British Airways has faced a “difficult” summer of flying, with nearly half its flights hit by the air traffic control delays that have dogged European aviation, senior bosses have told staff. The latest disruption to hit the airline came this week, when BA was forced to cancel 59 flights to and from London’s Heathrow airport on Thursday and Friday because of air traffic control delays caused by bad weather. Its other flights from the airport suffered lengthy delays. Writing to staff on Friday morning in an email sent to reassure staff after one of BA’s “toughest [recent] days”, two of the airline’s senior executives said the disruption added to a frustrating period for the airline. “Sadly, last night follows what has been a difficult summer for you all, as a result of some of the external challenges we have faced,” René de Groot, chief operating officer, Andy Best, and chief technical officer, wrote in the email seen by the Financial Times. In all, 42% of BA’s flights this year have been disrupted by air traffic control restrictions, up from 24% in 2019, the last year of flying before the coronavirus pandemic disrupted aviation, they said. The executives also warned that BA would be forced to “make a number of cancellations” to flights operated by its fleet of Boeing 787 aircraft over the next 10 days because of “continued . . . delays to the delivery of engines and parts from Rolls-Royce”. Rolls-Royce said it was working with BA and other customers to minimise the impact of limited availability of spares due to supply chain constraints. “Unfortunately, this is an issue affecting the whole aerospace industry,” it said. Airlines across Europe have complained about disruption from air traffic control all summer, as bad weather, the closure of airspace because of the war in Ukraine and a shortage of controllers have combined to challenge the industry’s resilience. In the email to staff, BA said it would work with the UK’s National Air Traffic Services (Nats), which manages the country’s airspace to improve resilience.<br/>
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Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airway’s business lounge, The Pier, has been forced to close for urgent repairs after a fire broke out on Saturday (Sept 28) and triggered an evacuation of more than 250 people. The airline said the blaze broke out at its supporting facilities on Saturday morning and staff on duty immediately alerted firefighters. The lounge is the carrier’s largest premium facility at the airport, serving thousands of travellers a day. Police said they received a report of smoke coming from an electrical meter room at the lounge at 9.55am, with 252 people being evacuated from the scene. The force noted that 52 were staff, while 200 were passengers. No injury was reported. “An initial investigation suspected that a short circuit was involved, which was deemed to be not suspicious,” a police spokesman said. Cathay apologised to travellers for the inconvenience caused. “As the lounge is temporarily closed for repairs until further notice, we have arranged for customers to transfer to other Cathay Pacific lounges before boarding their flights,” it said in a statement. It added that it will also inform eligible customers who have checked in about the changes in the service.<br/>
More than 1,000 Qantas engineers across Australia will walk off the job in industrial action they claim could kick the week off with peak-hour travel chaos, but the airline says it has contingencies in place and is not expecting any disruptions to travel. Flights between 7am and 9am across three timezones on Monday morning are set to be affected in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The months-long dispute between Qantas management and line maintenance engineers will see the latter strike for two hours. Line maintenance engineers tow and marshal aircraft on the tarmac, as well as run turnaround checks on aircraft on the ground to clear them for takeoff. Qantas engineers started industrial action on Thursday, when engines and components maintenance workers stopped work. The national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, Paul Farrow, said management had “backed them into a corner”. “As a former aircraft engineer myself, I know there is real pride in getting people where they need to go safely,” he said, adding that “there wouldn’t be a single engineer relishing the idea of delaying passengers”. “[But] Qantas management has absolutely smashed morale among engineers, and now we’ve reached a real fork in the road. Engineers won’t accept seeing their wages lurch backward in real terms while executives get showered in cash.” Last month, the Qantas board cut former CE Alan Joyce’s final pay packet by $9.26m reducing his final $21.4m in total earnings for 2022-23 by nearly half. Qantas engineers are represented by a union alliance comprising the AMWU, the AWU, and the ETU. The workers have been in negotiations since April, as their enterprise agreement expired at the end of June.<br/>
Qantas shares have finally climbed above their pre-pandemic high for the first time since the end of the pandemic. At the end of trading on Thursday, shares in the Flying Kangaroo were valued at $7.45, beating the $7.35 recorded on 20 December 2019. The symbolic moment follows COVID-19 causing one of the most astonishing freefalls in ASX history when Qantas stock nosedived to just $2.36 on 20 March 2020 as states began to shut borders and invoke lockdowns. Those brave enough to invest in the national carrier at its lowest point would have now more than trebled their investment. The news comes a month after Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson’s first annual results delivered another enormous profit before tax of $2.08b. The number is 16% down on FY2022–23’s record of $2.465b but still significantly up on pre-pandemic FY18–19’s $1.3b. Qantas attributed the dip to lower fares caused by increases in capacity across the sector and increased spending on customer initiatives. Hudson hailed the results as the “underlying strength” of the wider group’s portfolio. “Qantas benefited from increased corporate and resources travel and ongoing high demand for international premium seats while Jetstar delivered its highest result as it grew to meet increased demand from price-sensitive leisure travellers and saw the benefits from its new aircraft,” she said.<br/>