American Airlines Monday appealed a US court decision requiring it to end an alliance with JetBlue Airways. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin ruled in May the airlines' "Northeast Alliance" that allowed the two carriers to coordinate flights and pool revenue violated antitrust law. JetBlue previously said it would not appeal as it seeks to protect a planned $3.8b purchase of Spirit Airlines that faces a separate legal challenge from the Justice Department.<br/>
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The boss of Finnair has joined calls for airlines to be reimbursed by National Air Traffic Services (Nats) after its meltdown caused huge disruption to flights. CE Topi Manner said it would be “natural” for Nats to compensate carriers for the cost of disruption as it is “pretty clear what the source of the failure was”. Finnair was among the airlines affected when around 1,500 flights across UK airports were cancelled and many others were delayed on 28 August. The disruption, caused by Nats, took place over the August bank holiday - one of the busiest times to travel. An initial inquiry by Nats found the problem was caused by its system failing to process a flight plan correctly. The switch from automatic to manual processing meant the average number of plans it could handle dropped from around 400 per hour to as few as 60. The combined cost to airlines in providing refunds, re-bookings, hotel rooms and refreshments to affected passengers has been estimated at around GBP100m by industry body the IATA. Asked if carriers should be reimbursed by Nats, Manner said: “Wouldn’t it be natural that they would be liable? It’s pretty clear what the source of the failure was.” Manner added that Nats must have “a laser-like focus on not having these things going forward”. Ryanair has also previously called on Nats to reimburse airlines, with its boss Michael O’Leary saying it is the “least” it could do. Iata DG Willie Walsh told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was “very unfair” that Nats “doesn’t pay a single penny”. However, in Nats’ preliminary report, it stated that it is not within the company’s “remit to address any wider questions arising from the incident such as cost reimbursement and compensation for the associated disruption.”<br/>
Qantas Airways was hit with its first sell rating in a year, a rare rebuke from a largely-loyal analyst community as concern mounts about the cost of repairing the airline’s bruised reputation. CLSA’s Justin Barratt cut his recommendation on Qantas shares to reduce from accumulate, becoming the sole analyst with a sell rating on the airline among 17 tracked by Bloomberg. Qantas shares fell as much as 2.7% in early Sydney trading, extending their decline this month to 14%, making it the worst-performing Asian airline stock in September. Qantas said Monday it will spend an extra A$80m ($51m) on passenger improvements in the year ending June 2024 — in addition to the previously allocated A$150m — in a bid to soothe passengers disgruntled by cancellations, delays and long call-wait times. CLSA’s downgrade was accompanied by a slew of cuts to stock-price forecasts for Qantas at major banks including Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan. Twinned with elevated fuel prices, the cost of making up with angry customers at Qantas is denting the confidence of analysts that for years have touted the airline’s prospects. The extra passenger investment and higher fuel costs “are expected to impact financial performance, with the company needing to balance the overall customer experience with profitability,” CLSA said in its report. There are “near-term headwinds the company will need to work through.” There are even larger costs looming. Australia’s top court this month ruled that Qantas illegally sacked almost 1,700 ground workers during the pandemic, exposing the airline to compensation payments. At the same time, the country’s competition watchdog is suing Qantas for allegedly selling seats on flights that were already canceled. It wants a record fine of at least A$250m to be imposed. <br/>
A union for pilots employed by Australia's Qantas Airways (QAN.AX) called for the company's chairman to resign following a host of scandals that have drawn fierce criticism from travellers, regulators, lawmakers and its own employees. The Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA), which represents most of Qantas's roughly 3,000 pilots, said on Tuesday it wrote to the airline's new CEO Vanessa Hudson demanding the resignation of Chairman Richard Goyder, saying morale "has never been lower". "We have totally lost confidence in Goyder and his board," AIPA President Captain Tony Lucas said. "Qantas desperately needs a culture reset but how can this happen with Richard Goyder as chairman?" Qantas declined to comment, referring Reuters to previous public comments from Goyder where he refused to quit. Goyder, who has been the airline's chairman since 2018, is not up for reelection at its annual meeting in November. With the addition of its pilots, the airline that sells three in every five Australian domestic airfares has drawn public attacks from almost every stakeholder group after a string of scandals that saw its previous longstanding CEO Alan Joyce bring forward his retirement.<br/>