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American Airlines agreed to raise its pilot contract offer by more than a billion dollars to bring it on par with the tentative agreement competitor United Airlines reached with its pilots last week. The total offer reaches about $9b dollars in incremental compensation and benefits, CEO Robert Isom said in a call with pilots Friday. It will include a pay raise for pilots and a ratification bonus. Isom said the United agreement “changed the landscape” and had wages that were higher than Delta’s original negotiations. “The wages and retro pay matched the best in the industry — which, at the time, was Delta,” Isom said. “And the TA includes significant unique quality-of-life provisions critically important to American’s pilots.” Isom said the goal is to reach an August ratification. But in a statement, the Allied Pilots Association board of directors said Isom’s announcement gave an “offer that included the least critical elements prioritized by the Board and was riddled with contingencies that would justifiably fail to pass muster with our members.” They said the offer still lags behind the industry and contains items that have “already been established as the minimum standard for pilots at our peer airlines.” The union said they will have a counterproposal. Last week, United Airlines pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, reached a deal in principle with the airline, giving the pilots up to a 40% raise. The deal has about $10b in value over the life of the contract, the union said, with improvements to “quality of work-life, compensation, job security, work rules, retirement, benefits.”<br/>

Alaska Airlines plans to boost regional air service in the USA’s Pacific Northwest by increasing flight frequencies to three cities and resuming service to another. The Seattle-headquartered carrier said on 20 July that its regional subsidiary Horizon Air would operate twice-daily flights from Seattle to three smaller communities in Washington – Walla Walla, Wenatchee and Yakima – starting in November. Horizon had reduced its flight frequency to the trio of cities to once daily last fall. ”Since the end of the pandemic, the entire airline industry has been affected by unprecedented pilot attrition causing an industry-wide reduction in flying by regional airlines,” Alaska says. “This has forced many airlines to make tough decisions when it comes to flight frequencies in smaller communities.” Also in November, Horizon will resume flights between Portland and Redmond, Oregon, which is on the eastern side of the Cascade Range – though only seasonally. Regional capacity constraints had previously forced the regional carrier from that market, Alaska says. The carrier will fly the route from 29 November to 10 April, “when the roads between Portland and Redmond can be especially tough to travel due to winter weather”, the carrier adds. ”This route has been the top ask from both communities and will be highly impactful to the business population that commutes between the two cities,” says Kevin Lemme, Alaska’s general manager of airline planning and network performance. “We’re excited that we can resume service on a winter-seasonal basis.” After retiring their last De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400s earlier this year, Horizon exclusively operates Embraer 175 regional jets and has 39 of the type currently in service, according to Cirium fleets data.<br/>

Finnair has reiterated its guidance for a stronger-than-expected full-year performance, saying its positive second-quarter results reflect its successful adjustment to the closure of Russian airspace. The Oneworld carrier swung to a comparable operating profit of E66m for the April-June period, from a loss of E84m a year earlier. Revenue of E749m was up 36% year on year but remains short of the 2019 figure of E793m. Still, that quarterly revenue was achieved on capacity 25% down on 2019 levels, reflecting “exceptionally high” passenger yields during the most recent period, Finnair says, as result of strong demand and constrained capacity in the wider industry. It reported a Q2 net profit of E139m, having seen a loss of E280m in the year-ago period. “The strong quarter was driven by continued strong travel demand and successful implementation of Finnair’s strategy,” says Finnair CE Topi Manner. “Looking back, I’m proud of how the entire Finnair team has brought the company out of the pandemic and adapted to Russian airspace closure by defining a new strategy and implementing it successfully.” That strategy has seen Finnair rebalance its network away from a pre-Covid priority of linking Asia with Europe, given the airline’s routings were particularly affected by the closure of Russian airspace to European carriers. It continues to serve Asia – and notes some uplift from the reopening of China at the turn of the year – but capacity to Asian destinations was still only at around 53% of 2019 levels in Q2. Serving Asian markets now brings higher costs due to the longer routings, prompting Finnair to increase its focus on markets such as the North Atlantic and the Middle East. <br/>

A former Russian intelligence officer convicted of downing a Malaysia Airlines commercial flight in 2014 has reportedly been arrested in Moscow, but apparently not for his role in killing 298 air travellers. Igor Girkin, a one-time operative of Moscow’s Federal Security Service (FSB), was detained by Russian authorities on 21 July, according to statements made on the social media platform Telegram by Girkin’s wife. “They took my husband by the arms and took him away in an unknown direction,” Miroslava Reginskaya says in a 21 July Russian-language post on Girkin’s Telegram channel, which he runs under the pseudonym Igor Strelkov. Girkin was one of three men convicted by a Dutch court in 2022 for their involvement in the destruction of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014, which killed all 283 passengers of 15 crew aboard. The Boeing 777 was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was struck by a surface-to-air missile over the Eastern Ukraine region of Donetsk, where Moscow-backed separatists were engaged in combat against government forces from Kyiv, according to investigators. Russia has denied its involvement. The commercial flight is believed to have been targeted in the mistaken belief that it was a Ukrainian military aircraft. Prosecutors said the Buk missile system that destroyed MH17 came from a military base inside Russia. The court ruled that Girkin, who was acting as a battlefield commander for the forces of the self-styled Donetsk People’s Republic, bore “final responsibility for deployment of military resources in and for the DPR”. “Because of his role, [Girkin] is held to be responsible for causing the crash of Flight MH17 and the murders of the 298 persons on board,” the verdict said. Girkin and his two compatriots, who transported the missile system from Russia, were sentenced in abstention and never detained. The Russian military was accused by the Dutch government of attempting to disrupt the court investigation through cyber hacking operations. The former Russian operative has become a prominent critic of the Moscow’s war in Ukraine. The US Department of the Treasury has sanctioned Girkin and confirms his aliases include Igor Strelkov. As recently as 18 July, Girkin lobbed criticism directly at President Vladimir Putin, calling him a “non-entity who managed to throw dust in the eyes of significant part of the population”, in a Telegram post.<br/>

Asia-Pacific carriers continue to build-up their international networks, with Japan Airlines (JAL) planning a pioneering route to the Middle East, and start-up Greater Bay Airlines adding its sixth destination. JAL announced that it will be the first Japanese carrier to operate a nonstop service to the Middle East, with the planned launch of a Tokyo Haneda-Doha service in the summer of 2024. The service will be operated daily with Boeing 787-9 aircraft, and passengers will be able to connect onwards to Africa and other Middle Eastern destinations with fellow Oneworld member Qatar Airways. Fiji Airways also launched an inaugural service on the Nadi-Canberra route, operating twice weekly. “This direct service will provide customers with enhanced connectivity and convenience, offering seamless access to the stunning islands of Fiji and the capital city of Australia,” says Fiji Airways CE Andre Viljoen. “We also open up a new transit point for the people of Canberra to travel onwards to other parts of the world.” The service adds to Fiji Airways’ Australian network, which already includes Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney. Vietnamese low-cost carrier Vietjet has launched its inaugural flight on the Ho Chi Minh City-Tokyo Haneda route, with the service to operate daily. The carrier already serves Tokyo Narita and other Japanese destinations. Vietjet will also increase capacity from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to Indonesia, citing rising demand. From 12 August it will operate 84 weekly services to Indonesia, with an increase of flights to Bali to five times weekly. <br/>