Thousands of WestJet customers are scrambling after the airline cancelled more than 30 flights ahead of a possible strike by its plane mechanics this Thursday. In an update Wednesday afternoon, the airline said about 6,500 travellers were booked on the cancelled trips, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. WestJet said the move reduces the potential for stranded passengers and ensures the carrier can avoid abandoning aircraft in far-flung locations. Some 670 WestJet mechanics, represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, are poised to walk off the job as early as Thursday evening after serving the airline with a strike notice earlier this week following months of negotiations. The Calgary-based company has requested that the Canada Industrial Relations Board intervene with binding arbitration, which would see the labour tribunal hammer out a contract between the two sides — their first collective agreement. In the meantime, the board could bar a work stoppage, a measure WestJet is counting on as the cancellations rack up. Union members voted overwhelmingly to reject a tentative deal last week and opposed the airline's request for arbitration this week. Passenger protection regulations entitle customers to a full refund in the original form of payment for the cancelled trips, said Gabor Lukacs, president of the Air Passenger Rights advocacy group.<br/>
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Prospective UK long-haul start-up Global Airlines is pushing back its initial flights at least until next year. The would-be airline recently obtained its initial Airbus A380, which was flown from California to Scotland at the end of April. Global Airlines is aiming to refit the aircraft and carry out essential maintenance to prepare it for service. The carrier has indicated that it wants to serve US destinations including New York and Los Angeles. But while its start-up outline had originally featured first flights in spring or summer 2024, the company has shifted them to 2025. ”[Operations] and maintenance timelines, like for any airline, have led us to reappraise when we’ll be operational,” says a spokesman for Global, adding that 2025 “is the target” and that the company is ”working with various partners to achieve this”. Global says the aircraft, located at Glasgow Prestwick, has started having the airline’s livery applied, while plans for interior refurbishment are “progressing”. “The next stage of maintenance is due to commence in the coming weeks that will take the airline a step closer towards launching passenger flights next year,” it adds.<br/>
Turkish business jet charter company Air Sapphire has been heavily fined by the US government for flying a Gulfstream GIV to Russia without authorisation. The Bureau of Industry and Security has imposed a $285,000 penalty against the Ankara-based company – under its name Sapphire Havacilik – for breaching export controls. It states that the company flew the Gulfstream (TC-GLF) from Istanbul to Tyumen, carrying two Russian nationals, on 13 October last year. The aircraft was also used to transport a citizen of Russia from the Maldives to Moscow around 21 January this year. While payment to Air Sapphire was submitted through a non-Russian third-party charter broker, the US bureau states that both flights were nevertheless controlled by, or under charter, from Russian nationals. By “temporarily re-exporting” the US-built aircraft to Russia without a licence, says the bureau, the carrier breached export controls on aviation-related items, including luxury goods, imposed over the Ukrainian conflict. Air Sapphire “admitted to the conduct” as part of a settlement, the bureau points out, and “co-operated and assisted” with the investigation. “It doesn’t matter if a Russian national uses another passport – like from Cyprus as was the case here,” says assistant secretary for export enforcement Matthew Axelrod. “Let this serve as a lesson to charter brokers and operators worldwide: if you facilitate such travel in violation of our regulations, you may pay a steep price.”<br/>
Dozens of flights will have to be cancelled by Aer Lingus next week as its pilots stage industrial action – with little hope of a swift solution to the impasse. If the indefinite work-to-rule being started by pilots next Wednesday continues, then the number of cancellations will only increase. Despite this, an intervention by the Labour Court or Workplace Relations Commission this weekend is considered highly unlikely, because the airline and the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) are described as being “poles apart”. Aer Lingus is now scrambling to get additional seat capacity in an effort to re-accommodate passengers who will be hit by the action. It is trying to lease aircraft on a short-term basis to help it cope with the unrest. But the airline is unlikely to know until early next week what type of extra capacity it can secure. During the summer, Aer Lingus operates around 1,550 flights a week, or approximately 220 a day. It is now attempting to hire aircraft on so-called wet leases, where the aircraft are rented with a crew. The airline is trying to lease wide-body jets – the type of aircraft usually used on long-haul routes – to re-accommodate more passengers.<br/>
Ryanair group CE Michael O’Leary doesn’t believe that the trial of a case it has taken against internet giant Booking.com will go ahead next month as planned in the United States. Ryanair sued Booking Holdings and subsidiaries including Booking.com in 2020 over alleged screen-scraping of its fares by the firms. “I don’t think they’ll go into court,” said O’Leary. “I don’t think they can afford to go into court.” Screen-scraping involves a third party accessing an airline’s website and often offering that airline’s fares to its own customers via its own website. Booking Holdings generated revenue of $21.4bn last year and posted net income of $4.2bn. The trial is due to start on July 15 in Delaware and is pencilled in to last a week. O’Leary also doesn’t think the case will be settled in advance of the trial. “I think they’ll keep postponing it for as long as is humanly possibly,” he told the Irish Independent. “With the evidence we have presented to the court of these guys scamming customers, overcharging consumers – I think it’s indefensible,” said the airline boss. “We think that’s why their senior management haven’t deposed,” he added.<br/>