US authorities said they are investigating a near-collision between a Southwest Airlines plane and a Cessna business jet at San Diego airport last week. The NTSB said on Saturday it’s looking into the runway incursion on Aug. 11 which left no injuries or damage. The incident took place when a Cessna 560X was cleared to land on runway 27 and conflicted with a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft which was in a line up on the same runway, it said. The FAA said in June that it would start mandatory monthly safety training sessions for air-traffic controllers across the US after a spike in serious near-collisions. There were eight incidents involving airliners on or near runways in the first two months of the year that ranked by FAA as a serious risk of a collision or that prompted the NTSB to open an investigation. That’s almost double the annual average for the previous five years.<br/>
unaligned
A federal judge has set off a debate among legal scholars by ordering lawyers for Southwest Airlines to undergo “religious-liberty training” by a conservative Christian legal group. Critics say that if the judge believes such training is necessary, he should have found a less polarizing group to conduct it. U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr made the decision after ruling that Southwest was in contempt of court for defying a previous order he issued in a case involving a flight attendant who said she was fired for expressing her opposition to abortion. She sued Southwest and won. Starr, nominated to the bench by former President Donald Trump, said Southwest didn’t understand federal protections for religious freedom. So this week, he ordered three of the airline’s lawyers to undergo religious-liberty training. And he said that the Alliance Defending Freedom, or ADF, “is particularly well-suited” to do the training. The group has gained attention — and high-profile court victories — opposing abortion, defending a baker and a website designer who didn’t want to work on same-sex marriages, and seeking to limit transgender rights. It frequently cites First Amendment rights in its litigation. ADF declined to describe its training or to make a representative available for an interview. In an emailed statement, its chief legal counsel, Jim Campbell, said, “The judge’s order calls for ADF to provide training in religious liberty law — not religious doctrine. It is baseless to suggest that people of faith cannot provide legal instruction if their beliefs differ from their audience’s.”<br/>
Canadian leisure carrier Air Transat looks to gain a greater foothold in Mexico and South America starting in December. “This strategic expansion allows us to diversify our long-haul offering by maximising the use of our [Airbus] A321LR aircraft, and to capitalise on the sustained growth of tourism in South America,” Michele Barre, Transat’s chief revenue officer, said on 11 August. The Montreal-Lima route will fly once weekly from 22 December to 26 April, while the Toronto-Lima flights will be operated twice weekly from 20 December to 24 April. The carrier is also “consolidating our presence in the Mexican market – a key destination of our Caribbean winter programme” by restarting flights from Montreal to Cozumel. Those flights will be operated once weekly from 15 December to 26 April. All three routes will be flown with Transat’s A321LRs, which are configured with 199 seats and have a range of about 7,400km. Cirium fleets data show that the carrier has 13 of the long-range narrowbodies in service. The airline plans to operate up to 19 A321LRs by the end of 2023 as part of a long-term fleet renewal strategy that is “the cornerstone of our growth”, Transat CE Annick Guerard said during the company’s earnings call on 8 June. With the A321LRs, Transat has focused on strengthening its position on niche routes between cities in eastern Canada and western Europe, and now looks to gain a greater foothold in Latin America. ”This programme expansion will create a new gateway to South America… in addition to the flights already offered to Colombia,” Transat says. The carrier’s winter schedule includes flights to Cartagena, Colombia. Transat also has a code-share agreement with Colombia’s Avianca Airlines that connects passengers to Bogota and Medellin. <br/>
US authorities have imposed sanctions against the Belarusian flag-carrier Belavia, as well as a specific aircraft used by the country’s government. Belavia operates the aircraft, a Bombardier Challenger 850 – registered EW-301PJ – which is based on the CRJ200 regional jet. It was originally delivered in 2006 to Canadian private jet specialist Chartright Air but acquired by the Belarusian government in 2010. But the US Office of Foreign Assets Control has also issued a 9 August general licence permitting transactions with Belavia relating to civil aviation safety. The licence states that transactions are authorised up to 8 September, as long as the goods, technology or services provides are for use on aircraft “operated solely for civil aviation purposes”. Belavia has already fallen under European sanctions in the aftermath of the forced diversion of a Ryanair flight to Minsk in May 2021.<br/>
Aer Lingus has been ordered to cease requiring women staff to wear medium or high-heeled shoes when not on board aircraft. Making the direction in a recent ruling, the Labour Court said the dress code requirement amounted to “unfavourable treatment” on grounds of gender. The court ordered Aer Lingus to cease the practice, if it has not already done so, and awarded E6,000 to cabin crew manager Elizabeth Barry, who had appealed against the Workplace Relations Commissions’ (WRC’s) dismissal of her discrimination claim. In a statement to The Irish Times on Sunday, an Aer Lingus spokesman said the airline “notes the decision”. “The company had already changed its policy in relation to footwear prior to the decision,” he added. Barry’s counsel, Leonora Frawley, instructed by KOD Lyons solicitors, argued in the Labour Court that the new Aer Lingus uniform for women cabin crew is less practical and comfortable than the male equivalent and portrays an “outdated image” of women. The uniform for some 3,000 cabin crew and ground staff was created by Irish designer Louise Kennedy and launched in January 2020. Giving the Labour Court’s decision, Louise O’Donnell said Aer Lingus “could offer no basis for requiring female members of staff to wear high/medium heels prior to boarding and when departing the aircraft”. Women staff were provided with flat shoes to wear while on board aircraft, but they needed to carry an up-to-date medical certificate if they wished to wear flat shoes while in uniform off the planes, she said. Given it was accepted there was “no functional basis” for the requirement for heels on land, O’Donnell found it “does unreasonably bear more heavily on female staff and is therefore discriminatory”.<br/>
Middle Eastern budget carrier Air Arabia has turned in a 78% rise in first-half net profit, reaching Dhs801m ($218m), on revenues of more than Dhs2.8b. The Sharjah-based airline disclosed the performance after a strong second quarter during which it made a net profit of Dhs459m – although it states that this included an exceptional one-off benefit from a supplier. Air Arabia attributes the performance to strong travel demand. Over 7.7m passengers flew with the carrier over the first half, from its seven hub airports. “Our steady performance in the first quarter continued to the second quarter underlining the consistency of our growth strategy and operational excellence,” says chairman Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed Al Thani. He says the airline has strengthened its fleet over the six months to 30 June. The airline added three aircraft to its fleet – giving it 71 single-aisle Airbus jets in total including nine A321LRs – and opened 18 new routes. The airline has placed three aircraft with its new carrier in Pakistan and two with its Armenian operator. “Despite a changing macroeconomic and geopolitical environment that we continue to witness, we remain focused on driving profitability and maintaining efficiency across the breadth of our operations, supported by prudent financial and cost control measures,” says Al Thani.<br/>
Aeroflot’s reinstatement of financial disclosures earlier this month has given an insight into its performance in the year-and-a-half since the Ukrainian conflict began, although the picture has been complicated by changes to accounting methods and the effect of currency exchange. Application of the new federal accounting standard – which affects treatment of aircraft leasing, and involves revaluing balance-sheet liabilities based on exchange rates – increases the “volatility” of financial results, the company states. The company turned in a pre-tax loss of Rb102b ($1b) over the six months to 30 June, and a net loss of Rb81.6b, although revenues rose by 48%. But it says this net loss contains a “sizeable” effect from the accounting change, including an negative exchange-rate revaluation of Rb87b – with over Rb32b in June alone – contributing to an overall deterioration in ‘other activities’ expenditure of Rb244b. Aeroflot states that the large first-half net loss amounts to just Rb1.6b if the effect is discounted. The company’s comparable interim figure last year was a loss of Rb38b, and it says this demonstrates an improvement of its financial result despite lower state subsidies for 2023. Aeroflot halted disclosure of financial results in 2022 as the carrier adapted to the fundamental changes in its operations as international sanctions were imposed in the wake of the Ukrainian conflict. <br/>