star

United Airlines pilots reached agreement with the company on Saturday on a contract valued at $10b that would increase pay up to 40% over four years. The proposed contract offers another big wage victory for pilots in the United States after a deal with Delta Air Lines was approved in March. The substantial raises are a reflection of a shortage of pilots in the United States and the strong recovery in demand for air travel. In addition to the higher compensation, the agreement provides better job security, work rules, vacation, retirement and other benefits. At a major airline like United, pilots easily earn six-figure salaries. The most senior pilots, who typically fly larger planes on international routes, can earn several hundred thousand dollars a year. In a statement, United, which is based in Chicago, said the deal would help its “United Next” strategy, an expansion plan that includes the purchase of larger planes to increase in the number of seats per flight in North America by almost 30% and the number of premium seats per flight by 75% by 2026. “We promised our world-class pilots the industry-leading contract they deserve, and we’re pleased to have reached an agreement,” Scott Kirby, CE at United Airlines, wrote on the social media network LinkedIn. Union officials said the agreement was the result of four years of negotiations and represented a “landmark” deal in the airline industry as travel demand rises after the steep drop during the height of the pandemic. “The tireless dedication demonstrated by United pilots over the past several years ensured our solidarity, which was instrumental in achieving this historic agreement,” Capt. Garth Thompson, chairman of the Master Executive Council of the United Air Line Pilots Association International, said in a statement. The Air Line Pilots Association, the largest airline pilot union in the world, represents 74,000 pilots at 42 airlines in the United States and Canada, including 16,000 pilots at United Airlines.<br/>

The privatisation process for Portugal's state-owned airline TAP will take months and should only be concluded next year, Finance Minister Fernando Medina said on Friday. The government said on Wednesday the sale process would kick off by October, instead of starting in July as initially planned. Medina said "the government will seek to approve the privatisation as quickly as possible, but it is legally dependent on two independent advisers establishing the airline's value". State holding company Parpublica only hired Ernst & Young and Portugal's Banco Finantia to evaluate it last week. "It is a large-scale transaction according to national and even international standards... the privatisation process will take some months and will not be concluded during 2023," Medina told reporters. The government has said it intends to keep a strategic stake in the state carrier, which is currently being restructured under an EU-approved E3.2b rescue plan. At least three major global carriers - IAG, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM - have so far shown an interest in the airline. TAP carried 7.58m passengers in the first half of this year, a 30% increase from a year ago but still slightly below pre-pandemic levels even as tourist numbers have already exceeded those seen in 2019. The airline reported a net loss of E57.4m in Q1 this year, a drop of more than 50% from the loss in the previous year, thanks to increasing passenger numbers.<br/>

Egypt’s national airline EgyptAir has operated its first direct flight from Cairo to UK’s Manchester, Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry stated on July 15. By operating the Cairo-Manchester route, the total number of EgyptAir’s flights to the UK will hit 20 flights weekly, of which 14 flights to London, five flights to Manchester, and a flight from Luxor to London’s Heathrow Airport. Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Abbas said that this move comes within the national carrier’s keenness to achieve optimal utilization of its air fleet and expand its air network.<br/>

China’s three largest carriers are expected to remain loss-making for the first-half, as they blamed a slower-than-forecast international recovery, coupled with domestic overcapacity. Still, the ‘Big Three’ – comprising Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines – have forecast a narrower net loss in the six months to 30 June, compared to the year-ago period. Their forecasts differ from that of several privately-owned Chinese airlines, some of whom expect to return to profitability during the period. It also stands in stark contrast to other airlines in Asia-Pacific, many of whom are already reporting profits as Covid-19 travel restrictions ease. China only scrapped most of its onerous ‘zero-Covid’ policies late 2022, but international travel has been slow to pick up since then. Air China expects a net loss of between CNY3.2 and 3.9b ($447-545m) for the half-year. This compares to the staggering CNY19.4b loss the Beijing-based airline posted in the year-ago period, and the carrier attributes the narrowing of losses to stricter cost control. Story has more.<br/>

Asiana Airlines canceled one international roundtrip flight Sunday, days after its unionized pilots announced plans to launch a strike next week, officials said. Korea's second-largest air carrier notified passengers of the cancellation of the Incheon-Ho Chi Minh City flight that had been scheduled to depart from Incheon International Airport at 7:35 a.m. and arrive in the Vietnamese city at 11:05 a.m., according to the officials. A total of 125 passengers were about to board the plane before the cancellation. As a result, the return flight, set to take off at 7:25 p.m. from Ho Chi Minh City, was also called off. "We canceled the flights because we couldn't recruit a flight crew due to the pilots' collective action," an Asiana Airlines official said. On Friday, unionized pilots at Asiana Airlines announced that they will go on strike beginning July 24 after failing to reach an agreement with management on a pay increase. At the same time, they have carried out a work-to-rule protest since last month, prompting eight domestic flight cancellations and 54 international and domestic delays so far.<br/>