportedly plan to buy out Malaysia-based AirAsia Berhad’s entire 16.33% stake in AirAsia India for $30m. Singapore Airlines own a 49% share in Vistara. Following consolidation, the Tata group will become India’s largest and one of its strongest airlines. But that may not come easy. “Issues like cabin crew dress, branding (likely to be called Air India Express or something similar) are still being discussed at various levels. There are complexities since both airlines are different in terms of service, crew attire, etc,” the Indian Express quoted a source as saying. Air India’s new CEO Campbell Wilson has outlined a five-year roadmap to re-establish it as a world-class airline with a domestic market share of 30%.<br/>