Advocates and Air Canada's CEO served up opposing views of on-board accessibility for passengers on Tuesday, though both sides agree that consistency remains a problem. Michael Rousseau, who heads Canada's largest airline, told a House of Commons transport committee an overwhelming majority of the 1.3m passengers who requested special assistance last year had a positive experience. About 1,950 - or 0.15% - filed complaints. “This is not to minimize the number of incidents nor the serious impacts the disruptions have on the individuals involved. But it is important context that indicates, first, we do a good job and, second, more importantly, we need and we will continue to get better,” Rousseau said.<br/>“We have concluded the chief issue was inconsistency,” he added, citing training as the remedy. Complaint statistics fail to reflect the travel experience of many people living with disabilities, who sometimes wait unassisted for hours or have to instruct employees on how to guide them, said disability rights advocate David Lepofsky. “I personally have spent four hours parked at a gate waiting for a flight,” said Heather Walkus, who heads the Council of Canadians with Disabilities. “No one's come to see me. There's no way to contact anyone. I'm having to go to the washroom. I can't get something to eat,” she said. “We're moved like luggage from one end to the other.” Rousseau acknowledged that the issues are “probably underreported.” Lepofsky pushed back. “To be able to say you're doing a good job and these are the numbers is to be shockingly out of touch with our experience,” he told the transport committee. “We heard from Air Canada today that ... the problems are few or infrequent and that really all they need is more education or training for their staff. Every single one of those statements is wrong,” claimed Lepofsky, who heads the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance.<br/>
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Scandinavian airline SAS AB won bankruptcy court approval on a debt restructuring funded by a $1.2b investment anchored by Air France-KLM and private equity firm Castlelake LP. Judge Michael Wiles said Tuesday in a Manhattan hearing that he’d approve SAS’s restructuring plan pending final technical changes to his court order. The decision clears SAS’s path to exit Chapter 11 after the airline sought court protection in July 2022 in the wake of a substantial revenue drop caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, pilot strikes and fierce competition from lower cost carriers. SAS CEO Anko Van der Werff thanked Judge Wiles for approving the restructuring. “It’s been a complicated case,” Van der Werff said in court. “I’m really happy where we got to.” Enactment of the restructuring is contingent upon approval from various regulatory authorities and completion of a related Swedish restructuring proceeding, the company said in February. SAS has said it will emerge from bankruptcy with roughly $1.1b in unrestricted cash and $2.2b in net debt, compared to $4.2b in net debt at the time it filed Chapter 11. SAS has said it anticipates emerging from Chapter 11 in the first half of 2024. The airline selected the Air France-KLM and Castlelake-led investment in October after spending months searching for new capital. The investment consortium also includes Lind Invest ApS and the Danish state. The investment is comprised of $475m in new, unlisted equity and $725m in secured convertible debt, according to court documents.<br/>
Croatia Airlines’ CEO, Jasmin Bajić, has been appointed to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Board of Governors. Another thirty airline CEOs sit on the IATA Governors Board, which is headed by IATA’s Director General Willie Walsh, who was formerly the CEO of IAG, as well as Aer Lingus and British Airways. Commenting on the appointment, Croatia Airlines said, “This is a great recognition for Croatia Airlines, which has been a member of IATA since 1992 and with its 35 years of professional experience and knowledge contributes to the quality work of this organisation every day, actively shaping an even safer, more sustainable and accessible aviation market to all key stakeholders”. The IATA Board of Governors exercises an oversight and executive role, including the general management and control of the business, affairs, funds, and property of IATA, on behalf of the membership as a whole. Among others, the Board determines, reviews and approves IATA policy and takes action in response to specific requests from member airlines. <br/>
Ethiopian Airlines remains optimistic about the finalisation of the Nigeria Air project for which it has already acquired three B737-8s - which in the meantime will be deployed by the mainline as well as its affiliate carriers ASKY Airlines in Togo, Malawi Airlines, and Zambia Airways. CCO Lemma Yadecha Gudeta told the Nigerian Tribune newspaper: "We even went to the level of acquiring three Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. We have already paid and entered into a contract; there is no option than for us to take those aeroplanes. We are going to use the planes here in Ethiopia, and we have partners in Africa; a very successful one in Togo in ASKY Airlines, and we have other ones in Zambia and Malawi." He added that the three -8s designated for Nigeria Air had arrived in Ethiopia in early March. According to the ch-aviation PRO airlines module, Ethiopian Airlines' current B737-8 fleet numbers 17 aircraft, with 34 more to be delivered. Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is investigating the Nigeria Air project, espoused by the previous government of Muhammadu Buhari and former aviation minister Hadi Sirika as a joint-venture national carrier with a consortium of Nigerian investors, led by Ethiopian Airlines. The project fell apart with a change of government last year.<br/>
Equatorial Guinea is again considering selling a portion of CEIBA Intercontinental shares to Ethiopian Airlines as part of its privatisation plan for the state-owned airline, according to a statement by the Vice Presidency and Press Office of the Central African country. The matter was discussed between Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue and CEIBA Intercontinental's director general Agnes Khunwana on March 18 after Ethiopian Airlines expressed official interest and provided the Malabo administration with requested information for negotiations. At the meeting, Khunwana highlighted the airline's ongoing challenges since July last year when she took over the company's reins. She said the airline's main problem was a lack of liquidity, hindering planned projects like hub creation, route expansion, and aircraft reactivation. Nguema Obiang agreed the airline's situation was "alarming" despite a change of Board and the government's injection of XAF9b CFA francs (US$14.8m), leading him to the conclusion that the only solution was to privatise the airline and prompting consideration of Ethiopian Airlines' proposal. To assess CEIBA Intercontinental's value, the Vice President instructed the country's civil aviation authority to engage an expert office promptly to value the airline.<br/>
Air India has big ambitions: CEO Campbell Wilson said he wants to restore the carrier into a “top-tier and world-class airline” at the Skift India Summit in New Delhi on Wednesday. Following decades of underinvestment by the Indian government, the carrier has been in the process of a complete makeover ever since it was acquired by the Tata Group in 2022. Air India has launched new business class cabins, new cabin crew uniforms and a new logo. The carrier also placed a record order for 470 aircraft — one of the largest in commercial aviation. This plan is part of Air India’s strategy, known as “Vihaan.AI,” referring to the Sanskrit word for “dawn of a new era.” Wilson has often compared the 92-year-old airline to that of a startup because of these major changes. Until recently, he said, Air India had been using antiquated IT for its operations and had an aging workforce. “I’ve described it as a startup because it really had decades of underinvestment,” Wilson said. “We are as much a startup as we are a transformation,” he continued. But now Air India is attempting an overhaul. Wilson said Air India has managed to reduce the average age of its workforce from 54 years old to 35 through a major hiring push as some workers retire. The Air India CEO said the airline has hired around 5,000 people in the span of 18 months. Story has more.<br/>
Air New Zealand invited Wednesday startups in the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) sector to become its supply partner, as the carrier aims to decarbonise and meet its net-zero carbon emission targets. The flagship carrier said it was looking to enter short-, medium-, and long-term offtake agreements to mitigate risk and provide demand certainty for the SAF producers. "By exploring diverse partnership options with SAF producers, Air NZ will not only pave the way for its own smooth transition towards its net-zero carbon emission targets, but more importantly, set a great example to accelerate the global decarbonization journey," said Hebe Chen, market analyst, IG Markets. The airline anticipates it would need SAF to make up around 20% of its total fuel uptake by 2030. It has a target to reduce carbon intensity by 28.9% by 2030, and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Aviation produces about 2% of the world's emissions and is considered one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise, even as global regulators try to boost the use of sustainable fuel. The path for global airlines to transition to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) has been a long and slow one, and call from Air New Zealand is an encouraging sign that the process will be moving faster, IG Market's Chen said. There is no set SAF mandate in New Zealand, as of February 2024. The company has plans with the government to invest to invest more than NZ$2m ($1.21m) in SAF studies.<br/>