As Alaska Airlines’ proposed $1.9b acquisition of rival Hawaiian Airlines awaits regulatory approval, the carriers are requesting an exemption that would allow them to operate under common ownership upon the deal’s closure. In a joint application filed with the US Department of Transportation on 15 July, Alaska and Hawaiian requested transfer of Hawaiian’s international route authority to potential parent company Alaska Air Group. Hawaiian currently operates an international network reaching six countries – Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, French Polynesia and the USA. The airlines are requesting an exemption that would allow Hawaiian to continue operating international flights following the closure of its acquisition by Alaska Air Group. “Following the transaction closing, Alaska and Hawaiian will be commonly owned and controlled but will continue to operate separately until their operations can be merged under a single operating certificate,” the companies say. Alaska and Hawaiian say they are “willing to accept the standard condition imposed by the department on such exemptions requiring that the carriers be maintained and operated as separate companies until the department issues a final decision on the route transfer application”. The companies request that the DOT “promptly grant this exemption request”, as it would provide continuity to Hawaiian’s international operations upon the transaction’s approval.<br/>
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Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways has launched an investigation after a toilet door came off mid-flight. Photographs of the incident believed to have been taken by a passenger and circulating online showed a female flight attendant in a cabin crew seat with her hand holding the detached door. Another image shows two individuals standing beside the door on the Airbus A350, seemingly offering assistance. A caption accompanying the images said the door came off three minutes after take-off. Flight tracking websites showed the flight landed at New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport 16 hours after it took off from Hong Kong at around 5pm on Monday. In a reply to the Post on Tuesday, the airline said it was aware of the defective door on flight CX840. “The defect was rectified and our engineering team is performing a follow-up investigation,” the statement added. “The safety of our customers and crew guides every decision we make. We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused.”<br/>
Relatives of passengers killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine gathered with officials at Australia’s Parliament House on Wednesday to mark the 10th anniversary of the tragedy that claimed 298 lives. One of those relatives, Paul Guard, mostly blames the conflict raging in eastern Ukraine a decade ago for the missile attack that killed 38 Australian citizens and permanent residents including his parents, Toowoomba doctors Roger and Jill Guard. “I don’t think anyone intended to bring down a passenger plane. So in that sense, I’m heartbroken that the conflict continues,” Paul Guard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “But I think that a lot of families would really have just liked an acknowledgement that what happened was wrong and that Russia should not have been waging war,” the son added. The conflict has since escalated into a full-scale war with Russia’s invasion of its smaller neighbor in February 2022. The pro-Russia rebel-held border region from where a Soviet-era Buk surface-to-air missile was fatefully launched and the fields where much of the debris landed after the Boeing 777 disintegrated is now territory controlled by the Russian military.<br/>