Southwest Airlines has announced an "unprecedented" mass layoff, cutting over 1,700 jobs. Monday evening, Southwest announced it is cutting 15% of its corporate and leadership workforce. "This decision is unprecedented in our 53-year history," Southwest President and CEO Bob Jordan said in a statement. Southwest said the layoffs won't start until late April. Southwest said most employees who are notified of their "displacement" will not continue to work but will continue to receive salary, benefits and bonus, if eligible, until April. "This is a very difficult and monumental shift, and I arrived at this decision after careful and thorough reflection, knowing how hard it will be to say goodbye to Cohearts who have been a significant part of our Culture and our accomplishments," Jordan said. "We are building a leaner organization with increased clarity regarding what is most important, quicker decision making, and a focus on getting the right things done with urgency—not unlike our entrepreneurial founding spirit of the 1970s." Investors have been pressuring Southwest's leadership to find ways to cut costs. The company said that, as a result of the layoffs, it will save roughly $210m in the remainder of 2025 and approximately $300m in 2026. The announcement comes amid a board shakeup and increased focus on cutting costs, like adopting an assigned seating policy.<br/>
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United Arab Emirates investigators are probing an incident involving damage to an Emirates Airbus A380 engine just after take-off from Dubai. The aircraft had taken off from runway 12R, bound for Paris Charles de Gaulle, on 6 February. But as it climbed through 1,000ft the crew heard a “loud noise” and “slight shock”, states French investigation authority BEA, citing its UAE counterpart. The crew decided to continue the climb. But upon reaching 5,000ft one of the cabin crew informed the pilots that he had noticed “damage” to the cowl of the outboard left-hand engine. When the aircraft reached 12,000ft the crew, having discussed the occurrence, opted to return to Dubai where the A380 landed on runway 12L. BEA identifies the aircraft as A6-EOL, which is powered by Engine Alliance GP7200s. Investigators from the UAE’s General Authority of Civil Aviation have not yet specified the extent of damage, or the cause. The aircraft has since returned to service.<br/>
Preliminary findings indicate that an Iranian-operated British Aerospace Avro RJ100 crew was twice warned before landing on an under-construction runway at Grozny. The Mahan Air aircraft, operating flight W55116, had been inbound from Tehran on 14 October last year. It was cleared for the PINTA 1P arrival pattern to runway 08 using area navigation. “During the approach the controller twice warned the crew about a runway under construction located north of the operational runway,” says federal air transport regulator Rosaviatsia, in a bulletin on safety performance in its southern district. The new runway – displaced both to the north and west – runs parallel to the old, with their centerlines about 180m apart. “There was no confirmation of the information received by the crew,” says Rosaviatsia. “After switching to [visual approach], the crew landed on part of the runway under construction.” It states that the jet (EP-MON) stopped within a 1,600m concrete section, with “no risk” of overrun or collision with objects on the ground. Rosaviatsia says the crew’s erroneous action was influenced by “lack of interaction” between the construction contractor and airport services, leading to “non-compliance” with regulations about markings on closed runways.<br/>