California and three other states on Friday joined the US Justice Department lawsuit aimed at preventing JetBlue Airways from buying rival discount carrier Spirit Airlines for $3.8b. In addition to California, Maryland, New Jersey, and North Carolina signed on to the lawsuit filed in early March. “We look forward to litigating this important case alongside our state law enforcement partners to stop JetBlue from eliminating its rival, Spirit,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki said. The US Justice Department sued on March 7, seeking to stop the transaction, saying the planned merger “will lead to higher fares and fewer seats, harming millions of consumers on hundreds of routes.” Both airlines declined immediate comment on the new states joining. JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes defended the deal in a Reuters interview this month, saying it would save consumers money and boost available seats. Adding state attorneys general to the lawsuit could mean extra staffing for litigation, and additional expertise regarding potential effects of the deal on particular states. The lawsuit is the latest attempt by the administration of President Joe Biden to push back against further consolidation in industries dominated by a few powerful companies. Separately, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody had resolved a state probe into the deal after the airlines agreed to increase seat capacity by at least 50% in both Fort Lauderdale and Orlando airports if the merger is completed.<br/>
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Southwest has unveiled an “action plan” to prevent another operational meltdown like the one from last December that left 16,700 flights canceled and 2m passengers stranded over the busy holiday travel season. The airline’s plan calls for increasing the availability of winter equipment and staffing at some airports, investing in technology to help it quickly restart operations during extreme weather and improving communication and decision-making processes across departments that handle flight operations. Late last year, a winter storm barreled through the United States and disrupted thousands of flights. Although many airlines were able recover relatively quickly, Southwest Airlines didn’t return to normal operations for several days. Crewmembers were left stranded because they were unable to communicate with their dispatchers and schedulers, and the airlines’ legacy technology could not keep up with the rate of changes. Southwest said in the action plan, published Thursday, that it has “taken many weeks of work to sort through the complexity of contributing factors” and the “root causes and lessons learned are guiding our efforts to make Southwest (LUV) better prepared to handle truly extreme winter weather events as we move forward.” The Dallas-based airline is investing $1.3b on technology projects this year, about 25% more than it spent in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic. Southwest’s meltdown has caught the ire of Congress and its pilot union. The pilots’ union has previously testified that the operation was held together by “duct tape” and that the airlines’ technology failures were predictable and avoidable because the system has failed multiple times “with increasing frequency and magnitude.” The Department of Transportation is also investigating the airline.<br/>
WestJet pilots will vote to authorise a strike on 3 April, a move coming as the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) warns of labour disruption “that could extend into the summer months”. Hundreds of WestJet pilots gathered at the airline’s headquarters in Calgary on 31 March, with ALPA saying flight crews “have grown increasingly impatient with WestJet management, [which] has failed to seriously engage in contract negotiations”. The union plans to disclose the results two weeks after the strike authorisation vote. The pilots’ union is decrying pilot recruitment and retention issues, cost-cutting on wages and WestJet’s alleged “refusing to address concerns over scheduling and poor working conditions”. “Without an industry-standard contract, many WestJet pilots are choosing to leave for better opportunities, leaving a dwindling number of pilots choosing to work here,” says Bernard Lewall, chair of WestJet’s ALPA group. “Those of us here today are fighting for the change that will make our airline a career destination for pilots once again.” Across the airline industry, pilots have been winning significant pay raises amid the pilot shortage and general wage inflation, with US carriers such as Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines recently reaching deals with their pilot groups – and ALPA-represented Delta Air Lines pilots winning $7b in cumulative pay increases over the next four years. Negotiations between ALPA and WestJet’s management are being conducted through the federal conciliation process, which is set to end of 24 April. Without an extension, a mandatory 21-day cooling-off period will begin. <br/>
It was recently named “the UK’s worst airline” by the consumer body Which?, and has been hauled over the coals by the industry regulator. Now Wizz Air is facing criticism over yet another issue. Passengers have contacted Guardian Money after being forced to cough up substantial sums at the airport or face being turned away from their flight after apparently encountering technical problems with the airline’s website that prevented them checking in online as planned. In December, Grace Connolly says she had to hand over GBP170 at Prague airport for her party of four after they were unable to check in online for their return flight to Luton. “I had no issue checking in online on the way out but when returning, there was a technical glitch that wouldn’t allow me to,” she says. “I think the majority of people on our flight had the same problem. I had to pay GBP170 for myself and the three others I was travelling with otherwise we wouldn’t be permitted to fly home. “There were no Wizz Air representatives at the airport and the customer service hotline didn’t even ring when I tried it. I just got immediately cut off, which I’m actually relieved about because, at GBP1.45 a minute, the charge is astronomical.” Guardian Money first reported on this problem last summer and since then we have received a steady stream of similar complaints, with more than 20 since November. Andrey Lenkov says that he, along with at least 20 others, could not check in online for a flight from Warsaw to Paris in October. “On our way back from Poland, where we visited our family that escaped from Ukraine, we tried to check in online,” he says. “Unfortunately, I kept getting a message that the type of aircraft had changed and our seats were no longer available.” In an attempt to overcome the problem, Lenkov resorted to buying new seats on the flight for himself and his wife, Daria, but could not check in for those either. He had to pay the GBP76 fee or they “wouldn’t be allowed on the plane”.<br/>
SIA Engineering has signed a two-year comprehensive services agreement worth close to S$121m ($90.7m) with low-cost operator Scoot. The deal, which commenced on 1 April, covers a “broad spectrum” of services including MRO and fleet management support services, says SIAEC, which did not elaborate further. Scoot also has the option of extending the contract for another year, the MRO provider adds. Scoot and SIAEC are part of the Singapore-based SIA Group, and the low-cost carrier taps on SIAEC for airframe MRO services. According to Cirium fleets data, Scoot has an in-service fleet of 51 aircraft, comprising 17 Airbus A320ceos, six A320neos, nine A321neos, 10 Boeing 787-9s and nine -8s. It also has 25 aircraft on order. <br/>
Philippine Airlines (PAL) swung to an operating profit of $298m in 2022, the first positive operating figure since 2019. The operating figure marks a sharp improvement from 2021, when the carrier suffered an operating loss of $98.1m, says PAL. Revenues for 2022 doubled to $2.6b year on year. Net profits for 2022 came in at $197m, down from $1.2b in 2021, when the carrier enjoyed a $1.44b net gain from its debt restructuring exercise. The carrier adds that it saw strong and rising demand in all four quarters of 2022, mainly as a result of the elimination of travel restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are very grateful for the support of our customers that has enabled us to achieve this positive result amidst a challenging year,” says president and COO Stanley Ng. “Philippine Airlines continues to be on a journey of recovery and renewal, and we will make good use of our resources to improve our services for the benefit of our valued customers. We are even more determined to upgrade our fleet, build more connections to key markets and offer improved products and services.” Load factors rose nearly 30 percentage points to 72% in 2022, as the carrier and its low-cost PAL Express unit flew 9.3m passengers during the year, triple the number flown in 2021. Operating expenses for 2022 came to $2.27b, compared with $1.3b in 2021. PAL attributes this to a greater number of flights and higher fuel prices in 2022. Fuel represented the carrier’s highest cost item. PAL adds that continued to restore its international network in 2022, with flights added to Asia, Australian, Middle Eastern, and North American destinations. As for 2023, the airline has launched a “historic” Manila-Perth service, while restoring routes into China.<br/>