Elliott Management said Tuesday it will call a special meeting at Southwest Airlines “as soon as next week,” shortly after the company put forward a sweeping board shake-up that it hoped might stave off a proxy fight. The push comes days before the airline’s investor meeting, where it is expected to unveil improvements and operating changes. Elliott is seeking to oust CEO Bob Jordan and Executive Chairman Gary Kelly, the latter of whom has already committed to stepping down in 2025. The activist has put forward a 10-director slate comprised of airline executives and former regulators or government officials. “We believe that competent new leaders, working through a deliberate and thoughtful process, should chart the course forward for Southwest,” Elliott partner John Pike and portfolio manager Bobby Xu said in a letter to shareholders. “We do not support the Company’s current course, which is being charted in a haphazard manner by a group of executives in full self-preservation mode,” Pike and Xu wrote.<br/>
unaligned
Boeing has told major customer Ryanair that production is likely to be disrupted for two to three weeks after the end of the current strike, Ryanair Group CE Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday. Furloughs at Boeing began on Friday for thousands of employees in Washington State and Oregon, after more than 32,000 workers went on strike the previous week, halting production of the U.S. planemaker's best-selling 737 MAX and other jets. "Boeing are telling us that the strike will delay aircraft deliveries by the length of the strike plus two or three weeks," O'Leary told a news conference, estimating the strike would last two to four weeks. He said Ryanair had been assured by Boeing that the timing of the delivery of 30 737 MAX jets due by next June would not be affected if the strike ended within three to four weeks. "We're not sure, though, that we necessarily believe that but we have no choice other than to work with Boeing once the strike is over to help them to increase production and catch up the three, four, five, six weeks of delays." Earlier this month O'Leary said a combination of existing backlogs and a prolonged Boeing strike could cut the number of aircraft it receives by next summer to 20. Asked about that comment on Tuesday, he said Ryanair was still working on the assumption all 30 would be delivered.<br/>
A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight, PK-213, encountered a serious emergency during its journey from Karachi to Dubai. The Airbus A320, which took off at 2:05 AM, experienced a hydraulic system failure while cruising at 36,000 feet over the Gulf of Oman, causing it to descend rapidly by 26,000 feet in just six minutes. The skilled pilot declared an emergency and sought assistance from air traffic control in Muscat. The pilot managed to rectify the hydraulic issue mid-flight, ultimately opting to bypass a landing in Muscat and continue to Dubai at a lower altitude of 10,000 feet for approximately 50 minutes. Upon landing safely in Dubai, the aircraft underwent inspection before being cleared for its next flight to Islamabad and then onward to Skardu. A PIA spokesperson mentioned that the airline is currently facing a shortage of aircraft due to recent administrative challenges.<br/>