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United Airlines on Thursday said it was giving pilots 5% raises that were part of a pandemic cost-reduction agreement months ahead of schedule, citing the carrier’s return to profitability and upbeat outlook. United is offering the raises during talks for a new contract with its pilots union. Talks have been difficult at United and other carriers. In 2020, the Chicago-based carrier and the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents United’s more than 13,000 pilots, agreed to offer aviators a round of buyouts as the company scrambled to reduce costs during the industry’s worst-ever crisis. In exchange, the company said it would raise its pilots’ hourly pay by 5% once the airline returned to a pretax margin at or above 5% for 12 months. They also agreed to job and pay protections. United reported a pretax margin of 9% in the last quarter. While the airline has still lost money in the first nine months of the year, it expects a profitable end to 2022. The company could have waited until May 2023 to pay the raises, Bryan Quigley, senior vice president of flight operations at United wrote to pilots on Thursday. The raises will take effect during the December bid month. “This is a show of good faith and a down payment on a market-based, industry leading labor agreement,” Quigley wrote. “It’s also recognition of the role that you played in helping United survive the pandemic and recover so much stronger.”<br/>

Archer Aviation and United Airlines intend to launch their first airport-to-downtown urban air mobility (UAM) route in the New York City metropolitan area from 2025. Silicon Valley-based electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) developer Archer said on 10 November that the route, to be operated by its new four-seat production aircraft “Midnight”, will connect Newark’s Liberty International airport in New Jersey to Downtown Manhattan Heliport, located at the southern tip of Manhattan near the city’s financial centre. The flight, covering a distance of about 7nm (12.6km), will take “less than 10 minutes”, Archer says. “We’re excited to be confirming New York as the first of many routes we’ll be announcing alongside United as we work to build out our national UAM network,” Archer CE Adam Goldstein says. “The goal of Archer’s electric air taxi network is to provide passengers with safe, quick, quiet and cost-effective transportation to and from [Newark],” Archer adds. Archer is due to unveil its Midnight air taxi next week in California. The company has said it will also disclose details about its commercialisation strategy and Federal Aviation Administration certification plan. The unveiling, originally expected for next year, follows a successful preliminary design review of the four-passenger aircraft. Archer claims Midnight – for which United has already made pre-delivery payments of $10 million for 100 airframes – will be able to carry around 450kg (1,000lb) of payload and be charged in 10min.<br/>

Europeans, in fact travelers from all over the world, are taking Greek vacations. That was overwhelmingly clear in the Aegean Airlines summer results. The Athens-based carrier generated an impressive 28.8% operating margin in Q3, more than 3 points higher than in 2019. And Aegean’s results were second only to European budget giant Ryanair, which posted a 35% margin during the a red-hot summer travel months of July, August, and September. The Greek airline reported a E121m net profit in the period. Why was Aegean on fire? Greek beaches, obviously. Since the pandemic recovery began in 2020, leisure travelers have shown an overwhelming preference for outdoor destinations, be they beaches or mountains. This has turned some airports in otherwise sleepy locales before the crisis into travel boomtowns during the recovery. In Greece, airports serving beach spots, like Chania, Corfu, and Santorini, saw 30-percent plus increases in seats during the first nine months of the year compared to 2019, according to Diio by Cirium schedules. And travelers are filling many of those additional seats. The number of international visitors arriving in Greece by plane was up 4% to 3.1m in September compared to 2019, according to data from the Greek Tourism Confederation. International arrivée numbers were flat at 18.5 million for the first nine months of 2022 — an impressive result given numbers were down by more than half in January.<br/>

Rumeysa Gelgi, the world's tallest living woman, recently boarded an airplane from her home country of Turkey to San Francisco. However, it wasn't just any flight. It was Gelgi's first, and one that highlighted a growing attention to accessibility. Gelgi, 25, stands at 7 feet, 0.7 inches tall. Her proportions are a result of Weaver syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes bone overgrowth. She has been a Guinness World Record celebrity since her teens, and holds records in several size-related categories, including the longest fingers on a living person and the longest back on a living female person. Gelgi regularly travels to share her story, and uses her warm wit to spread body positivity on social media. However, despite her international profile, she had never flown on an airplane before. Like many people with Weaver syndrome, Gelgi uses mobility aids to get around, and a long flight would require special accommodation for her extraordinary frame. But in September, Gelgi finally took to the skies. In an Instagram post a few weeks later, she shared photos from her trip aboard Turkish Airlines, which was made possible after the airlines removed several seats on the plane so Gelgi could rest comfortably on a stretcher during the 13-hour journey from Istanbul to California. "A flawless journey from start to finish," Gelgi said on Instagram, praising Turkish Airlines staff and medical personnel for their work. Gelgi said that although it was her first plane ride, "it certainly won't be my last."<br/>

Thai Airways International PCL expects to name a new permanent CEO as early as January 2023 as it proceeds with a pandemic-driven restructuring plan, the airline's acting chief executive said on Friday. "There were nearly 50 applicants," acting CEO Suvadhana Sibunruang told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry gathering in Bangkok, saying a decision would be made early next year. Interviews are expected to begin soon, with candidates from the public and private sectors both being assessed, Suvadhana said. The airline, which has had acting CEOs since 2020, opened applications for the top job in September. Candidates were required to be Thai nationals in line with government regulations. Thai Airways entered bankruptcy protection last year to restructure 400b baht ($11.1b) in debt and has shed around half of its workforce and aircraft fleet. The airline on Friday reported a third-quarter loss of 4.79b baht, down from a 40b baht profit the prior year that included a large one-off gain from the restructuring plan.<br/>

Kiwis will be taking to the skies above Aotearoa at pre-Covid levels over the summer holiday period. Air New Zealand chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty said December 23 was shaping up to be the airline’s busiest day for domestic travel, with more than 32,000 customers booked to travel at this stage – 1000 more than the same time last year. December 15 and 16 were also expected to be some of the biggest days for travelling, as many Kiwis looked set to start their Christmas holidays a week early. Some Air New Zealand passengers can look forward to flying on the new A321neo aircraft, the airline’s biggest-ever jet dedicated to domestic flying, with 217 seats. The first entered service this week, while the second – which will be the world’s first black Star Alliance aircraft – will arrive on November 22. These snazzy new jets will be used on trunk routes, that is between Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown and in some cases, Dunedin. As Geraghty explained, they’ll be put into the schedule where they’re “needed the most”. The usual domestic jets – the A320s, with 171 seats – will also be in action on the trunk routes. If you’re travelling to the regions, you’ll be flying on one of the airline’s turboprop planes. These are the 68-seat ATR72, and the 50-seat De Havilland Q300. Story has more.<br/>