He's back. United Airlines CE Oscar Munoz returned to work full-time Monday after suffering a heart attack last October and undergoing a heart transplant in early January. On his first day back, Munoz made a major statement about what his priorities are. The United CE convened what was dubbed a "Labour Summit" by the 4 key United labour unions that participated, including the Air Line Pilots Association, the Association of Flight Attendants, the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers and the Professional Airline Flight Control Association. After the Summit ended, the United labour unions present at the meeting said the conclave with Munoz signalled "a long-overdue fresh approach to labour/management relations at United Airlines." <br/>
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Lufthansa Group last week filed a lawsuit against Sabre after the GDS company informed the airline group that it believes Lufthansa is in breach of contract. The claimed breach, according to the lawsuit, came as a result of Lufthansa’s implementation of a E16 surcharge on all GDS bookings (implemented last September), but not on bookings made via Lufthansa’s distribution channels, which Sabre claims are also GDSs. “Sabre now claims that two distribution channels of Lufthansa Group — its Direct Connection and its Agent.com Internet portal — should be considered ‘GDSs’ and thus be subject to the fee, even though both channels are expressly excluded from being considered GDSs under the contracts,” the lawsuit states. <br/>
SIA carried 1.459m passengers in February, up 5.5% from a year ago, the airline said Tuesday. Its passenger load factor (PLF) rose 2.2 percentage points from a year ago to 77.4%. Its capacity, measured in available seat-kilometres, also grew by 2.1% from a year ago. SIA said capacity expanded due to the effect of the longer month, but was partially offset by the reduction in seats with the introduction of Premium Economy. PLF improved across all route regions, "supported by promotional activities” SIA added. “The competitive landscape continues to be challenging and promotional activities will continue in relevant markets,” the airline said. Other airlines in the SIA group also reported better passenger carriage. SilkAir’s passenger carriage grew 11.6% year-on-year, well ahead of capacity growth of 9.8%. <br/>
Air NZ is buying 76 electric light vehicles, including 36 BMW i3 cars for its sales force. The airline says the switch to electric will save around 65,000 litres of fuel per year and it's creating what's believed to be the leading corporate electric vehicle fleet in New Zealand. The airline is also purchasing 12 Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrids for longer range trips and 28 Renault Kangoo Maxi ZE 100% electric vans for use at airports. The Kangoo is not currently available in New Zealand making Air NZ the first local customer for this vehicle. Air NZ CE Christopher Luxon says the fleet transition forms part of the airline's commitment to sustainability and carbon reduction across the business. The airline will get the first of its new electric vehicles later this month and aims to complete the fleet transition by the end of the year. <br/>