oneworld

American Airlines continues to tweak its boarding process with a goal of making getting on the plane more efficient – and less likely for passengers to have to gate check their carry-on bags. Starting May 1, the airline will add five minutes to the overall boarding time for all of its flights. Five minutes might not seem like much, but American Airlines spokesperson Rachel Warner says, "This extra time will deliver a smoother boarding experience for customers by allowing for pauses between boarding groups, relieving congestion on the jet bridge, and allowing customers to stow their bags and get settled before departure." "In addition, American’s gate agents and flight attendants will have more time to complete their pre-departure work and deliver personalized service to our customers," Warner added. "Flight attendants and gate agents will have more time to monitor and confirm when overhead bins are full, helping to reduce the number of involuntary gate-checked bags when bin space is still available." Boarding will commence 35 minutes before departure (up from 30 minutes) on flights operated by Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft, and 40 minutes before departure on flights operated by Boeing 737, Airbus A321 and all widebody aircraft in American's fleet once the change is implemented. Warner said that American plans to continue innovating its boarding process, and the change in boarding time will come after the airline introduces new technology in the fall to ensure travelers board with their assigned group. As of November, more than 100 airports served by American had technology that alerted gate agents when someone was trying to cut the line and board early, and the airline said customer feedback was largely positive.<br/>

American Airlines is planning to test complimentary inflight Wi-Fi starting next week as pressure mounts on carriers to offer the service free of charge. The tests will be available on three flights: Between hub Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina and Raleigh-Durham International Airport; Charlotte and Jacksonville International Airport in Florida; and between Miami International Airport and Chicago O’Hare International Airport. More and more carriers have either launched or are preparing to offer free inflight Wi-Fi, making it harder for competitors to charge for connectivity. American’s prices vary and are some of the U.S. industry’s highest, with flight passes often topping $20. It was not immediately clear whether American will expand complimentary service to larger swaths of its network, and if so, when. Delta Air Lines two years ago announced it would make Wi-Fi free for members of its SkyMiles loyalty program, following JetBlue Airways. United Airlines plans to offer complimentary Wi-Fi on board this year using Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite Wi-Fi, a service Hawaiian Airlines, which was acquired by Alaska Airlines, also uses. “Through this test, we’ll be assessing customer take rates for inflight Wi-Fi, evaluating our provider and aircraft capacity, and – perhaps most important – measuring the impact to customer satisfaction,” American’s chief customer officer, Heather Garboden, said in a staff memo Friday. In addition to facing more competition for a complimentary service, Fort Worth, Texas-based American has been in the process of working to win back customers after a failed business travel sales strategy last year.<br/>

Alaska Air flight attendants have ratified a new three-year labor contract, a union representing the workers said on Friday. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the union representing the attendants at the Seattle-based carrier, said that 95% of the votes cast supported the new agreement. The ratified agreement would provide attendants with pay increases ranging from 18.6% to 28.3%, boarding pay, 25 months of retroactive pay and two additional raises over the contract's duration, among other benefits, the union said. In August, the workers had rejected a three-year tentative agreement, which was the first to legally bind boarding pay for unionized flight attendants. Alaska welcomed the ratification in a statement. "I'm glad to have them working under a new contract that values their contributions to Alaska," the carrier's CEO Ben Minicucci said.<br/>

Booming transatlantic ticket sales have lifted British Airways and its parent group to ever higher annual profits. International Airlines Group, led by BA, announced post-tax profits edging up to E2.73b for 2024, with operating profits up by 22% on the previous bumper year to E4.3b , as passenger numbers continued to rebound from the Covid-era collapse. The bulk of the operating profit was driven by the British flag-carrier for the Spain-based group that also contains Iberia, Vueling and Level, as well as Ireland’s Aer Lingus. The performance was seen as vindication of measures including a £7bn “turnaround” investment in BA, including new lounges and better technology to counter a faltering reputation for service and repeated IT-related failures. The CE of IAG, Luis Gallego, claimed the results reflected “the successful execution of our transformation programme”. IAG also grew its capacity by 6% overall last year, including on the lucrative transatlantic market, with BA now the market leader on London-US routes and Iberia increasing its share of the Latin American market from Europe. Gallego said: “We are focused on continuing to make our brands the first choice for customers, by growing our network and enhancing the customer proposition, while our disciplined capital allocation ensures we can continue to invest in the business, deliver strong financial results and create sustainable value for our shareholders.”<br/>

Qatar Airways says an internal review has found that its crew "acted quickly, appropriately and professionally" when they placed the body of a woman who died mid-flight next to an Australian couple. The airline issued the statement to the BBC on Friday, after the couple told Australia's Channel Nine that they were traumatised by the experience on the Melbourne to Doha flight. Qatar Airways had apologised in a previous statement for "any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused". The incident sparked debate over procedures on dealing with deaths aboard planes. Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin, who were travelling to Venice for a holiday, said the cabin crew had placed the dead woman, covered in blankets, next to Ring for the last four hours of a 14-hour flight. The cabin crew had trouble moving her body through the aisle to the business class section because "she was quite a large lady", Ring said. They then asked Ring to move over and placed the lady in the seat he was in. While Colin was invited by another passenger to sit beside her across the aisle, Ring said the plane's staff did not offer to move him elsewhere even though there were vacant seats around. Qatar Airways said on Friday that the crew's handling of the woman's death was "in line with training and industry standard practice". "Passengers were accommodated to other seats, and a crew member was sitting at all times with the deceased passenger for the duration of the flight until landing in Doha," its statement said. "It is an unfortunate reality that unexpected deaths do sometimes occur on board aircraft across the aviation industry and our crew are highly trained to deal with these situations with as much respect and dignity as possible."<br/>

Hong Kong’s Cathay Group is planning to hire up to 4,000 employees globally this year with three consecutive recruitment roadshows in the city, Shanghai and London, as the company embarks on a planned expansion to 100 destinations. Patricia Hwang, Cathay’s director of people, said after a recruitment roadshow on Saturday that the group would step up hiring efforts all over the world for more staff, including pilots, cabin crew and customer service officers by year end. “The group is seeking to expand its network to reach the goal of hitting 100 destinations this year. We will continue to recruit more people here. The total number of employees will increase by 3,000 to 4,000 by the end of the year,” she said. “To achieve this goal, we will actively recruit from all over the world. In addition to today’s event in Hong Kong, for the next two weekends, our team will tour around Shanghai and London to carry out a similar hiring exercise.” The group’s recruitment drive came after CEO Ronald Lam Siu-por said in January the company had successfully completed its two-year plan to rebuild and that flights had returned to 100% of pre-Covid levels. Cathay had previously postponed its timeline for a full return to capacity from the end of 2024 to the first quarter of this year.<br/>

A Qantas flight has been forced to return to Sydney Airport after smoke was detected in the cockpit shortly after take-off on Monday morning. The Sydney to Perth flight landed normally back in Sydney and was met by emergency services upon arrival, after a technical issue was reported. Qantas said it will conduct an investigation into what caused the issue on the QF643 operated by Boeing 737. "Our pilots are highly trained to handle situations like this and the aircraft landed safely after the appropriate procedures were conducted," a Qantas spokesperson said. "We understand this would have been an unsettling experience for customers and apologise for the inconvenience." The flight captain requested a priority landing after smoke was restricted to the cockpit and the smoke did not enter the cabin.<br/>