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United Airlines flight attendants will vote whether to authorize a strike if agreement on a new employment contract cannot be reached, their union said on Tuesday. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), which represents 28,000 flight attendants at the Chicago-based carrier, said the vote will open on Aug. 1 and close on Aug. 28. The last contract became eligible for an amendment in August 2021. "United flight attendants can't afford to wait for improvements," said Ken Diaz, president of AFA's United chapter. "We deserve an industry-leading contract, and we are ready to show United management that we will do whatever it takes." United did not immediately respond to a request for comments. The union said strike authorization votes have helped expedite contract negotiations at rivals Alaska, Southwest and American Airlines. United's flight attendants, who filed for federal mediation last year, are demanding double-digit base pay increase, higher pay for time at work including on the ground, retroactive pay, schedule flexibility and work rule improvements. Even if the flight attendants authorize a strike, they cannot walk off the job until the National Mediation Board (NMB) grants them permission. The board will first have to determine that both the parties are at an impasse and further bargaining would not be productive. This lengthy and complex process makes it rather difficult for airline workers to strike.<br/>

By most industry metrics, United Airlines’s environment strategy is flying high. Since the Chicago-based carrier became the first U.S. airline to publicly become carbon neutral back in 2018, it has racked up an “A-” score from CDP, had its climate plan validated by the Science-Based Targets initiative, and been named as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies. Yet, as United admits, it still has an awfully long way to go. In 2023, its direct emissions stood at 38,138,662 metric tonnes, 20% up on the previous year. While the tail-end of Covid in 2022 helps partly explain this discrepancy, the trajectory and the overall size of the company’s footprint still makes for worrying reading. According to Climate Arc’s new TransitionArc tool, the company is projected to exceed its emissions budget between 2021 and 2035, and needs to decrease its emissions by 4% a year between 2020 and 2025. So how will one of the world’s largest airlines get on track? Answering that question falls to Lauren Riley, United’s chief sustainability officer and managing director of global environmental affairs. Her responses range from operational efficiencies and policy incentives, to new propulsion technologies and fleet renewal. Yet one idea undergirds them all: the role of innovation. Like every company in a hard-to-abate sector, United faces a dilemma: even if it were to deploy every commercially available sustainability solution, it would still fall miles short of its net-zero ambitions. Take the next generation of energy-efficient airplanes, which Riley flags as a “really, really important” driver of emissions reduction in the near term. Under its Next United initiative, the airline has laid out a plan to purchase 800 such aircraft between 2023 and 2032. Total emission reductions anticipated: around 20% (per passenger seat). That’s good, but not good enough, especially if United intends to keep up with the public’s appetite for flying, which is set to increase by 40% globally come the end of the decade.<br/>

Air Canada may be forced to pay at least $100m (US$73.2m) to about 2,200 former workers after a Quebec court issued a ruling in their class-action lawsuit against the airline. The amount would cover lost wages, lost benefits, and moral damages related to the closure of Aveos, the carrier’s former maintenance contractor. Judge Marie-Christine Hivon released her decision on the calculation of damages this week. The plaintiffs, the majority of whom are in Montreal, were Aveos employees when it locked out workers and ceased operations in 2012. They argued that Air Canada violated a federal law that had required the airline to maintain those maintenance operations where they were located. Hivon first ruled in the plaintiffs’ favour in November 2022. Air Canada has said it plans to appeal that judgment, but an appellate court judge delayed the matter until the damages phase of the original trial was completed. Based on initial calculations, the minimum the airline would be forced to pay is around $100m, according to lawyers for the former workers. But the airline said it’s too early to attach a dollar figure to the case. The claims process will take place on a case-by-case basis. “We have appealed the first part of the judgment on the principle of liability. We are considering whether to add points to the second judgment, which will not apply anyway if our appeal in the first part is successful,” Air Canada spokesperson Christophe Hennebelle said by email.<br/>

Polish flag-carrier LOT has turned in a profitable full year despite the Covid-19 pandemic’s interruption of its strategic plan and the subsequent conflict in Ukraine. LOT says it turned in an operating profit of zl1.13b ($289m) and a net profit of zl1.07b, on revenues of zl10.12b for 2023. Revenues were up by nearly 22%. Operating costs, it says, rose by 8% to just over zl9b. LOT says it had been following a five-year strategic plan for profitable growth over 2016-20 which could not be fully implemented, owing to the pandemic, even though it was achieving “effective fulfilment” of its objectives. After scaling back operations and taking steps to cut costs, the airline emerged from the crisis only to face the effects of conflict in Ukraine which forced closure of several routes, limited passenger flows and led to longer routes to Asia. But LOT states that it has recorded “dynamically recovering demand” since the beginning of 2023, adding that other carriers in its market have experienced operational and capacity limitations. This has enabled LOT to achieve high revenues and load factors, it adds. LOT says it has “compensated” for the route closures – and the loss of passengers from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia – with services to new European destinations from both Warsaw and other regional airports. The airline says its steps to reduce the impact of conflicts, including that in Gaza, on its operations have included reinforcing its presence on Central European and Balkan routes – among them Prague, Belgrade, Chisinau, Sarajevo and Podgorica. LOT has also experimented with such services as Warsaw-Tashkent, Wroclaw-Seoul and Rzeszow-Milan. It has sought to expand its fleet to support its network, and last year agreed to lease eight Boeing 737 Max jets for delivery over 2024-25. The airline says a compensation case over the 2019 grounding of other Max aircraft has yet to be concluded. LOT recorded a 22% capacity hike in 2023 as well as a 25% rise in passenger numbers to 10m.<br/>

Air India’s local market share in June rose to its highest in three years, in a boost for the Tata Group-owned Indian carrier that’s combining with another airline to streamline operations and lure more fliers. The New Delhi-based airline carried 14.6% of all Indian passengers last month, up from 13.7% in May, according to data from India’s aviation regulator. This is the most since June 2021, when it flew 16.5% of all Indian passengers along with its then unit Alliance Air. Its biggest rival Indigo, operated by InterGlobe Aviation, had a share of 60.8% in June. The jump is a positive sign for Air India, which is in the middle of an ambitious merger with Tata and Singapore Airlines Ltd.-owned Vistara, expected to be completed by the end of the year. Vistara had a 9.7% share during the month of June. Air India rolled out a premium economy class last month to attract more passengers, and is adding new international routes along with entering partnerships with other airlines. It is also revamping its branding ahead of the merger. <br/>

Auckland Airport says it will consider cutting charges after a draft Commerce Commission decision found its targeted returns exceed what is “reasonable” - a move that could offer travellers some relief in terms of airfare pricing. Auckland Airport had announced plans to increase aeronautical charges to airlines for the next five years to help fund its multibillion-dollar redevelopment plan, including the construction of a new domestic terminal. Airlines argued that passengers would foot the bill with higher airfares if the airport went ahead. Commerce Commissioner Vhari McWha said the commission looked at whether the airport’s pricing decisions and expected performance were likely to be of long-term benefit to travellers. “Some price increases are necessary to fund the investment needed to improve customer experience, build more resilient infrastructure and add additional capacity," McWha said. "However, in our view, the airport’s charges over the five-year period are in excess of what is reasonable to achieve these outcomes.” While it is up to airlines to manage such charges through airfares, travellers are likely to bear much of the cost when flying into or out of Auckland Airport, McWha said. The commission estimated that Auckland Airport could generate “excess profits” of between $193.4m and $226.5m as a result of its weighted cost of capital (WACC) estimate of 8.73%. Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran said the last thing New Zealanders in the midst of a cost of living crisis need “for more costs to be piled onto travel because Auckland Airport isn’t acting in the best interests of New Zealanders”. “We agree some development is needed, but we’re ready to get back to the table with Auckland Airport to ensure that the airport has an affordable and enduring plan that helps connect New Zealanders with each other and the world. The right regulatory framework will allow us to do that.”<br/>