unaligned

Brazilian airline Gol announced on Friday that its board elected Eduardo Gotilla as its new CFO, while also posting preliminary results for April including net debt of $4.5b as part of the carrier's ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. Gotilla was the CFO of power company Light through last January. He replaces Mario Tsuwei Liao in the same role at Gol and is set to start on June 3, the airline said in a securities filing. Gol added that Tsuwei will serve as an adviser for special projects for the airline. In a separate filing, Gol released preliminary results for April, part of the monthly data it must disclose due to the bankruptcy process the Brazilian airline entered in the United States earlier this year. Gol reported a $76m net loss for April, which was adjusted to exclude exchange rate losses. It also posted net revenue of $259m for the month and $26m in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).<br/>

Turkey's Pegasus Airlines will in the coming months begin work on its next plane order as it looks to continue its fast-paced growth into the next decade, the budget carrier's CEO told Reuters on Sunday. Pegasus, which has seen a rapid recovery in travel after the pandemic, placed an order for 36 Airbus A321neo planes in July 2023, taking its total orders since 2012 to 150. Sixteen will be delivered this year and the remaining 52 by the end of 2029, Guliz Ozturk said in an interview. Production slots at the two dominant planemakers Airbus and Boeing are sold out for many years, resulting in long wait times for airlines wishing to replace and grow their fleets. "Beyond 2029, as long we want to grow - and we want to grow, the demand is there - we have to go out with a new order," Ozturk said, adding that there are no specific decisions or studies yet. Supply chain problems and delays in aircraft deliveries are in focus this week as airline CEOs, planemakers, engine manufacturers and lessors gather in Dubai for the IATA annual meeting.<br/>

Aer Lingus has missed out on a second new aircraft as its pilots pay dispute rumbles on. On Friday the airline confirmed an A321 XLR plane would “remain available to be allocated elsewhere” within the IAG parent group, which also includes British Airways, Iberia and Vueling. It follows an earlier decision to reallocate a new Airbus A320 XLR to Iberia after efforts to resolve the pay dispute failed. IAG had warned the impasse would have consequences for investment in the Irish airline. Its pilots are expected to complete voting on interim Labour Court proposals at brokering a deal by Monday. “Aer Lingus was unable to give IAG the confidence it needed in our cost structure, resulting in the inaugural A321 XLR – originally planned for Aer Lingus – being allocated elsewhere in the group,” a spokeswoman said on Friday. “On the same basis and given the deadline for a decision on painting was this week, the second XLR aircraft will not be painted in Aer Lingus livery and will remain available to be allocated elsewhere within the group.” Last week the Labour Court recommended that the Irish Airline Pilots Association (Ialpa) accept pay increases totalling 9.25%, and that talks restart on deadlocked issues at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).<br/>

Budget carrier Norwegian Air and its pilots have reached a deal on a new collective agreement, preventing a strike that could have grounded many flights, the airline and labour union officials said on Saturday. A strike would have been a blow to Norwegian, which is about to enter what is traditionally its most profitable time of the year. "I am pleased that we have reached an agreement," CEO Geir Karlsen said. "All eyes are now on the busy summer season ahead and we look forward to welcoming our customers on board." The company may still cancel some flights this weekend as a result of actions taken to prepare for the possible strike, the company said. The bargain will partly close a wage gap between pilots in Norway and those elsewhere, the Norwegian Pilot Union, which negotiated on behalf of the pilots, said in a statement. It was not immediately clear how much more the pilots will be paid. The unions had said any strike could have gradually grown to comprise all 690 pilots employed by the company's unit in Norway, more than half the group's 1,300 pilots. The pilots employed by units outside its Norway, including in Denmark and Spain, were not affected. The deal will lead to a better work-life balance by reducing the overall demands on each pilot, the union said. Norwegian said in April it expected record profits this year on the back of high demand during the peak summer season.<br/>

Boeing will need years to emerge from its current crisis, the biggest buyer of the US manufacturer’s widebody aircraft predicted. “For me, this will be a five-year hiatus starting from now,” Emirates President Tim Clark said in an interview in Dubai. “I don’t think they will recapture their production line on all aircraft types.” As a result of the manufacturing issues and delays on new widebody aircraft at the planemaker, Emirates is putting more of its Boeing 777 aircraft through an extensive retrofit program, Clark said. That’s raising the cost of that program to about $3.5b from previously $2b, he said. Clark is an influential voice in the aviation industry because his company buys the biggest Boeing and Airbus aircraft in greater numbers than any other carrier. The executive has publicly used his status to point out performance issues at the two manufacturers, the only builders of large planes used on global routes. Boeing’s 777-9 model, of which Emirates has ordered more than 100 units, is about five years late, and Clark said he has “no visibility” on a new time frame, most recently scheduled for mid 2025. The carrier is “extremely exasperated” with Boeing as delays are obstructing the airline’s growth plans, Clark said, adding that he plans to meet Stephanie Pope, the new head of Boeing’s commercial aircraft subsidiary, in Dubai in coming days. Emirates is in no rush to add more Airbus A350 widebodies to its order book, Clark said. That’s after the airline purchased the model only in relatively small numbers at the Dubai Air Show in November because Clark wasn’t satisfied with the performance of the Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc engines. Clark said he was previously prepared to add 35 units to his order book. <br/>

Emirates has observed an increase in the amount of turbulence on its flights, prompting the industry to ‘up its game’, according to airline president Tim Clark. Speaking after a high-profile incident on a Singapore Airlines flight on 21 May, Clark said at the IATA AGM on 2 June that Emirates had already noticed a rise in the number of “clear air turbulence” incidents. “Well before that, there was evidence that we were beginning to see, not a geographical trend of where these things were happening, but a ticking up of the amount of turbulence,” he says. “Some people say it’s climate change, some people say you’ve got many flights than you used to have, but the fact is the incidence was going up.” As a result, the Singapore Airlines incident was “coincidental” with the industry “realising something is going on”, he says. “We’ve had our own fair share of issues,” Clark explains. “Not as bad as unfortunately Singapore Airlines had, but let’s be quite honest… if you haven’t got people strapped in, some of the clear air turbulence interjections, oscillations in altitude, it’s a real risk. The whole industry is now upping the game in regarding to making sure passengers are strapped in.”<br/>

Etihad Airways is planning to recruit about 1,000 cabin crew by the end of this year after employing a similar number this year as the airline continues to grow its network and connect more cities around the globe. The Abu Dhabi-based airline will organise open days and invitation days from June to the end of the year in several cities including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Athens, Antalya, Malaga and Manchester, it said on Friday. The recruitment drive will also be held in Copenhagen, Vienna, Singapore, Nice, Dublin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Milan, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Colombo and Jaipur. “As Etihad continues to grow, we are looking for exceptional individuals to join our team who share our ambition to become the airline that everyone wants to fly,” said Nadia Bastaki, chief people and corporate affairs officer at Etihad. Etihad’s cabin crew is currently made up of people from 112 countries, all based in Abu Dhabi.<br/>

Pakistan International Airlines is still waiting for European regulators to restore its third-country operator approval, although the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority is progressing with safety-oversight improvements. While the European Commission imposed partial blacklist restrictions on PIA in early 2007, these were rescinded at the end of the same year. But PIA had its third-country operator approval withdrawn by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency in mid-2020, over concerns about its safety-management system. According to EASA documentation dated 2 June, PIA’s third-country operator approval has yet to be restored. EASA took the action after a fatal accident in Karachi involving a PIA Airbus A320 and the revelation, around the same time, that a large number of pilot licences issued by Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority had been fraudulently obtained. Representatives of the Commission and EASA conducted an on-site assessment at the end of November last year, which primarily covered the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority but also took in sample assessments of Pakistani carriers Airblue and Fly Jinnah. “It was found that [the PCAA] has an established policy to adhere to international safety standards, and is staffed by technically skilled and professional persons,” says the Commission in a 30 May blacklist revision. But it says “common shortcomings”, such as lack of internal verifications, were noticed “throughout the organisation”.<br/>