unaligned

Federal officials are investigating an incident in which a Southwest Airlines jet flew as low as 45m over water while it was still about 8 km from its intended landing spot at the airport in Tampa, Florida. The pilots skipped over the Tampa airport and landed instead at Fort Lauderdale, 320 kilometers away. The July 14 flight followed a similar incident last month in Oklahoma City in which a Southwest jet flew at an unusually low altitude while still miles from the airport. The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday that it is investigating the incident. Southwest flight 425, which took off from Columbus, Ohio, reached its low point as it flew over Old Tampa Bay near the Courtney Campbell Causeway, according to Flightradar24. Three previous Southwest flights to Tampa passed the same point at about 1,225 feet (375 meters) in altitude, the flight-tracking service said. “Southwest Flight 425 safely diverted to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on July 14 after the crew discontinued their planned approach into Tampa International Airport,” the airline said in a statement. Dallas-based Southwest said it is in contact with the FAA “to understand and address any irregularities. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees.”<br/>

Spirit Airlines fired two gate agents for yelling at passengers to “shut up” earlier this month at Hollywood Burbank Airport. Kevin Eis, a Spirit Airlines passenger who was flying from Burbank to Las Vegas on July 12, captured the incident on video in a couple of now-viral TikToks. The videos show the frustrated gate agents in front of a crowd of passengers for two different Spirit flights. When Eis and his travel companion arrived at the gate to board at around 11:15 a.m. for their noon flight, they found the area crowded with travelers from a delayed Spirit Airlines morning flight, Eis told USA TODAY. “(The gate agents) were like, ‘We’re going to start boarding soon,’ but she’s not telling whether it’s for the 9 a.m. flight or the scheduled noon flight,” Eis said. Eis asked one gate agent which flight was going to leave when she “changed her attitude” and told him he was “a flight risk.” “Everyone around me started laughing,” Eis said. Unsure if he would be allowed on the flight, Eis took out his phone to start recording the incident while his travel companion started to book a flight to Vegas on a different airline on his phone. The two gate agents started getting frustrated and upset at the crowd in what Eis described as an “unreal moment.” In one of the TikToks posted by Eis, one agent is heard saying, “Can I get everybody’s attention?” Then she raised her voice, screaming, “Can I get everybody’s right now? Thank you. Alright, now, do you want to get on this flight or not? Alright, so everyone’s going to shut up. We’re only going to say it once. We’re not going to say it again because we’re frustrated as hell.” The crowd of passengers can be heard cheering. Story has more.<br/>

Disruptive industrial action by pilots in a long-standing dispute with Aer Lingus should finally draw to a close today as a ballot over a recommended 17.75% pay rise concludes. Members of the Irish Air Line Pilots Association, which had been looking for closer to 24% in what they claimed was an inflation-offsetting pay claim, have been voting since Thursday of last week on the proposals pieced together by the Labour Court to resolve a work to rule and strike action that saw the travel plans of more than 85,000 passengers disrupted as close to 600 flights were cancelled over three weeks. Coming in the middle of the airline’s peak summer season, the dispute has been damaging for Aer Lingus. And it might not be off the hook yet. The consensus is that a majority of the 760 pilots will accept a deal to bring an end to a row that has been festering for close to two years. But other unions in the airline have been examining the terms of the pilots’ deal in detail. Aer Lingus had agreed a pay deal of 12.25% with them. That agreement has a clause allowing those unions to reopen negotiations if any better terms were offered elsewhere in the airline.<br/>

AirBaltic Corp AS said the timing for its planned initial public offering could slip into next year depending on investor feedback, as concerns mount across the industry about airlines’ profitability. While the Latvian carrier still expects to go ahead with the potential IPO in the second half of this year, CEO Martin Gauss said the company will “change the tone” and “do it likely in the first half of next year” if the business model isn’t accepted or understood by potential investors. “We are in the phase where we are evaluating if we can do such an announcement in the second half of this year,” said Gauss, adding that such a timeline remains the company’s intention. The market timing and finances need to be right for an IPO to happen in the second half of the year, Gauss said in an interview at the Farnborough Air Show. On Monday, discount carrier Ryanair Holdings Plc cut its outlook for ticket prices in the crucial summer travel period and said fares will be “materially lower” as consumers grow more cautious, adding to pessimism that the post-pandemic rebound in flying is fizzling. AirBaltic, which operates an all Airbus SE A220 fleet, needs to educate investors about its business model, Gauss said. This summer should be better than last year, with fewer jets grounded due to issues with their Pratt & Whitney engines, he said. The airline is also in discussions with Airbus to firm up and accelerate options for 20 jets. The summer is crucial for airlines as the period when they make most of their money. Ryanair’s warning follows other carriers, including Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Delta Air Lines and Qatar Airways, all saying that there’s pressure on fares. <br/>

Ryanair shares fell Monday after the company said its quarterly profit after tax had fallen 46% and fares will be lower than expected in the summer months. At 4:30 p.m. London time, Ryanair shares were down 17.15%, extending losses from earlier in the day. The budget airline said that profit after tax in the three months to the end of June — Ryanair’s first quarter — came in at E360m. That’s compared with E663m over the same period a year ago, the company said. Ryanair cited weaker-than-anticipated fares and the Easter season falling into the previous quarter as reasons for the drop in profit. It also comes despite a 10% increase in passenger traffic to 55.5m during the quarter, Ryanair said Monday. The airline said that this summer it was operating its “largest ever schedule,” with more than 200 new routes and five new bases. However, Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary said in a statement that fares were expected to be lower than expected over the next three months. “While Q2 demand is strong, pricing remains softer than we expected, and we now expect Q2 fares to be materially lower than last summer (previously expected to be flat to modestly up),” he said. O’Leary added it was too early to make forecasts about the rest of the financial year. “As is normal at this time of year, we have almost zero Q3 and Q4 visibility, although Q4 will not benefit from last year’s early Easter. It is too early to provide meaningful FY25 PAT guidance, although we hope to be able to do so at our H1 results in Nov,” he said.<br/>

Emirates President Tim Clark predicted the Boeing Co. 777X aircraft won’t enter commercial service before 2026, further extending the delay of the widebody jet that will become a mainstay of the Dubai carrier’s future longhaul fleet. Boeing is currently taking the aircraft through its certification program, and regulators will be “doubly rigorous in everything they do and rightly so,” Clark predicted. “Nobody should be rushed, and any remediation work should be done openly, transparently and with whatever time it takes,” the executive said in an interview at the Farnborough International Airshow. The planemaker started conducting flight trials of the aircraft with US regulators on board on Friday, achieving a milestone toward certifying its jumbo airliner after years of setbacks. But Clark said getting the plane signed off and into commercial service is only one part of Boeing’s challenge. An equally big task will be to ramp up production in order to satisfy a backlog that extends to more than 400 aircraft. Given Boeing is likely to only make three of the jets a month initially, working through that order book will take years, Clark said. At the same time, given Emirates’ share of the program with more than 200 777X on order, Clark said he would not “take kindly to being pushed back by people coming in later in the program or even the freighter” version. The years-long delays of the aircraft have forced Emirates into some costly design changes. Clark said he had to scrap the original interior design for the plane — at one point earmarked to fly commercially in 2020 — because the cabin’s technology and general look were outdated. The setbacks have also prompted the airline to expand its retrofit program to include more jets, costing an additional $1.5b. <br/>

FlyDubai said it won’t receive any new Boeing Co. aircraft this year, in a revision of the delivery schedule that throws the Dubai low-cost specialist’s expansion plans into turmoil. The airline said it’s now evaluating its route development and a potential frequency revision because it won’t get any new planes in the next few months. While the company urged Boeing to “honor and renew its commitment to meet its delivery obligations,” the revision highlights how Boeing’s manufacturing crisis is rippling through the industry. The US manufacturer has cut back output to fix manufacturing after a near-catastrophic accident in January. <br/>

VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Co., Vietnam’s only private airline, signed a purchase contract with Airbus Group SE for 20 A330neo widebody aircraft, worth $7.4b at current list price, according to an emailed statement from VietJet. The contract, signed on Monday at the Farnborough International Airshow in England, will help boost “VietJet’s growing long-haul services as well as on routes with high demand in the region” around Vietnam, according to the statement. The planes are “slated to replace VietJet’s current fleet of A330-300 and support the airline’s strategic plan to expand its intercontinental flight network,” it said.<br/>

Pakistan has delayed the final auction for state-owned Pakistan International Airlines by two months until the end of September after potential bidders sought more information to assess the carrier, according to people familiar with the matter. The bidders are waiting for the airline’s latest audited accounts, clarity on flights to Europe that are banned and aircraft lease agreements, said the people, who requested not to be named as the matter is private. Pakistan’s privatization ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment. The government said earlier this month that it will announce the final bid date in 10 days. Pakistan wanted to announce the deal on its independence day, Aug. 14. That date will not be met now. The stake sale in the airline is part of the government’s commitment to undertake economic reforms in exchange for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Pakistan is looking to sell 51% to 100% of the carrier, which hasn’t reported annual profit for nearly two decades. Pakistan selected six groups to bid for the airline in June. These include a consortium led by the Yunus Brothers Group., one of the nation’s largest business conglomerates, and another bid by businessman Arif Habib. Pak Ethanol Pvt.’s consortium includes local airline Serene Air, Liberty Power and is advised by House of Finance. <br/>