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American Airlines Group will offer employees five charter flights on the Boeing 737 Max as the carrier tries to ease any concerns before the embattled jet returns to passenger flights in late December. The planes to be used have undergone the updates required by the US FAA to end a long grounding, American said Monday. In granting approval for the Max charters, the regulator also authorized American to begin revised pilot training before changes to its flight manual take effect Dec. 22. “We know that restoring our customers’ confidence in the 737 Max starts with ensuring our own team members are comfortable,” the airline said in a message on its internal computer network. American also said it’s planning opportunities for corporate customers to see the aircraft and ask questions. The FAA cleared the Max to resume flying on Nov. 18, ending a 20-month flying ban that followed two fatal crashes within five months. The agency is mandating changes to a safety system linked to the accidents and fixes to other flaws discovered during months of reviews. New pilot training is also required. American’s first one-hour employee flight is scheduled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Dec. 3. Additional flights are set for Miami on Dec. 8 and 17, and for New York’s LaGuardia on Dec. 9 and 15. The flights, which will take off and land in the same airport, are open to active American employees from any location, but not retirees or workers’ relatives. The charters will follow a Dec. 2 flight carrying reporters, employees and executives between DFW and American’s maintenance base in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where some of the company’s Max jets are being readied for service. <br/>

American Airlines began trial flights from Miami to South America in mid-November to prepare for its role in transporting the COVID-19 vaccine, the US carrier said Monday. The flights simulate the conditions required for the vaccine to stress test the thermal packaging and operational handling process that will ensure it remains stable. The trial flights come as airlines scramble to prepare ultra-cold shipping and storage facilities to transport COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna, whose doses require deep freezing and are likely to be among the first to be distributed. The US carrier said it was working with cargo, pharmaceutical and federal partners to be ready to safely and quickly transport an approved vaccine. Typically, airlines use containers with cooling materials such as dry ice to transport pharmaceutical products, but some don’t have temperature controls, making products prone to unforeseen events such as flight delays.<br/>

British Airways risks being a bit-part player in the race to distribute Covid vaccines compared with German and French airlines, analysts have warned. Experts say Lufthansa and Air France KLM have bigger cargo operations, meaning they will play a leading role in transporting the vaccine around the world. Airlines have been handed lucrative contracts to carry PPE and other supplies during the pandemic. This has led to record cargo revenues, providing a rare glimmer of hope in what has been the industry’s biggest-ever crisis. Cargo operations at IAG, the FTSE 100 group behind BA, Iberia and Aer Lingus, are dwarfed by flag carriers on the Continent. Lufthansa and Air France KLM have posted cargo revenues of E1.9b and E1.7b respectively in the first nine months of 2020, compared with E1b generated by IAG. And with countries dependent on airlines to transport vaccines in 2021, this gap is set to grow. Analysts from HSBC estimated Lufthansa will book E3.4b of cargo sales and Air France KLM E3.2b - more than double the E1.5b IAG is expected to take. Qatar Airways, Emirates and Cathay Pacific have even larger cargo operations alongside specialists such as Fedex and UPS.<br/>

Qantas has rejected in-house bids from its employees after a three-month process and decided to outsource its ground handling at 10 airports across Australia. The move brings job losses across the group “as a result of the Covid crisis and associated border closures” to around 8,500 of its 29,000 pre-Covid workforce, the Australian flag carrier says Monday. Around 2,000 employees are affected by the decision. “Unfortunately, Covid has turned aviation upside down. Airlines around the world are having to make dramatic decisions in order to survive and the damage will take years to repair,” says Qantas domestic and international CE Andrew David, who describes the move as “another tough day for Qantas”. “While there has been some good news recently with domestic borders, international travel isn’t expected to return to pre-Covid levels until at least 2024. We have a massive job ahead of us to repay debt and we know our competitors are aggressively cutting costs to emerge leaner.” Qantas had already indicated in August that it intended to outsource the ground handling work at the 10 airports, but it gave its own employees an opportunity to bid for the work, saying they would need to “demonstrate they can deliver on the objectives Qantas needs to meet”. These objectives include reducing the overall cost of ground handling operations, avoiding large spending on ground handling equipment such as aircraft tugs and baggage loaders, and “better matching” its ground handling services and their cost with fluctuating levels of demand.<br/>