United Airlines recently announced plans to resume flying from San Francisco to Hong Kong. The route resumption shows the return of vital business demand to the territory and mainland China, once the bedrock for premium demand from the airport. UA877 is a daily flight that leaves San Francisco International Airport to Hong Kong International Airport. It was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions in Hong Kong and China. It’s important to note that the US has a separate aviation agreement with Hong Kong than China due to its status as an independent territory. The resumption of flights was initially planned for early February but was later delayed to March. However, in January, China relaxed restrictions on passengers from the United States, and United Airlines restarted the route. United Airlines said bookings were “stronger than expected” but also commented that it is still early days and that time was needed to see the bigger picture. United Airlines' Director of Greater China, South Korea, and Southeast Asia Sales, Walter Dias, said that on its first flight back last week, the load factor on the Boeing 777 was 97%. That’s almost a full plane. Dias goes on to say that it's a “big milestone for rebuilding Asia-Pacific routes" and that there might be an option in the future for a second flight if demand stays where it is at the moment.<br/>
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A former owner of Portugal's flag carrier TAP, David Neeleman, denied on Friday making a deal in 2015 to overpay for Airbus planes after prosecutors said last month they were investigating the complex leasing deal, as well as suggestions he had bought TAP shares with company money. In an opinion article in the Portuguese newspaper Expresso, the American-Brazilian aviation tycoon wrote that it had been crucial to replace a leasing contract of 12 Airbus A350s with an order for 53 NEO-series aircraft to drag TAP out of near-bankruptcy when he took over. "It is also completely absurd to say that TAP shares were bought with Airbus funds or with TAP's future cash flows," he wrote, adding that TAP exclusively used the $226 million from Airbus in ancillary benefits to pay salaries and for its cash needs. Sources told Reuters last month investigators were looking into Airbus' possible illegal financing of the TAP acquisition, in a new probe into the plane maker's business dealings following a record $4b corruption settlement with French, British and US authorities in 2020. The 2015 deal under investigation dates back to when TAP, now again fully state-owned, had just been privatised, passing control to the Atlantic Gateway venture between Neeleman and Portuguese entrepreneur Humberto Pedrosa. Neeleman said it "was also not true" that TAP acquired the NEO planes above market prices, citing independent assessments carried out at the time, and argued that the airline simply could not afford the larger, less efficient A350s and would have gone bankrupt without the new deal.<br/>
Families of victims of the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX crash gathered on Friday near the headquarters of aircraft manufacturer Boeing to denounce what they called “total impunity” over the loss of life. “There has been no investigation, from a judicial point of view and from a criminal point of view, in the United States for manslaughter,” said Ms Catherine Berthet, who lost her daughter Camille in the accident. Berthet, who is French, joined with other families from as far away as Canada and Germany as they brandished portraits of loved ones and stood in rain in protest outside the imposing headquarters of Boeing in suburban Virginia. “Four years later... this plane is still in the air,” she said. On March 10, 2019, six minutes after takeoff from the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa and bound for Nairobi, Kenya, flight ET302 crashed in a field, killing all 157 passengers and crew. The accident came barely five months after a similar tragedy in which a 737 MAX operated by Lion Air crashed into the Java Sea off Indonesia, killing 189 people. The successive air disasters plunged Boeing into the worst crisis in its history, and forced the grounding of the worldwide MAX fleet for 20 months as investigators probed defects in its flight control software, the MCAS anti-stall system. The aircraft was allowed to fly again in the United States in 2020. “This plane is still dangerous,” Berthet said. “Boeing must be sued for manslaughter... It’s manslaughter and they have to be sued and DOJ has to do its work.” The US Department of Justice entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing that allowed its executives to skirt criminal charges. Instead, Boeing recognized that two employees misled authorities during the certification of the 737 MAX.<br/>
The Athens 2.2 Airline Marketing Workshop, organized annually by Athens International Airport, has named EgyptAir as the ‘fastest recovered airline’ in Africa, ranking amongst the airlines that bounced back the fastest from the coronavirus pandemic. The statement issued by the workshop to select the best airlines with Africa, showed that the results were based on the extent of passenger demand for airlines and their success in continuing to operate flights and the density of passengers. The director of the EgyptAir office in Athens Engy Abdel-Salam received the award from the officials of the Athens International Airport. The Chairman of the EgyptAir Holding Company Yehia Zakaria, said that this achievement comes in light of the efforts of the national company in facing difficult crises and challenges.<br/>
Japan's ANA Holdings is on track to launch low-cost flights to Southeast Asia in its new AirJapan carriers in February 2024. "We plan to first launch flights to Southeast Asia," AirJapan CEO Hideki Mineguchi told reporters on Thursday. He said the flights will serve routes "where there is strong demand" but declined to give concrete information, saying details are to be finalized by this summer. Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia were the top three countries in Southeast Asia to send travelers to Japan in 2019. "We are committed to yielding profit in fiscal 2025," Mineguchi said. The new flights will depart from Narita International Airport near Tokyo. In the long run, the company aims to expand routes and offer flights from Southeast Asia to Kansai International Airport in Japan's Osaka prefecture in the west. "We want to cater to inbound tourism demand ahead of the Expo 2025 Osaka," said Mineguchi. "Our brand targets inbound travelers," he said, adding that the company will focus its marketing activities overseas. The global tourism industry is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. While business travel recovery is still uncertain due to the worldwide shift to working from home, inbound tourism is expected to increase substantially under government initiatives to attract visitors. The Japan National Tourism Organization said around 1.5m tourists visited in January, up over 8,300% from a year earlier, although that figure was still 44% lower than the pre-pandemic level in January 2019.<br/>
Air New Zealand operated several flights with all female crews during this year's Women in Aviation Week (WOAW), which runs March 6 to March 12. The week is described as a global aviation awareness initiative to encourage and inspire more women and girls to pursue careers in aviation. It's held annually in March to mark the anniversary of Raymonde Laroche becoming the first woman to receive a pilot's licence on March 8, 1910. On Wednesday - which also marked International Women's Day - Air NZ flights NZ515 from Auckland to Christchurch and NZ526 from Christchurch to Auckland were operated exclusively with women staff. Among them were Captain Rachael Bartlett and First Officer Penny Armstrong piloting the A320 domestic aircraft. Also on Wednesday, Captain Sarah McIlroy, First Officer Alison Whyte and Second Officer Louise Maihi took the helm of a Dreamliner 787 on flight NZ946 from Auckland to Rarotonga. Captain Nina Connell and First Officer Monique Sims also flew an A320 on flight NZ101 from Auckland to Sydney on the same day. "We're incredibly proud to have such amazing wāhine here at Air NZ, including our incredible team of female pilots, engineers and crew," said Air NZ General Manager Pilots Captain Christine Ody. According to the International Society of Women Airline Pilots women make up 5% of airline pilots worldwide. Air NZ however claims 8% of its pilots are female. Additionally, the airline's chief people officer Nikki Dines said around 18% of its engineering team and 8% of its maintenance crews are women.<br/>