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Mesa Air Group will sell 18 Embraer aircraft to United Airlines for about $229.1m and use the proceeds to cut debt, the regional airline operator said on Tuesday. Shares of Mesa, the parent company of Mesa Airlines, rose more than 10% before the bell. Most of the aircraft of the Phoenix, Arizona-based company are operated under an agreement with United, where they fly under the United Express brand. Mesa completed the sale of eight of the 18 aircraft on Dec. 31 and expects to close the rest by the end of this month. The company expects to use $142.4m of the gross proceeds from the sale to pay off associated debt, Mesa said in a regulatory filing. Mesa also said it had entered into a separate deal with a third party on Dec. 24 to sell 15 used Bombardier CRJ-900 airframes for about $19m. The company intends to use the cash from that transaction to pay down its loan with the U.S. Treasury.<br/>

Air Canada’s flight attendants have launched a PR offensive as they enter contract negotiations with the airline and tensions rise over long-standing issues related to pay, working conditions and scheduling. Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada Component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), represents more than 10,000 members who have been working under the same collective agreement for a decade. With the current agreement set to expire on March 31, negotiations with Air Canada are now underway, and unpaid work is taking centre stage. Story looks at some of the key issues at play. One of the primary concerns raised by CUPE’s leadership, including Lesosky, is the issue of unpaid work. Flight attendants are currently compensated only for time spent in the air (known as in-flight credit hours), yet they perform critical tasks before and after flights. These include boarding passengers, assisting those with disabilities, conducting safety checks and managing luggage. The union estimates that flight attendants are working an average of 35 hours per month without compensation for these duties, which are mandated by Transport Canada. The anecdotal reason for the apparent pay discrepancy is an industry standard dating back to a time when flight attendants’ in-flight compensation was high enough to cover the surrounding duties.<br/>

TAP Air Portugal and Portugália Airlines are celebrating achieving IATA Environmental Assessment (IEnvA) certification. This is the first environmental certification of its kind for both airlines, reaffirming their commitment to adopting sustainable and responsible practices in the aviation sector. The airlines achieved the IEnvA certification, based on the ISO 14001 standard, by implementing plans with policies that minimise the environmental impact of their flight operations and facilities including corporate buildings in Portugal. Luís Rodrigues, CEO of TAP Air Portugal said: “This certification represents an important step in our ongoing sustainability journey. “We are committed to leading by example, reducing the environmental impacts of our operations and promoting more responsible aviation. This is recognition of the joint work of our teams and TAP’s ongoing commitment to the future of the planet.”<br/>