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Just ahead of what could be a record-breaking summer travel season, pilots from one of the nation’s biggest airlines marched in picket lines at major airports on Friday as they push for higher pay. The United Airlines pilots have been working without a raise for more than four years while negotiating with airline management over a new contract. The pilots are unlikely to strike anytime soon, however. Federal law makes it very difficult for unions to conduct strikes in the airline industry, and the last walkout at a U.S. carrier was more than a decade ago. The coast-to-coast protests by United pilots come on the heels of overwhelming strike-authorization votes by pilots at American Airlines and Southwest Airlines. United pilots could be the next to vote, according to union officials. Pilots at all three carriers are looking to match or beat the deal that Delta Air Lines reached with its pilots earlier this year, which raised pay rates by 34% over four years. Top scale at United for a captain is $369 an hour on two-aisle planes, called “widebodies,” which are generally used on international flights, and $297 an hour on “narrowbodies” such as Boeing 737s. Airline pilots fly an average of 75 hours per month, according to the Labor Department. United has proposed to match the Delta increase, but that might not be enough for a deal.<br/>

Avianca Holdings, Colombia’s largest airline, said it won’t continue its integration plan with low-cost carrier Viva Air on concern regulations from the nation’s civil aviation authority could affect its stability. The regulations required Avianca to assume commitments, air routes and prices that didn’t correspond to Viva’s real capacities after it suspended operations for two months, Avianca said in a statement Saturday. “Unfortunately, this long process puts Viva, the airline that brought the low-cost model to the country, at imminent risk of disappearing,” Avianca CEO Adrian Neuhauser said in the statement. The civil aviation authority said in March it had approved the integration between the airlines with conditions, including maintaining its low-cost plan. Viva Air said later in a statement that without financial backing “the company does not have the capacity to continue operating.”<br/>

Air Canada broke even in the first quarter, taking advantage of pent-up demand for travel and lower fuel costs as it edges closer to a full recovery from the pandemic. The stock price rose as much as 4.7% to C$22 on the Toronto Stock Exchange Friday morning before falling with the broader market. Canada’s largest airline said operating revenue was C$4.9b ($3.6b), nearly double last year’s first quarter, when Canada still had some Covid restrictions in place. That easily beat analysts’ estimates for C$4.5b, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It was the airline’s second-highest quarterly revenue since Covid hit three years ago, surpassed only by last year’s peak summer travel season. Air Canada said it expects to increase capacity 23% this year, bringing its flight schedule to about 90% of 2019 levels. The Canadian airline is following the path of some of its US counterparts in reporting persistently strong demand from travelers. Last month, American Airlines Group Inc. and United Airlines Holdings Inc. both said second-quarter profit may exceed Wall Street projections because of robust bookings for overseas flights. “Our first quarter financial results exceeded both internal and external expectations and we expect demand to persist, supported by strong advance bookings for the remainder of the year,” Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau said in a news release. Advanced ticket sales reached C$5.3b in the quarter, up C$1.2b since December 31, 2022. Its planes are also very full: the airline reported a load factor — a measure of available seats filled by passengers — of almost 85% in the quarter. That compares with 66% a year earlier and is higher than pre-pandemic levels. On the bottom line, Air Canada earned C$4m; it posted a small operating loss of C$17m. The airline’s share price is up 8% this year, but has lagged US peers since the beginning of 2020. Canada kept Covid restrictions in place longer than the US. <br/>

Polish state-owned airline PLL LOT is investigating an incident involving a drone at Warsaw’s Chopin airport, the PAP news agency reported on Sunday, citing an airline spokesman. An aerial drone was seen flying within 30 metres of a LOT Embraer plane from Poznan as it made its landing approach on Saturday, the news website TVN24 said, citing a control tower recording. “The incident took place on Saturday afternoon. According to the procedure, the pilots prepared a report. At the moment, the case is being investigated by the incident investigation committee at PLL LOT,” the LOT spokesman told PAP. “Every such incident is dangerous. Fortunately, nothing happened this time.” According to the pilots’ report, the unidentified drone was about three metres long, the spokesman added.<br/>

Investors with interests related to South African operator Lift have agreed to divest their involvement in the Takatso consortium that is to take a controlling interest in South African Airways, clearing a path for competition authorities to approve the deal. South Africa’s Competition Commission says it is recommending the country’s Competition Tribunal clear Takatso Aviation’s merger with SAA, under which it will acquire a 51% stake in the airline from the government. Takatso first emerged as the potential investor in SAA during the airline's formal financial restructuring, a deal which paved the way for SAA to resume operations in September 2021. The competition body subsequently opened a probe into the merger after it received notification of the deal in June last year. The Takatso consortium is majority-led by asset management firm Harith General Partners. While Harith holds an investment in Lanseria airport, the competition body considered this is unlikely to have a significant impact because of investments to develop Lanseria airport and the availability of Johannesburg airport as an alternative. However it did identify issues relating to the consortium’s minority shareholders, Global Aviation and Syranix, which are involved in Lift. Aircraft lessor Global Aviation owns the airline while Syranix co-owns the Lift trademark and provides management service to airlines. "The Commission found that the merger is likely to result in a substantial lessening and prevention of competition in the domestic passenger airlines market,” says the regulator. "That is because the merger will likely facilitate the exchange of competitively-sensitive information between SAA and Lift, through Global Aviation and Syranix having shareholding and the ability to appoint directors to Takatso’s board of directors. Takatso will have access to SAA’s competitively sensitive information by virtue of its majority stake in SAA, pursuant to the proposed merger.<br/>

Korean Air Lines expects EU antitrust regulators to issue a formal warning about its bid for Asiana Airlines by the end of May, South Korea's biggest carrier said on Friday, raising yet another hurdle for a major deal in the aviation industry. The deal announced in late 2020 in which Korean Air would become the biggest shareholder in indebted Asiana is the biggest shake-up in the country's aviation industry in nearly three decades. The European Commission in February opened a full-scale investigation into the acquisition on concerns that it could reduce competition in passenger transport services on four routes between South Korea and Europe. Sources have told Reuters the four routes are to Barcelona, Frankfurt, Paris and Rome. "The European Commission (EC) has not made any official announcement about its issuance of a statement of objections (SO)," a Korean Air spokesperson told Reuters in an email. "However, the issuance of an SO is a common practice in a Phase 2 merger review, and discussions with the EC will continue. We expect that the EC will issue an SO at the end of May." Such a document or charge sheet allows the EU competition enforcer to set out potential anti-competitive issues arising from the deal. The Commission, which has set an Aug. 3 deadline for its decision, declined to comment. Companies can ask for a closed hearing on receipt of a statement of objections before offering remedies.<br/>

Air India continued has continued to flesh out its international network, with the addition of a non-stop service between Delhi and Amsterdam, while Air New Zealand highlights rebounding international capacity. The flight will operate four-times-weekly with Boeing 787-8s with services commencing on 11 June, bringing Air India’s European network to eight destinations. “With the launch of this new non-stop flight to Amsterdam, Air India adds further breadth to our long-haul network and more options for our customers,” says Air India CE Campbell Wilson. “Together with the three other European routes started in recent months, and others to come, it supports our objective of establishing Delhi as a significant international hub.” Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo has also announced a European move, placing its code on Turkish Airlines’ service to Edinburgh from 8 May. The addition of Scotland’s capital brings IndiGo’s European codeshares on Turkish to 33. Asia-Pacific carriers have also worked to boost capacity. Garuda Indonesia announced that from 17 May it will commence a twice weekly service on the Jakarta-Shanghai route with Airbus A330-300s, adding to the Jakarta-Guangzhou service started in February. Garuda president director general Irfan Setiaputra said that China is a key market, with 253,000 Chinese tourists expected to visit Indonesia in 2023. In a company update, Air NZ CE Greg Foran says the carrier’s North American capacity is nearly back to pre-Covid levels. He adds that the carrier’s Auckland-New York route has performed well since its launch in September 2022. Later this year, Air NZ and partner United Airlines will launch San Francisco-Christchurch and Los Angeles-Auckland services. Air NZ adds that its Asia network has already 17% above pre-Covid levels. Singapore is a key hub, with onward connections to India and Europe. Auckland International Airport has observed a sharp rebound in Chinese tourism to New Zealand. Scott Tasker, the airport’s chief customer officer, observes that while Chinese still travel in large tour groups, there are signs that Chinese visitors are now travelling more independently. Overall seat capacity between China and New Zealand is now at 79% of pre-pandemic levels. “We’ve now got Air New Zealand and China Eastern operating daily into Shanghai and China Southern flying daily into Guangzhou, with Air China just last week restarting its link with Beijing four times a week,” says Tasker.<br/>

Thai Airways is expected to earn at least 130b baht in revenue this year after its net profit in Q1 reached 12.5b baht. THAI CEO Chai Eamsiri said on Friday the airline is expected to finish its financial rehabilitation in 2025 as planned. He said the national carrier earned 41.5b baht of revenue in Q1 -- 271.2% more than the income of 11.1b baht in the same period last year due to increased commercial flights. He added that flights to some popular tourist attractions, such as Japan and Korea, increased in the last quarter, with flights to China returning on March 1. The better earnings gave the carrier 42.2b baht of cash flow, up from 5.7b baht last year. Chai said the carrier would pay the first amount of debt, costing at least 8b baht, to their investors in mid-2024 and will pay its 140b baht total debt in ten years as planned. Regarding Q2 this year, Chai said he expected more than 100% growth compared to last year. However, due to the country entering the low season for tourism, the passenger load rate is expected to be approximately 77%, and earnings are also expected to be lower than Q1, he said. Chai added that the airline would be raising employee salaries by 5% starting this month.<br/>