Spirit Airlines on Thursday said it will partner with Liberty University, the 10th school that it’s working with, to help beef up a pilot training pipeline as the industry continues to face a shortfall of aviators. The program will allow students pursuing aviation degrees at the university’s School of Aeronautics in Lynchburg, Virginia, to apply to the company’s pipeline program after completing their sophomore year. Prospective trainees will need a recommendation from a faculty member before being eligible to begin the program. Students working toward an aviation degree can get conditional job offers as they finish their studies and work on accruing flight hours. They must then complete airline pilot training programs, joining as first officers. “We put a lot of hard work into developing the Spirit Wings Pilot Pathway Program and assembling a great group of partners making it incredibly rewarding to reach this key milestone,” said Ryan Rodosta, senior director of flight operations and system chief pilot at Spirit. Other carriers have also sought to increase their supply of new pilots. US commercial airline pilots can only fly until age 65 under US law. A surge in retirements and buyouts during the Covid-19 pandemic have exacerbated a shortfall, particularly at regional carriers. JetBlue announced last month that its Gateway Rotor Transition Program will teach US-military trained helicopter pilots to transition to airline pilots. More than 10% of JetBlue’s new pilot hires in 2023 are expected to come from one of its Gateway programs, JetBlue said at the time. In February 2020, United Airlines purchased a flight academy in an effort to hire more than 10,000 new pilots within the decade.<br/>
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It's been a challenge to attract and keep pilots who want to work in northern Ontario, according to the president and CEO of Perimeter Aviation, which owns Bearskin Airlines. The small carrier has been caught up in a national pilot shortage, and has to compete with larger carriers like Air Canada and Westjet – not to mention major US carriers – to attract pilots. "COVID seems to have caused a lot of the older pilots to leave the industry and what that has done is brought up pilots a little bit earlier into the major airlines than we've typically seen in the past," said Perimeter Aviation president and CEO Joey Petrisor. John Gradek, a lecturer and co-ordinator with the Aviation Management program at McGill University, said new pilots have traditionally started their careers with small regional airlines that service northern communities. As they gain experience they eventually move on to larger airlines – and aircraft – where the pay is better. But Gradek said the COVID-19 pandemic has led to thousands of pilots retiring early out of frustration with the challenges the air travel industry has faced. "We're short today, somewhere around 5,000 pilots to fill the roles that we need to have filled in Canadian aviation," he said. That pilot shortage has meant new flight school graduates can land jobs with larger carriers earlier in their careers, Gradek said.<br/>
Norway's competition watchdog has extended its review of Norwegian Air's bid for domestic rival Wideroe by two months, it said on Friday. "There may be reason to fear that the acquisition is negative for Norwegian air passengers," said Katrine Amdam, project manager at the authority. Norwegian Air expects a positive outcome from the review, CE Geir Karlsen said in a statement. The authority now has until Nov. 17 to present its preliminary view on whether the deal is likely to impede effective competition, with a final deadline of Jan. 3. The deal announced on July 6 is valued at $1.13b Norwegian crowns ($105m) subject to final adjustments and Norwegian has said it hopes to close the transaction by the end of the year. The two airlines together operate 107 routes in Norway, five of which overlap, Norwegian has said.<br/>
British Airways is yet to determine whether its fledgling BA Euroflyer operation at London Gatwick is meeting the expectations laid down before its launch, as the carrier looks to expand the fleet to 22 aircraft next summer. The flag-carrier commenced Euroflyer services in March last year and CE Tom Stoddart says the initial plan set out a 28-aircraft fleet for Gatwick. “We have to prove the concept works to grow to that,” he said during an event in central London on 12 September. “The reality is we’re one-and-a-half summers into Euroflyer.” He says the company needs a “full year of operations” to demonstrate its success. BA established Euroflyer – which uses Airbus single-aisle jets and, since last December, has held its own air operator’s certificate – in an effort to lower the cost base of its Gatwick flights. Stoddart says BA has “never really made money” on its short-haul services from Gatwick and, during the pandemic, the carrier consolidated its operations at London Heathrow. But the airline believes Gatwick is important, and Stoddart argues that there is “clearly demand for a full-service carrier” at the airport. “There’s not anything low-cost about Euroflyer,” he insists. “The real difference is how we handle the costs.” He says the market is “very seasonal”, and Euroflyer is intended to address that seasonality by “flying hard in the summer, not so hard in the winter”. The rationale behind Euroflyer is “the ability to react to a competitive market, not reducing the customer proposition”, he adds. While IAG-owned BA uses its own crewing system, that for Euroflyer has more in common with that of IAG budget operators Vueling and Iberia Express. Stoddart does not envision any specific collaboration with other budget airlines at Gatwick, and dismisses recent suggestions circulating on social media of a tie-up with Jet2. “Jet2’s not buying us,” he states. Euroflyer’s initiatives include operating the first flight exclusively made up of ‘reward seats’ from BA’s Avios loyalty programme. The service will operate from Gatwick to Sharm el-Sheikh in November.<br/>
A family is locked in dispute with Ryanair after being charged £165 to check in at the airport and being told by the airline that they had "unchecked themselves". Damian Lloyd had checked in his family a month in advance, and brought the printed boarding passes to the airport. But the barcodes would not scan so the family had to pay to check in again. Lloyd tried to reclaim the money but Ryanair said they had unchecked before flying, so the fee was justified. After several weeks of email exchanges, the airline has now referred Lloyd to a dispute resolution service. Health and safety manager Lloyd had booked a 10-day family holiday to Gran Canaria in July. The 50-year-old from Neath is a regular flyer and says he has never had a problem with Ryanair's extra fees before - he had happily paid to reserve seats - so was "in total shock" when his, his wife's and his daughter's boarding passes did not scan. A Ryanair employee at the check-in desk was equally confused. "He looked on the computer, and our names and seat numbers came up. But for some reason [the boarding passes] weren't scanning. He didn't know why," Lloyd told the BBC. As it was an early morning flight, the employee could not phone Ryanair's customer service to investigate the problem as it was not yet open. Passengers are not allowed to board a Ryanair plane unless their boarding passes are scanned, so the family was given a choice - either wait for customer service to open and miss their flights, or pay for new passes. As the next flights were three days away, Lloyd decided to pay up.<br/>
Aer Lingus has been caught up in a multi-billion dollar legal dispute relating to the method used to allocate airport slots at major US airports. The national flag carrier is named as one of more than 80 defendants in a civil action which centres on alleged anti-competitive practices in the allocation of lucrative slots to airlines. Slots are permissions granted for an airline to land or take off on a particular day and within a specific time frame. They are allocated by airport operators under guidelines set down by the IATA, a trade association of the world’s airlines. The action has been filed by the CE of Exhaustless Inc, a US company which has developed an algorithm-based product designed to reduce flight delays and congestion at commercial airports. The company claims its technology has been boycotted as part of an alleged air carrier cartel conspiracy to restrain trade. Among other things, the lawsuit seeks to restrict dozens of airlines, including Aer Lingus, from participating in alliance agreements.<br/>
The United Arab Emirates’ two home-grown short-haul airlines have come a long way since their foundation – 15 and 20 years ago, respectively – as supposedly low-cost upstarts. Both are following their own growth strategies as they bounce back strongly from the Covid-19 downturn, expand their route maps, and edge towards three-figure fleet sizes. Flydubai, founded in 2008, may have once described itself as a low-cost airline, but with its plush headquarters on Dubai’s developing eastern outskirts, freshly minted code share agreements with two leading North American operators, and an improved business class product destined for its Boeing 737 Max and NG fleet, there is little no-frills about Emirates’ independent sibling. CE Ghaith Al Ghaith recalls when his boss Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum – who chairs Flydubai and Emirates – was asked at its unveiling if Flydubai would be a low-cost carrier. “His Highness’s response was: ‘It will be Flydubai’.” Al Ghaith insists that uniqueness holds true today. Flydubai was not modelled on any airline and remains “completely distinct” from Emirates, he says. Al Ghaith describes Flydubai’s mission as “connecting Dubai to places it was not connected to”, complementing the all-widebody offering of Emirates, which Flydubai code shares with on about 30 routes. Flydubai serves around 120 destinations – including 20 introduced this year – about three-quarters of which do not overlap with Emirates. Just 25km away from Flydubai’s Dubai International hub, Sharjah’s Air Arabia has adopted a different expansion path since its foundation in 2003. A core part of the all-Airbus A320 family operator’s philosophy has been establishing joint ventures with local partners in Armenia, Pakistan, and the UAE emirate of Abu Dhabi, where it partners with Etihad. It also has offshoots in Egypt and Morocco. CE Adel Ali too is reluctant to describe the carrier as low-cost, despite its single-cabin product. “My belief is that the term low-cost carrier is about how you manage cost and not about the customer experience. The customer needs to be satisfied and feel that they have had value for money,” he says. Story has more.<br/>
Pakistan's national flag carrier admitted Friday it was struggling to pay bills and wages after local media reports said the fleet may be grounded within days. Abdullah Hafeez, spokesman for government-owned Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), said the company was seeking urgent financial help from the treasury, but had secured funds "for the time being". "But we do struggle due to balance sheet challenges," he said. "That is why PIA is seeking balance sheet restructuring support from the owners." Decades of mismanagement and instability have hobbled Pakistan's economy, and this year Islamabad was forced into a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avert default. State-run enterprises in particular -- long accused of being bloated and poorly run -- have found funds drying up as the government struggles with a balance of payments crisis caused by crippling debt repayments. Hafeez said three flights were grounded Thursday and that salaries had been paid late. Twenty-five aircraft from a fleet of 31 were still flying, with the others grounded for scheduled or unscheduled maintenance, he said. Local television channel Geo news this week reported that the airline was on the verge of collapse and flight operations could be suspended in days if emergency funds were not provided. PIA came into being in 1955 when the government nationalised a loss-making commercial airline, and enjoyed rapid growth until the 1990s. The liberalisation of the market and launch of several private and publicly owned airlines put enormous pressure on PIA, resulting in years of lossmaking.<br/>
Thirteen-month-old Akasa has sued over 40 pilots who resigned from it to join other airlines in the past couple of months. The virtual exodus has forced the airline, which started flying last August, to cancel several flights since last month. As a result, its August 2023 domestic market share had slipped behind that of cash-strapped SpiceJet which it had overtaken in June. Akasa is learnt to have sought about Rs 22 crore as compensation towards loss of revenue and reputation from the 43 pilots who it claims left without serving the mandatory notice period. An Akasa Air spokesperson said the airline has "sought legal remedy only against a small set of pilots who abandoned their duties and left without serving their mandatory contractual notice period.... Not only is this illegal in law but also an unethical and selfish act that disrupted flights in August forcing last minute cancellations that stranded thousands of customers causing significant inconvenience to the travelling public."Citing breach of training agreement, the “particulars of claim” in a notice served to one of the pilots reads: “Loss of operational profits on account of business disruption caused… (by) cancellation, rescheduling and grounding of flights… loss of reputation…” Apart from moving court, the airline has also written to aviation authorities on the issue. Akasa has reached a fleet size of 20 aircraft within a year of starting operations.<br/>
The fallout from technical issues with the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engine continues to grow in Asia-Pacific, with one aerospace supplier warning of a potential financial impact and airlines having to relook their near-term growth forecasts. Japan-based IHI, a partner in the PW1100G programme, says it expects “an impact” on operating income for the current financial year, which ends 31 March 2024. The company has a 15% share in the engine programme, with P&W parent RTX holding the majority 51% share. “At this point, it is difficult to accurately assess the impact on our forecast for the current fiscal year, so we will make another announcement as soon as the forecast becomes clear,” IHI states, adding that it is “working to minimise” the impact of the engine issues. On 11 September, RTX said that around 600-700 engines, which power the Airbus A320neo family aircraft, must be removed and inspected between now and 2026 for defective high-pressure turbine and compressor discs. The issue, which is set to cost RTX more than $3b, centres on a previously disclosed defect involving a “rare condition in powdered metal used to manufacture certain engine parts”. Already several Asia-Pacific carriers, including Air New Zealand and Scoot, have warned of operational disruptions in the near-term. On 15 September, low-cost operator Cebu Pacific, whose A320neo family fleet is powered by PW1100G engines, says it will revise downwards its fleet growth rate for 2024, as it “anticipates that a number of the aircraft” will be impacted. It adds that while there is no “immediate impact” on operations, there will be impact on fleet availability in 2024. To this end, it will revise downward its projection of 91 aircraft by 2024. The carrier adds: “Cebu Pacific has already taken a focused approach to proactively manage supply chain and operational challenges facing the industry. The accelerated fleet inspection will ensure the continued safe operation of the P&W fleet.”<br/>
Virgin Australia Airlines Pty has discovered a suspected unapproved part on one of its aircraft that originated with an obscure UK-based supplier, the latest in the ongoing effort by airlines and maintenance workshops to identify and remove the components that have infiltrated the global fleet. The Australian airline identified the part supplied by AOG Technics Ltd. on one of its planes following an investigation, according to a person familiar with the matter. The aircraft was temporarily taken out of service to remove the part, said the person, asking not to be identified as the matter was confidential. “At Virgin Australia, safety is our highest priority and we apply a highly stringent approach to maintenance to ensure our safety standard is upheld,” the airline said in a response to questions. The latest discovery shows how the bogus parts have proliferated around the industry, from the US to Australia. Southwest Airlines Co. a week ago said it had removed two “suspect parts” traced to closely held AOG Technics from one of its Boeing Co. 737 aircraft, and engine makers General Electric Co. and Safran SA have sued AOG after finding that parts with falsified certificates had found their way onto engines. The widening scandal has shaken an industry where safety is the guiding principle, with exacting standards for aircraft manufacturing and maintenance that demands each component be verified. <br/>