US carrier Hawaiian Airlines has taken delivery of the first of 12 Boeing 787 Dreamliners for which it holds firm orders. The airline confirms that its first 787-9 arrived in Honolulu on 14 February via a delivery flight from Boeing’s 787 production facility in Charleston, South Carolina. It took delivery of the jet ”under a purchase assignment and leaseback transaction”, the carrier discloses in a regulatory filing. Hawaiian will officially welcome the aircraft during a ceremony on 23 February. “Over the next two months, we will be conducting familiarisations flights for our employees at various airport stations,” the carrier says. The jet will make its maiden revenue flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles on 15 May, followed by a flight to Phoenix the next day. Powered by a pair of GE Aerospace GEnx-1B74 engines, the aircraft is configured to seat 300 passengers, according to Cirium fleets data. Hawaiian is anticipating three 787s in 2024, with deliveries expected to continue into 2027. The carrier says it is currently exploring financing options for future Dreamliner deliveries. The first of the widebody jets was initially scheduled to arrive in Honolulu during the fourth quarter of last year, but Boeing informed Hawaiian in July that it would be delayed by a couple of months – pushing the aircraft’s arrival into 2024.<br/>
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WestJet CE Alexis von Hoensbroech apologized for incidents where the airline failed to accommodate people living with disabilities, saying he hopes to improve travel accessibility. “To our guests who didn't have a good travel experience with us, we are sincerely sorry, and we are committed in doing better,” von Hoensbroech said during a House of Commons transport committee hearing on accessible transportation on Thursday. More than 99.9% of the carrier's 260,000-plus customers who required support last year - roughly 700 each day, the vast majority of whom used mobility aids - had a good experience, he said. “Every case that goes wrong is one too many,” the CEO said. The appearance followed a committee hearing last week that saw lawmakers take Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau to task over “shocking” failures around accessibility. Rousseau acknowledged mistakes, and pointed to an expedited accessibility scheme announced in November along with new measures to improve the travel experience for hundreds of thousands of passengers living with a disability. Multiple incidents have surfaced at Canadian airlines over the past year. A B.C. man with spastic cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off of an Air Canada plane in Las Vegas. Canada's chief accessibility officer Stephanie Cadieux arrived in Toronto to find the airline had left her wheelchair behind in Vancouver. Former Paralympian Sarah Morris-Probert hauled herself up WestJet aircraft stairs rather than being able to board using her wheelchair. “Everyone's always very sorry and very committed to doing better whenever these things happen, but these high-profile incidents continue to plague Canadian airlines,” Conservative MP Mark Strahl told von Hoensbroech.<br/>
Canada’s Porter Airlines is launching a trio of crew bases staffed with a total of 350 employees to support its growing Embraer 195-E2 operations. The Toronto-based carrier disclosed on 15 February that planned bases in Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver will serve as keystones in Porter’s aggressive North American network expansion. The base in Ottawa will launch in June and will support about 150 pilots and flight attendants. Bases in Montreal and Vancouver are scheduled to open in July and October, respectively, with about 100 employees apiece. “These new bases will provide significant opportunities for crew who want to live close to where they work,” says Porter’s chief operating officer Kent Woodside. “Local crew can better support Porter’s commitment to operational reliability and ultimately provide an even more elevated level of service for our passengers.” Porter says that it will operate 14 routes from Ottawa this summer, six from Montreal and three from Vancouver, feeding into the carrier’s well-established network in Eastern Canada and supporting its growing presence on the West Coast of North America. Formerly a regional carrier serving primarily Eastern Canada and the East Coast of the USA with a fleet of De Havilland Dash 8-400s, Porter has been extending its reach across North America since taking delivery of its first E195-E2s at the end of 2022. It currently has 650 pilots and 775 cabin crew working at its base at Toronto-Pearson International airport, and anticipates employing 2,000 total crew members by year’s end. <br/>
Airline industry sources say a merger between discount carriers Flair Airlines and Lynx Air could be announced as soon as Thursday. Flair declined to confirm or deny the two carriers were in advanced discussions about a potential alliance. “As a company policy, we refrain from commenting on rumours or speculation. Our focus remains on delivering value to our customers and stakeholders through our products and services,” airline spokesperson Gabrielle Poirier said in an email. Lynx didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Three separate industry sources, however, confirmed to the Star that the two airlines are in discussions about a potential merger, and said a deal could be announced as soon as Thursday. The sources all said, however, that the exact timing and structure of a deal remains to be seen. A report in industry publication The Airline Observer earlier this month said the two companies were in “advanced” talks about a deal that would see Flair take over Lynx. Flair currently has 20 planes in its fleet, while Lynx has eight.<br/>
German pilots' union VC has called on its members to strike for three days at Lufthansa's leisure airline Discover, the fourth walkout in two months in a dispute over pay and working conditions. Strikes will be held from Saturday at midnight until Monday, VC said on Thursday, adding that it rejected Lufthansa's offer so far because it included contract clauses that would make it difficult for the union to push for better pay in future collective bargaining. The pilots are in negotiations with Discover over a wider labour agreement for approximately 400 staff. Their strikes have become longer because parent Lufthansa was previously able to avoid many cancellations as it arranged for other carriers within the group to replace grounded Discover flights.<br/>
Aer Lingus’s first meeting with pilots at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in a bid to resolve a pay row yielded no result on Thursday. The carrier referred the dispute to the commission after members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa), part of trade union Fórsa, voted to reject an 8.5% pay increase offer. Neither side commented after an initial meeting that lasted most of Thursday, but they are due back at the commission early next week. Pilots say the 8.5% offer took no account of their efforts to aid the airline through the pandemic or the subsequent surge in the cost of living.<br/>
UK leisure carrier Jet2 has raised its profit guidance for its financial year ending 31 March, after better-than-expected demand and yield trends over the winter. Strong bookings have continued into February and March, Jet2 said on 15 February, prompting it to raise its full-year pre-tax profit guidance from GBP480-520m to GBP510-525m.<br/>Jet2 CE Steve Heapy says: “We are pleased with how the 2024 financial year is ending and are encouraged by early bookings for summer 2024.” The leisure operator points to average load factors for summer 2024 running around 1.5 percentage points above the same period last year. Jet2 has already added five new Airbus A321neo aircraft this year and plans to introduce a further six by the end of the coming financial year.<br/>
A new direct passenger air route will be launched on March 19 to link southwest China's Chongqing Municipality with the city of Milan, Italy, according to Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport. Operated by Hainan Airlines, the new service will make two round trips per week on Tuesday and Friday, with the first outbound flight departing Chongqing at 2 a.m. on March 19 Beijing Time, the airport said, adding that it will be the first direct air route linking west China and Milan. Currently, the airport offers 21 passenger air routes to international or regional destinations and operates more than 110 flights a week. Destinations include major cities like London, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Sydney and Singapore.<br/>