Air NZ is proposing tighter carbon offset requirements under the country’s emissions trading scheme (ETS), a move spurred by the carrier’s extensive sustainability initiative. The New Zealand govt is reviewing ETS, and Air NZ has made a submission recommending the removal of an exemption that essentially halves the offsets needed by airlines and certain other industries. Airline CE Christopher Luxon admits it is an unusual step for an airline to ask the govt for more stringent environmental requirements. He says the carrier wants to “encourage the govt” to legislate 100% carbon offsetting, as it is “the right thing to do” and represents a target that all of the country’s industries should be moving toward. It will mean additional cost for the airline, “but we’re up for that,” Luxon said. <br/>
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The tenor of contract talks between United and its flight attendants, which have gone nowhere for 5 years, improved suddenly thanks to the involvement of CE Oscar Munoz. "Oscar has an actual vision for the airline: It's a night and day change," said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents United's 24,000 flight attendants. "I have worked with a lot of managements. I have never seen a CE this engaged and this committed to the success of the company." Nelson said she expects that a deal can be negotiated in the next several months. Munoz "is a guy who understands that the airline business is about people," Nelson said. "He made more changes in {his first} 5 weeks than we had seen in 5 years. That first day we met, it was clear that United management finally was interested in getting a deal." <br/>
Restructuring specialist 4K Invest has completed the majority takeover of Adria Airways. The new owner is registered in Luxembourg, but is managed from Munich. It acquired 96% of Adria and will make an offer to the remaining 4% of shareholders in the next few days. Adria has been facing financial difficulties for several years and the country’s govt has been keen to privatise the carrier. When the sale announcement was made in January, the Slovenian govt said that funding both from state sources and 4K Invest would be used to help return Adria to growth. The new owners will install Arno Schuster as a new board member. Adria said it aims to be profitable this year and that its fleet will mainly consist of Bombardier regional jets, with several more to be added this year. <br/>
SITA and Lufthansa have jointly developed bag-tracing technology called WorldTracer, which they say will “speed up the repatriation of delayed or mishandled bags to passengers.” According to SITA, the new-generation WorldTracer system provides Lufthansa agents access to a new, user-friendly desktop interface that makes it easy to record delayed baggage and trace the missing bags “no matter where in the world they are.” SITA said the new interface allows ground handlers, airport operators and airlines to access WorldTracer’s global baggage data while integrating it with their own reservation or operations systems, providing a rich data set that helps quickly trace a missing bag. The new WorldTracer desktop application will be available to all agents across the Lufthansa group in 2016. <br/>
Air India Wednesday signed an agreement for leasing 14 Airbus A320neo aircraft with ALAFCO, a Kuwait-based leasing company. The delivery of aircraft is likely to start from early next year. "This induction will augment Air India's capacity in domestic market. Air India already has strong infrastructure maintenance facilities for the Airbus A320 family," the carrier said. "This is a very important partnership for Air India. The A320 aircraft will add strength to our existing fleet and enhance our role as a major player in the domestic market," said Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani. The A320neo aircraft will come fitted with the new generation CFM leap engines which will reduce noise and emissions, enhance the operational efficiency and reduce fuel consumption by at least 15%. <br/>