Cabin crew at Portugal's TAP [RIC:RIC:TAPA.UL] airline have called off a strike that would have forced the cancellation of 1,316 flights between Jan. 25-31 after reaching an agreement with the airline, the SNPVAC union said on Monday. "There was an agreement but there is still a lot of dissatisfaction," union president Ricardo Penarroias told reporters after a general assembly. The union had called the seven-day walkout to demand higher wages and better working conditions. Penarroias said TAP met 12 and a half of the union's 14 demands. According to him the airline failed to improve job contracts he described as "precarious" and did not add an additional crew member on long-haul flights. "Problems did not disappear just because there was an agreement ... at the slightest slip we will return to the fight," Penarroias said. TAP did not immediately react to the union's decision to call off the strike. TAP said on Thursday that as a result of the strike they would have to cancel 1,316 flights, affecting nearly 160,000 passengers and costing them about E48m in revenue. The state-owned airline is under an EU-approved E3.2b bailout plan, which included the reduction of its fleet, the cutting of more than 2,900 jobs and lowering most workers' wages by up to 25%.<br/>
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A legal battle over Boeing’s 2021 settlement of 737 Max-related fraud charges continues playing out in US court, with two European airlines accusing Boeing of failing to abide by the deal. LOT Polish Airlines and Czech carrier Smartwings are arguing that Boeing has not rightly reimbursed them hundreds of millions of dollars in damages stemming from the 737 Max’s 20-month grounding. LOT has also asked the judge to reopen Boeing’s settlement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ). An attorney for crash victims’ beneficiaries has made a similar request. “Boeing has an obligation to fairly pay out $1.77b to Smartwings and other airlines, appears not to be doing so and refuses to disclose anything about its handling of the agreed payments,” Prague-based Smartwings said earlier this month in a filing with US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Boeing in 2021 reached a “Deferred Prosecution Agreement” with the DOJ, settling criminal charges that it defrauded the FAA as part of the 737 Max certification. In exchange for prosecution immunity, Boeing agreed to pay $1.77b to customers for grounding-related damages, $500m to crash victims’ beneficiaries and $244m in criminal penalties. Smartwings and LOT began challenging the settlement late last year. Those challenges remain ongoing. “Boeing has been extremely secretive about the airline fund, and the few details that have leaked out have suggested that Boeing is not administering it fairly,” Smartwings wrote in November 2022 court filings. It said some airlines may have received “outsized settlements, while others like Smartwings receive nothing”. Smartwings said Boeing owed it “hundreds of millions of dollars” in grounding-related damages. LOT asked the judge to reopen Boeing’s settlement for possible revision on grounds Boeing violated the agreement for failing to reimburse LOT. The airline has pegged its damages at $250m or more. LOT and Smartwings also fault the DOJ for giving Boeing “near total discretion” over customer reimbursements. They have asked the court for oversight and an accounting. <br/>
Air New Zealand is increasing its flights between Auckland and Shanghai, following the reopening of China’s borders earlier this month. The airline will offer four passenger services a week from February 4, all operated on the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. The airline currently offers three flights a week, having added a service in early January. The extra flight would take the weekly capacity to 1200 seats, said Air New Zealand chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty. The airline had seen many customers booking Shanghai flights to be with family and friends for Chinese New Year, after nearly three years of Covid-19 restrictions. “This will be the first Lunar New Year that Chinese living in Aotearoa can be reunited with their families for this special holiday,” Geraghty said. “We’re seeing very strong demand across January for our flights into China. Most flights are full or close to full.”<br/>