Aeroflot’s CE has warned against privatising the airline, as it seeks to maintain vital domestic services while competing with the likes of Lufthansa. “I believe that for a country like Russia, it is dangerous not to have a state-run airline,” Vitaly Saveliev said. He argued that, with the country’s economy in recession, the govt needed Aeroflot to ensure affordable transport across its far-flung territories and limit the fallout from rival Transaero’s bankruptcy. Saveliev said he expected Aeroflot to return to profit this year but cautioned that Russia would struggle with economic stagnation and a sluggish aviation market for a long time. His remarks come as Arkady Rotenberg, an oligarch and childhood friend of president Vladimir Putin, eyes a deal to buy half the state’s controlling stake in Aeroflot. <br/>
sky
Air France-KLM Group CFO Pierre-François Riolacci announced he’s stepping down a week after a new CE took charge, leaving the airline scrambling to find a successor amid tensions with French pilots over cost-cutting efforts. Riolacci will leave the carrier in November to become CFO at ISS. The executive is departing the airline in the midst of a reorganisation that has prompted sometimes violent protests by pilots and other staff and a schism between its French and Dutch arms. CE Jean-Marc Janaillac, a close ally of French president Francois Hollande with limited airline experience, took over the airline’s leadership at the beginning of July. Riolacci will be the second CFO at a major European airline to exit this year, following the resignation of Lufthansa’s Simone Menne to join Boehringer Ingelheim. <br/>
The NTSB is investigating a Delta Air Lines flight that mistakenly landed at a South Dakota Air Force base, about 12 miles from its intended destination. Delta Flight 2845 departed from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport Thursday evening en route to Rapid City, South Dakota, carrying 130 passengers on an Airbus A320 jet. The crew instead landed the plane at Ellsworth Air Force Base, located north of Rapid City Regional Airport. The aircraft landed safely, Delta said. The NTSB said it is investigating the incident. Delta is cooperating with the govt’s probe and is conducting its own, the airline said. The flight crew has been taken off duty during the review <br/>