Southwest Airlines will be the first carrier to receive Boeing’s new Max version of its best-selling 737 aircraft. Those planes may sit idle unless a new contract with the carrier’s 8,000 pilots is reached. Their union says the Max isn’t listed in the current labour agreement as an aircraft they can fly, a common practice in the industry. Southwest says the new plane is just like others in the existing contract except for an updated engine, and doesn’t have to be specifically named. The disagreement is the latest between the airline and the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, whose members rejected a proposed accord in November. The two sides start a fresh round of meetings March 22, and the upcoming arrival of the Max may add urgency to the talks. Southwest expects to receive its first plane in Q3 of 2017. <br/>
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Virgin Australia will adjust the price of reward seats redemptions through its Velocity frequent flyer scheme for the first time in 5 years, with the outcome set to prove a mixed bag for loyalty program members depending on their booking plans. In addition, when the changes take effect June 1, Velocity points are now set to expire in 2 years if there is no activity on a member account, as opposed to the current allowance of 3 years. Qantas frequent flyer points expire if there is no activity over an 18-month period. The cost of premium economy and business class seats on Virgin, Delta, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America and some Air NZ flights will rise for every distance, but it will take fewer points to redeem flights on economy class journeys of more than 7700 kilometres. <br/>
Stelios Haji-Ioannou has called for the immediate dismissal of the CE of Fastjet as he turns up the heat on the airline he set up to replicate EasyJet’s model in Africa. Haji-Ioannou said he was using EasyGroup’s 12% shareholding to demand a general meeting after losing “faith” in the management and board. He called for the removal of Ed Winter, who has been Fastjet’s CE since it was founded 4 years ago, and Krista Bates, a board director. Haji-Ioannou criticised Fastjet’s “ridiculously high cost base”, claiming that Winter had “burnt some GBP80m in the last 3 years”. “At the current cash burn rate we believe the company will run out of cash sometime in 2016. We now have about 6 months left to steady this ship. Time is of the essence,” Haji-Ioannou wrote in a letter to the carrier's chairman. <br/>
The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand has applied sanctions to 3 small Bangkok-based carriers—Asian Air, City Airways and Business Air—following non-compliance with aviation safety and operating regulations. All are at risk for losing their AOCs if the issues are not addressed in a timely manner. CAAT grounded City Airways’ Boeing 737-400 due to its overall safety culture. The grounding would be lifted after the indicated operational issues were addressed. Asian Air was also given a grounding notice for its single Boeing 767-200, following a notice for bankruptcy from the Bangkok Bankruptcy Court over unpaid dues to a maintenance contractor. CAAT withdrew the Boeing 767-300 registration of Business Air, partly on the basis of ongoing unpaid air traffic management and communications operator dues. <br/>
Thales is aiming for 98% connectivity for passengers on JetBlue Airways’ upgraded inflight experience being rolled out by the airline on its Airbus A320s starting next year. In January, JetBlue unveiled an A320 cabin “restyling” that will include what the airline is calling a fully connected inflight experience. Thales and ViaSat will enable gate-to-gate high-speed Internet access, which will be connected to new seatback TV screens and be available for free. A streaming TV inflight entertainment (IFE) system will be provided by Thales via its STV+ product. Thales CE Alan Pellegrini conceded that 100% gate-to-gate connectivity won’t be possible. “There can be physical disruptions that occur,” he said, noting that any route that goes over the Atlantic at a good distance from the US East Coast will lose connectivity to satellites. <br/>
VLM Airlines has cancelled its order for Sukhoi SSJ100s. In Oct 2014, VLM announced it planned to acquire up to 14 long-range versions of the Sukhoi SSJ100. Under a letter of intent with Ilyushin Finance, VLM took the option to lease up to 4 SSJ100LRs plus purchase rights on 10 more aircraft. The first 2 aircraft were due to arrive on 12-year operating leases from April 2015. However, in March 2015 a delay in the initial deliveries until Q3 2016 was announced, due to the need to certificate the long-range version by EASA. The deal has now been scrapped and VLM will look anew at finding a new aircraft. The decision to drop the regional jet was made primarily because of VLM’s exposure to potential risks from an aircraft whose long-range version had not yet achieved EASA certification. <br/>
IndiGo said it will receive its first A320neo in March, 3 months later than originally planned after Airbus said it could not deliver the aircraft on time. IndiGo had expected its first A320neo in December and 9 more by March. The airline said it would now take delivery of 24 aircraft in the year to March 2017, fewer than the 26 originally planned. Airbus has been renegotiating delivery for the A320neo due to what it described as issues with documentation for new Pratt & Whitney engines. Indigo agreed the purchase of 250 A320neos in August, handing Airbus its largest-ever order by number of planes, and took its total A320-family orders to 530. IndiGo said Monday its total fleet size, currently numbering around 100 planes, is expected to increase by about 22.4% year-on-year in the 2017 financial year. <br/>