United Airlines is poised to resume service of some Boeing Co. Max 9s starting on Sunday, weeks after the jets were grounded following a mid-air blowout of a door plug during an Alaska Airlines flight. In a letter to employees, United said it had received final approval from the FAA to complete the process of returning its Max 9 fleet to service following a “thorough inspection process.” United is one of Boeing’s biggest customers, and the airline has been frustrated with the planemaker’s inability to overcome quality lapses, Bloomberg earlier reported. The FAA this week approved the inspection procedures airlines must carry out to resume flights using Max 9s. The jets were grounded after the Jan. 5 incident in which the panel blew out of a jet in the middle of a flight, leaving a gaping hole in the fuselage. Regulators have also stepped up scrutiny of the company’s manufacturing. Alaska Airlines has restarted flying the Max 9s, Boeing told its employees on Friday, adding that Aeromexico and Turkish Airlines, as well as United, will bring theirs back in the coming days. <br/>
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United Airlines has approached Airbus about buying more A321neo jets to fill a potential void left by the delayed Boeing 737 Max 10, in a trade-off likely to ease deadlock over a long-delayed separate order for larger jets, industry sources said. United CEO Scott Kirby flew to Toulouse recently to sound out the planemaker on a potential quid-quo-pro deal after a mid-air emergency on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 raised new doubts over certification of the already delayed Max 10, they said. “United Airlines has been in talks with Airbus about possible alternatives to the Max 10 order. To my knowledge no agreement has been reached,” a person familiar with the discussions said. Talks are at an early stage and there is no guarantee of a deal, the sources said. Airbus and United Airlines declined to comment. Kirby’s previously unreported trip to Toulouse is the latest twist in a widening crisis engulfing Boeing as the planemaker seeks to reassure the public and regulators about production quality and safety while preventing key orders from unraveling. Kirby last week called the Max 9′s partial grounding “the straw that broke the camel’s back” following certification delays to the Max 10, the largest member of a jet family tarnished by an earlier safety crisis caused by two fatal crashes.<br/>
A Russian man who boarded a flight from Denmark to Los Angeles last November without a ticket, passport or visa has been found guilty in a US federal court of being a stowaway on an aircraft. Sergey Ochigava, 46, was convicted by a jury in a California court on Friday. Officials arrested Ochigava at the LA airport after they could not find any record of him being booked on a flight or of him applying for a visa. He has been in custody since November, and faces up to five years in prison. Prosecutors said Ochigava got through security at Copenhagen Airport in Denmark without a boarding pass by tailgating a passenger through a turnstile gate. The next day, he passed through a boarding gate undetected and boarded a Scandinavian Airlines flight to Los Angeles. According to Ochigava's indictment documents, members of the cabin crew noticed him on the plane because he was moving between multiple unassigned seats. He also "asked for two meals during each meal service, and at one point attempted to eat the chocolate that belonged to members of the cabin crew". One flight attendant said he "was trying to talk to other passengers on the flight, but most of the passengers ignored him". Ochigava was met by US border agents when the flight landed in LA on 4 November. The agents were unable to find any official record of him on the Scandinavian Airlines flight or any other flight. He was also unable to provide a visa, a passport, or any other travel document needed to enter the US. After searching his bag, officials found both Russian and Israeli ID cards that belonged to him. Officials accused him of giving "false and misleading information about his travel to the United States", including initially telling border agents that he had forgotten his passport on the plane.<br/>
South African Airways - once a giant of African aviation - is back in the intercontinental market, but there are still doubts about its financial viability. It had disappeared from our skies altogether in September 2020, having fallen victim not just to Covid but also another disease that has plagued some other state-run carriers - corruption and mismanagement. It may be on the verge of a sale that would see a private consortium take a majority share in the business. However, its handling of finances has recently come in for severe criticism by the country's public spending watchdog. In a scathing report, Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke said that the financial statements SAA had drawn up dating from the 2018-19 financial year lacked credibility. The airline recorded losses in the four years from 2018 of a staggering $1.2b. But interim CEO John Lamola said this did not reflect the current position of the airline, which is under new management. He said the situation had improved in the most recent financial year, with the airline now "running on financial resources generated from its own operations". Towards the end of last year, in a sign that SAA wants to be a major player again, it reopened its routes from Cape Town and Johannesburg to São Paulo, Brazil. And now it is selling tickets for flights to Perth, Australia. These are the airline's first long-haul destinations in three years. It did return in September 2021, making a surprise profit serving a limited number of African destinations after coming out of voluntary business rescue.<br/>
A pilots' union late on Sunday reached a deal with Taiwan's Eva Airways to avert a strike that had been threatened over the crucial Lunar New Year holiday in a dispute over salaries and working conditions. Taoyuan Union of Pilots said last week its members had voted to authorise a strike after accusing Eva of not raising salaries enough and employing too many foreign pilots. The union, which represents mostly long-haul pilots, had raised the prospect of striking over the week-long Lunar New Year holiday starting next month. After talks facilitated by the government, the union said it had reached a four point agreement with the airline, with Eva agreeing to raise salaries and only hire foreign pilots if there is a "special need". Eva, in a statement to the Taiwan stock exchange, said it had reached a "consensus" with the union and confirmed it had signed the agreement. Eva shares rose more than 5% on Monday morning, compared with a flat broader market. Employee salaries and benefits will continue to be improved in the future, the airline added in a separate statement.<br/>
Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) is to “significantly expand” international operations in the coming months, as it prioritises its international network after sharp cutbacks during the coronavirus pandemic. In an operations update, the Star Alliance carrier says that for the 2024 financial year, which begins on 1 April, the carrier hopes to “maximise profitability” while meeting growing travel demand. ANA’s European network will see a boost in operations, with flights from Tokyo’s Haneda airport to Munich and Paris increased to daily services from 1 July, up from the current four and three times weekly, respectively. The airline will also resume operations to Vienna in August, a route suspended during the pandemic. ANA will also roll out operations to Milan, Stockholm and Istanbul during the 2024 winter schedule - which begins in November - after shelving these plans during the pandemic. Within Asia, flights between Haneda and Beijing and Shanghai Pudong will be doubled to twice daily from 1 April, while thrice-weekly Tokyo Narita-Hong Kong flights will resume on 16 April. ANA will, however, suspend its thrice-weekly flights between Narita and Beijing and Shanghai Pudong in the new fiscal year, shifting all operations to the Chinese cities to Tokyo Haneda instead. The airline will also suspend flights between Narita and Perth after 13 April, only resuming them in November. In Southeast Asia, ANA will increase the number of flights from Haneda to Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, from the current five times a week, to daily operations. ANA’s low-cost, medium-haul unit AirJapan, which will begin flying in early February, is also expanding its operations as its fleet size increases. It has named Singapore as its third city, after Bangkok and Seoul Incheon. The airline will take its second Boeing 787-8 in April, allowing it to launch five times weekly flights to Singapore, as well as increase its Bangkok flights to daily. <br/>
All Nippon Airways parent ANA Holdings has postponed its takeover of Nippon Cargo Airlines for a second time, saying that anti-trust authorities need more time to review the deal. The company in a stock exchange filing says it now expects to transfer of ownership will take place on 1 April, a two-month delay from the original 1 February deadline. In explaining the delay, ANA Holdings it is “taking into consideration the time to complete the review of the business combination that will result from the share exchange by the relevant authorities in Japan and foreign countries”. The company in late-September 2023 had first delayed the takeover on similar grounds. ANA in July announced plans to acquire Nippon Cargo from logistics giant NYK, in a deal that would make the cargo carrier a wholly-owned subsidiary of the group. Adds the airline group: “As a result of making Nippon Cargo a wholly-owned subsidiary…the balance sheet and the income statement will be consolidated from the first quarter in the fiscal year ending March 2025.” <br/>