American Airlines’ 28,000 flight attendants have reached a tentative labor agreement with the company, their union said on Friday. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents the flight attendants, said the deal addresses their concerns about compensation, work rules and retroactive pay. It did not offer more details. Reached after more than three years of negotiations, the tentative agreement will be sent to the union’s board for review. Once the board approves the deal, members will vote on ratifying it. “If approved, this agreement will put billions of additional dollars into compensation and work rules for our flight attendant workgroup,” said union head Julie Hedrick. The White House had been closely monitoring the talks in recent months and had been concerned about the impact of a work stoppage. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and acting Labor Secretary Julie Su had earlier been involved in the talks. President Joe Biden on Friday praised the deal saying it “averts a strike that would have been devastating for the industry and consumers” and demonstrates “once again that collective bargaining benefits workers, companies, and our economy.” American said the contract will provide immediate financial and quality-of-life improvements for the employees.<br/>
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British Airways will halve its service between London and Hong Kong to one flight a day from October due to rising cost for fuel and manpower caused by Russian airspace restrictions. A spokeswoman for the carrier told the Post on Friday the company would “temporarily” cut by half its Hong Kong service from October 27. Some industry leaders said fewer flights meant the potential of higher fares from rival Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways. At present, the British airline runs two daily flights between Heathrow airport in London and Hong Kong, while Cathay operates five return-flights. Generally, British Airways flights are cheaper than the Cathay ones. “We regularly review our global schedule and we have decided to temporarily reduce our Hong Kong service to one flight a day, from 27 October 2024,” she said. “We are contacting any affected customers so they can rebook on to our other flight or have a full refund.”<br/>
Finnair saw post-Covid pent-up demand largely dissipate during Q2 of this year, hurting its profitability as unit revenues declined. Outlining its earnings for the April-June period on 19 July, the Oneworld carrier said the ending of the demand bounce had combined with “low” consumer confidence, hitting travel demand and sending yields down compared with the “exceptionally strong” Q2 2023. As a result, capacity up by 6.4% year on year yielded only a 0.2% rise in passenger revenue. That meant unit revenues were down 3.9% from the same period in 2023, although a 0.6% fall in unit costs helped to offset that to an extent. Finnair’s passenger load factor fell from 76.3% a year ago to 74.7%. “Pent-up demand after the Covid-19 pandemic has largely been released and consumer confidence has been low for a long time,” Finnair states. “These are now being reflected also in travel demand, which is normalising after a period of strong demand during 2023.” The 2.3% increase in Finnair’s overall revenue to E766m during Q2 was largely driven by higher ancillary and cargo revenues, the business says. Air cargo was benefitting for the disruption to Red Sea shipping routes, it adds. Finnair’s comparable operating profit fell by a third year on year to E43.6m, while its net profit was 87% lower at E17.9m.<br/>
Spanish flag-carrier Iberia has shown off its first Airbus A321XLR carrying the airline’s colours, as the long-range model receives European type certification. Iberia will be the first operator of the XLR. It is to take delivery of eight aircraft, part of a batch of 14 XLRs ordered in June 2019 and split between the Spanish airline and its IAG sister carrier Aer Lingus. Its initial aircraft – still to have its CFM International Leap-1A engines fitted – has been painted in a scheme which includes an A321XLR identifier on the forward fuselage. The airline has given the aircraft the unusual name ‘1927-1939’, the dates of the carrier’s founding and its first international service – to Lisbon – 12 years later. Iberia is configuring the twinjet 182 seats, including 14 in the business-class cabin. It will operate the type on services to Boston and Washington, although it is likely to test the XLR by deploying it on shorter sectors for an initial period. Airbus obtained European Union Aviation Safety Agency type certification for the Leap-powered A321XLR on 18 July.<br/>