American Airlines has apologized to a Black musician who said that he was stopped on suspicion that he was trafficking his own children, who are biracial, on a flight last month. Many airlines, including American, have adopted policies and training programs to prevent human trafficking and child exploitation. But the experience described by the musician, David Ryan Harris, a guitarist and singer-songwriter who has performed with John Mayer, was the latest to draw attention to concerns that such programs may lead to racial discrimination. Harris, 55, said that he and two of his children, Truman, 12, and Hendrix, 7, were flying on American Airlines from Atlanta to Los Angeles on Sept. 15 to see the Los Angeles Rams play the San Francisco 49ers at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. About 30 minutes before the plane landed, Harris said, a flight attendant asked his children some questions, including what their names were. Harris said he had to prompt Hendrix, who is shy and had been woken up early to catch the flight, to respond. After the plane landed, Harris said, he and his children were met at the top of the jet bridge by an American Airlines employee and four police officers. “Apparently, a flight attendant had called ahead with some sort of concern that perhaps my mixed children weren’t my children because they were unresponsive during an interaction with her,” he said in one of several videos describing the episode that he posted on Instagram last month. Harris added: “So we’re met, embarrassingly so, by this A.A. employee and police officers. They question my kids: ‘Are my kids OK?’ And I wanted to go through the roof. But I did not want my kids to see me handle the situation with anything other than grace and class.” Harris said he and his children were eventually allowed to continue on to the baggage claim area, but were not given an apology.<br/>
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British Airways parent IAG regained its investment grade credit rating from Standard & Poor’s, in a sign that efforts to rebuild the carrier’s balance sheet are paying off. The ratings company raised the airline’s long-term rating to BBB- from BB+, according to a statement Wednesday, citing improved cash flow and robust passenger demand. IAG beat expectations with its second-quarter earnings at the end of July, and said it expected to reach 97% of pre-Covid capacity this year. “IAG’s higher-than-expected air passenger fares, underpinned by efficient cost management, translate into higher-than-forecast profit margins and earnings this year,” S&P said. The move gives IAG back its investment grade status for the first time since it was downgraded in May 2020 as the pandemic took hold. The airline has been working to pare back debt, and a surge in demand has returned it to profitability. IAG reported an operating profit of E1.25b in the three months to June 30 from E301m a year earlier. The company has also been working down a long-term debt load that peaked at E7.21b in Q1 2021, based on data compiled by Bloomberg. The figure stood at E5.57b at the end of Q2. <br/>
Royal Jordanian Airlines has agreed a restructuring of the carrier’s capital, in order to reduce the company’s accumulated losses which amounted to nearly JD400m ($564m) at the end of last year. The airline stated in its annual report for 2022 that accumulated losses exceeded the company’s capital, noting that, under corporate law, such a condition could result in liquidation unless addressed. Royal Jordanian held an extraordinary general assembly on 3 October for which the agenda included amortising JD14.8m of the mandatory reserve, reducing the accumulated losses to just over JD385m. The agenda also involved discussing amortisation of a further JD201m from the balance of accumulated losses by reducing the company’s capital from 324.6m shares to 123.6m. Royal Jordanian says the extraordinary assembly also agreed to implement a capital increase of 240m shares – achieved by capitalising 70m shares to the Jordanian government and covering the other 170m through the airline’s ownership of Jordan Airports Company. Jordanian authorities disclosed earlier this year that, in June, a decision was taken stipulating that Royal Jordanian owned 90% of the airports company’s capital. Royal Jordanian suffered heavy losses over the period of the pandemic, and has since been affected by other pressures including fuel prices. The company says that, despite losses last year, it opted to write off 62% of its capital rather than its entirety in order to reach an “acceptable ratio” of accumulated losses to capital. Royal Jordanian CE Samer Majali says the restructuring of capital agreed at the extraordinary assembly will assist the carrier to modernise its fleet – the airline is seeking to expand to 41 aircraft, with the introduction of Airbus A320neo- and Embraer E2-family jets.<br/>
Qantas’ freight division has suffered a catastrophic system failure that left dead bodies, live animals and perishable food unable to be collected from airports. Cargo operations were sent into disarray after Qantas attempted to switch on a “new, fully integrated cloud-based” management system on September 24, which “did not go as planned”, according to a letter sent to freight customers. Qantas said that coffins and human remains have not been left on tarmacs or stored inappropriately in any way despite reports from freight forwarders alleging so. “All human remains and other critical freight has been managed according to industry standards and with utmost care as always. Some delays in collection may have occurred due to manual processing leading to queues at freight terminals,” the airline business said on Thursday. The airline’s freight customers said the meltdown has cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past 10 days. Qantas workers have been forced to process shipments manually, causing backlogs of domestic and international deliveries at Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne airports. Cargo customers said they have had to wait for up to a week to collect goods needed by their clients the day after landing in Australia, with unrefrigerated fresh produce and pharmaceuticals ruined.<br/>