unaligned

A passenger allegedly struck a Frontier Airlines flight attendant with the intercom phone after being asked to leave the plane early Sunday morning. The female passenger on Frontier Airlines Flight 708 “became belligerent onboard and was asked to deplane,” according to a statement by Frontier. “As she was deplaning, she picked up an intercom phone and struck a flight attendant with it.The Tampa-bound flight from Denver International Airport took off after nearly four hours, according to Flight Aware. Officers with the Denver Police Department arrested her and charged her with assault, according to local Denver news station ABC 7. Police said she was cited, released and booked on a flight home. According to the FAA's Unruly Passenger Statistics, there have been 670 reports to date in 2023. While there were 2,455 reports in 2022, the year 2021 fared the worst, with 5,973 reports.<br/>

Canada’s second-largest airline, WestJet, and its pilots union say they have reached a last-minute deal, averting a strike on Friday before a holiday weekend in the country. A statement from the Air Line Pilots Association says union leaders voted to approve an agreement-in-principle, with a membership vote to begin in the coming days. The airline had grounded the bulk of its fleet Thursday, including for its Swoop subsidiary, parking their 130 planes at airports across Canada and leaving thousands of travelers in limbo across the country. The shutdown affected dozens of routes within Canada and to the U.S. and overseas, while flights at the WestJet Encore regional service and the WestJet-owned Sunwing Airlines were unaffected. Around 1,800 pilots at WestJet and Swoop had been poised to walk off the job early Friday after the ALPA served a strike notice Monday. Bernard Lewall, who heads the union’s WestJet contingent, had said the workers’ issues revolved around pay, job security and scheduling, with pilots earning roughly half of what some of their U.S. counterparts make. In the ALPA statement, Lewall said that union leaders believe the contract “delivers on the goals of better job security, enhanced compensation, and more flexible schedules to allow for a better work/life balance consistent with collective agreements other ALPA-represented pilot groups are signing with their employers.” The WestJet Group said in its own statemen that it’s happy to have reached a tentative agreement that is industry-leading within Canada and recognizes the important contributions of its valued pilots. CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said that the agreement provides “meaningful improvements to job security and scope, working conditions and wages.”<br/>

Algerian flag-carrier Air Algerie has reached an agreement with Boeing to acquire eight 737 Max 9 aircraft. The airline signed an agreement with the US airframer about three weeks after it disclosed that it had provisionally selected the type for its single-aisle fleet renewal. All 737 Max jets are powered by CFM International Leap-1B engines. Air Algerie CE Yacine Benslimane signed the contract with Boeing commercial sales regional director Laura Wolfe-Schulte. Wolf-Schulte says the purchase of the Max 9s is “strengthening a partnership” with the airline, one which has spanned six decades. Air Algerie has also revealed that is taking two Airbus A350-1000s and five A330-900s for long-haul modernisation. It has not indicated when a corresponding agreement for the Airbus aircraft might be reached, and whether it might feature at the Paris air show in June.<br/>

Ryanair CE Michael O’Leary has vowed to push for breakneck growth and win more market share from rivals in Europe, as he presses ahead with a goal to double passenger numbers over the next decade. The airline’s ambitious new target to fly an annual 300mn passenger by 2034 would be more than any airline has yet managed. “I think the thesis that there’s no more growth in Europe, [and that] Europe is completely tapped out, is wrong,” he told the Financial Times. The company bought 300 short-haul aircraft in a $40bn deal with Boeing earlier this month. But some investors and analysts question whether there are enough passengers left to carry in Europe, particularly at a time of rising climate concerns when policymakers are raising carbon taxes on flying. O’Leary agreed the airline’s growth rate would moderate to around 4-5% a year, but said this was enough to hit its forecasts. He said there was still plenty of room to steal market share from rivals in western Europe, as well as stimulate demand in new markets in central and eastern Europe. “As long as we don’t do something stupid — which is a daily challenge in this industry — we will continue to wipe the floor with every other airline in Europe,” he said. Ryanair has been European aviation’s post-pandemic winner, moving into new markets as financially weaker rivals retrenched. The carrier is already the largest in Europe by passenger numbers; it expects to carry a record 168mn passengers in the year to the end of March, 13% higher than before Covid. Alex Irving, an analyst at Bernstein, envisages the airline’s growth inevitably slowing as the industry stabilises following the pandemic. Its home market of western Europe is “essentially fully penetrated”, he said. “Double-digit, and even high single-digit growth rates, were sustainable while it was smaller, but as a near-600 plane airline, it cannot maintain these rates without spoiling yields,” he said.<br/>

Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili said she will not use the services of the privately owned Georgian Airways following the carrier’s decision to resume commercial flights to Russia. “I will refrain from using this airline from now on for as long as this company is in the hands of those people who will do anything for money,” Zourabichvili said in a public address on Saturday. Earlier this week, other Georgian officials welcomed a decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin to restore air transport links between the two countries, even as the US and the European Union urged the government in Tbilisi to observe sanctions imposed on the Kremlin over the invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s first commercial flight in four years landed in Georgia on Friday, spurring anti-Russian protests and stoking concern thawing relations may jeopardize the Caucasian nation’s efforts to join the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A Georgian Airways plane landed in Moscow earlier on Saturday, according to the Tbilisi airport spokeswoman Nino Tsivtsivadze.<br/>

Etihad Airways made significant strides toward sustainability cutting its carbon emissions per revenue ton kilometer by 26% to 482 gram in 2022 from 2019 baseline, the company said in a new report. The airline said its sustainability strategy underscores a strong commitment to environmental stewardship. Among its initiatives, Etihad successfully operated its first net-zero flight using a book-and-claim for purchasing sustainable aviation fuel in partnership with World Energy, a carbon-net-zero solutions provider. The initiative resulted in offsetting 216 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. “Our sustainability strategy is built on a foundation of collaboration, transparency, and innovation, and we will continue to work with our partners, industry peers, and government agencies to drive positive change and lead the way toward a greener future for aviation,” Antonoaldo Neves, CEO at Etihad Aviation Group, said. Furthermore, the airline has already surpassed its reduction targets, which were set in November 2020, of achieving a gCO2/RTK of 574 in 2024. Moreover, Etihad has ambitious plans for the future as it aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. It is also exploring operating flights with sustainable aviation fuel made from CO2 in collaboration with Twelve, a US-based carbon transformation company. <br/>

Eligible employees of budget airline Scoot, a Singapore Airlines (SIA) subsidiary, will receive a performance bonus of 4.76 months plus an ex-gratia bonus of up to 1.5 months. The "record" annual performance bonus "follows the SIA Group’s record profits in FY2022/23”, Scoot said on Saturday (May 20). SIA Group on Tuesday reported a record annual profit of S$2.16b (US$1.63b) for FY2022/23, reversing three straight years of losses. Following the earnings report, SIA said eligible employees could receive around eight months' bonus, comprising a record 6.65 months' profit-sharing bonus and an ex-gratia bonus of 1.5 months. In response to CNA's queries, Scoot said it would similarly award 0.5 months of ex-gratia bonus for each of the last three financial years, or a maximum total of 1.5 months, to eligible employees. Echoing SIA’s statement, Scoot said the bumper bonus was in recognition of employees' "dedication, hard work and sacrifices, as well as the success of the group’s three-year transformation programme that has enhanced its competitiveness and strengthened its foundations for the future”. SIA and Scoot collectively carried 26.5m passengers in the financial year, up six times from a year before. The group’s passenger load factor increased by 55.3 percentage points to 85.4% - the highest in the company's history. SIA achieved a record passenger load factor of 85.8%, while Scoot’s figure stood at 83.9%.<br/>

Vietjet has announced the launch of a new route connecting Hiroshima with Hanoi, making it the first-ever direct service linking Vietnam with Japan’s Hiroshima and the airline’s eighth route between the two countries. Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, on his official visit to Japan and attendance to extended Hiroshima G7 Summit, was joined by high-ranking dignitaries from Vietnam and Japan as well representatives from Hiroshima Prefectural Government at the announcement ceremony. The twice-weekly return service, which will operate on Wednesdays and Sundays, will commence on July 19, 2023. With a flight time of about four hours and 30 minutes per leg, passengers depart Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi at 2.15PM and land in Hiroshima International Airport at 8.45PM. The return leg will depart Hiroshima at 9.45PM and arrive in Hanoi at 12.35PM (all local times).<br/>