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American Airlines Group Inc. is closing in on an order for about 100 narrowbody jets split between Airbus SE and Boeing Co., with the European planemaker likely to secure the larger part of the commitment, according to people familiar with the talks. A deal could be announced in coming weeks, although the final mix of Airbus A321 and Boeing 737 Max 8 jets is still being negotiated, said the people, asking not to be identified as the talks are confidential. The deal will secure replacements for some of the oldest jetliners in American’s fleet in a constrained market for new aircraft. Boeing and Airbus are largely sold out of single-aisle jets through the end of the decade, while production glitches and engine shortages have crimped output and sent prices soaring for used models. American declined to comment, as did Airbus. Boeing referred questions to American, which is set to detail future plans at a March 4 investor meeting in New York. Any order for the Max model by an established blue-chip customer would be an important win for Boeing, which is still working through a major crisis in the wake of the near-catastrophic accident on a 737 Max 9 early last month. Teams of inspectors from US regulators and airline customers have been monitoring Boeing’s 737 assembly lines and delving into its oversight of quality within the supply chain. Bloomberg News first reported last August that American was in talks with the planemakers for the order. Robert Isom, the airline’s CEO, told employees in a meeting last July that American needed to secure new narrowbody jets for beyond 2027. <br/>

American Airlines has spoken out against Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico’s opposition to a US Department of Transportation (DOT) ruling that would force the two carriers to unwind their seven-year collaboration. Fort Worth-based American told the DOT in a 23 February filing that the US government is within its rights to withdraw antitrust immunity covering the Delta-Aeromexico partnership due to the Mexican government’s violation of the Open Skies treaty between the countries. Mexico has in recent months reduced capacity at Mexico City’s Benito Juarez International airport, the capital city’s busiest, in favour of the new but more-distant Felipe Angeles International airport. Cargo traffic has also been banished to Felipe Angeles. The shift has angered airlines and international airline lobby groups like IATA. The US government maintains that the moves violate the US-Mexico Open Skies agreement. On those grounds, the DOT decided on 26 January not to renew the deal’s antitrust immunity, and required that the carriers end their partnership by 26 October. That “effectively means that there has not been a functioning Open Skies agreement between the United States and Mexico, and therefore the department’s main prerequisite for a grant of [antitrust immunity] is absent”, American writes. “Open Skies agreements have always been a regulatory prerequisite for [antitrust immunity], and the department has routinely refused [immunity] where an Open Skies agreement is absent,” American writes. “The [order] stays true to the department’s longstanding policy on Open Skies. This policy has facilitated significant cooperation between international carriers that has greatly expanded travel, benefiting consumers.” “A departure from this rule would undermine decades of the department’s efforts to encourage foreign governments to uphold transparency and free and fair competition in the public interest,” American adds.<br/>

A British Airways worker is allegedly on the run in India after being accused of coordinating a GBP3m immigration scam from his check-in desk at London’s Heathrow Airport. The unnamed suspect, said to be a 24-year-old man who worked in Terminal 5, reportedly charged travellers GBP25,000 to fly on the British Airways network without the correct visa documents. The man is believed to have convinced clients, most of whom were from India, to fly to the UK on a temporary visa before he enabled them to travel elsewhere, The Telegraph reported. Other clients were reportedly UK-based asylum claimants who feared being returned to their home countries. UK police were working with Indian authorities to track down the man, who fled with his ground services partner after being arrested and bailed. Canadian authorities are said to have become suspicious after an unusual number of passengers arriving on British Airways flights to Toronto and Vancouver claimed asylum. The Sun, which said the scam had been going on for about five years, quoted a source as saying that the suspect “exploited a loophole knowing that immigration checks are no longer carried out by officials, but are left to airline staff”. “By inputting wrong data and claiming eTA (electronic travel authorisation) documents had been secured, he got people to countries they had no permission to enter in the first place.”<br/>

Royal Jordanian Airlines is to open two new services to the UK, operating to London Stansted and Manchester. The flag-carrier already serves London Heathrow with Boeing 787s. But it states that it will fly to a second London airport with a thrice-weekly route to Stansted from 3 March. The airline adds that it will follow this on 6 March with a twice-weekly service to Manchester. Its reservations system indicates that it will deploy Airbus A320-family aircraft on both new routes. Royal Jordanian says the flights are part of its commercial strategy to attract tourism to Jordan, and connect the capital Amman to key cities. CE Samer Majali says the flights are a “significant addition” to its network and offer new travel options. Royal Jordanian is aiming to expand its network to 60 destinations as part of plans to increase its fleet to nearly 40 aircraft.<br/>

Sri Lanka’s national airline on Feb 27 blamed a rat for grounding a plane for three days, sparking chaotic delays and fears that it will scare off investors for the cash-strapped carrier. The stowaway rodent was spotted enjoying the SriLankan Airlines Airbus A330 flight from the Pakistani city of Lahore on Feb 22, triggering an aircraft search to ensure it had not chewed through critical components. An airline official said the plane has now resumed flights, but that the grounding had a knock-on effect on the entire schedule. “The aircraft was grounded for three days at Colombo,” an airline official said, declining to be named. “The plane could not be flown without making sure that the rat was accounted for. It was found dead.” The state-owned airline, which had accumulated losses of more than US$1.8b at the end of March 2023, has three other aircraft grounded for over a year out of a fleet of 23. The carrier has no foreign exchange to pay for mandatory overhauling of the engines. Aviation minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told reporters that the rodent might scare off “the few investors” interested in taking over the debt-burdened airline. Successive governments have attempted to sell it without success. A previous government offered the airline for one dollar, but there were no takers.<br/>

Japan Airlines (JAL) will now be the only airline to offer a first-class cabin on the Sydney-Tokyo route. Starting May 31, JAL will fly the larger Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on its Haneda-Sydney service, replacing the 787-9 Dreamliner, with the bigger planes able to offer four classes. JAL made the move following strong demand among Australians for travel to Japan. It’s also looking to stand out from the crowd on the popular route, that includes fellow Japanese airline, ANA, plus Australia’s Qantas, Virgin and Jetstar. Not a pointy-end flyer? Not even a JAL customer? All you need is a bunch of Qantas points (about 130,000, according to some online points-hack bloggers, but check with the airline) to score one of the best seats in the house, thanks to the Oneworld membership of both airlines. For the rest of us, the JAL 777-300ER is a pretty comfortable ride. Last refurbished 10 years ago, these aircraft feature eight first-class seats, 49 business seats, 40 premium economy and 135 economy seats. The news comes as JAL, Japan’s largest airline, launches a new flagship aircraft that Australians venturing further afield via Tokyo may find themselves enjoying. JAL’s new twin-aisle A350-1000 began service on the Haneda-New York route in late January, with plans to extend its use to Haneda-Dallas Fort Worth and Haneda-London within the 2024 financial year.<br/>