Boeing on Thursday clinched its first firm order for the troubled 737 Max since the aircraft was grounded 20 months ago, with a multibillion-dollar deal for 75 passenger jets from Ryanair, Europe’s biggest low-cost airline. The order marks the beginning of efforts to rehabilitate the aircraft — as well as Boeing’s own reputation — after two fatal accidents within five months left 346 people dead. Investigations following the crashes revealed Boeing had concealed design flaws in flight control software from pilots and regulators in a race to get the aircraft certified. The flawed anti-stall system, deemed a critical factor in the accidents, has been redesigned and pilots will have to go through more extensive training programmes. The FAA last month declared the jet safe to fly and other regulators are expected to follow suit in the coming weeks. Michael O’Leary, CE of Ryanair — already one of Boeing’s biggest Max customers — said he was “confident that our customers will love these new aircraft”. At list prices, the order is worth close to $8b, but analysts expect the Ryanair boss to have negotiated a steep discount given that it brings the airline’s total 737 Max order to 210 aircraft worth a headline $22b. Normally, aircraft are sold at discounts of about 50% to catalogue prices but the reduction is likely to have been even greater in the current climate. O’Leary said that there had been a “modest further improvement in the pricing. It’s not huge. But every modest reduction you can get when placing an order for up to $22b, a small discount is a lot of money.” But Scott Hamilton of Leeham, an aerospace consultancy, noted that “modest” is a subjective term.<br/>
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Southwest warned more than 6,800 employees on Thursday that they could be furloughed next spring — potentially the first job losses in the carrier’s history. Jon Weaks, head of Southwest’s pilots union, called it a “heartless” negotiating tactic meant to extract pay concessions from workers during the pandemic. The latest notices, added to about 400 already issued, mean that about 13 per cent of the Dallas-based airline’s employees have now been warned they may be put on leave without pay. US airlines have furloughed tens of thousands of employees this year as they struggle to adjust to dramatically fewer flyers. Southwest reported a $1.2b net loss in the third quarter on revenue that declined 68 per cent from the same period a year ago. But the company has almost $15b in cash — more than all its rivals, save for Delta. Southwest said it issued warnings on Thursday to approximately 1,500 flight attendants, 1,200 pilots, 2,500 ramp, cargo and operations staffers, and about 1,200 customer service representatives. The furloughs would take effect on March 15 or April 1, depending on the employee group. Weaks said the airline had been pressuring the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association for a 10% pay cut to save up to $225m in labour costs next year, and since the union has refused, it is sending out furlough warnings well in advance of the government-required timeframe. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications — otherwise known as WARN notices — are usually sent 60 days before a mass job cut. “This is a heartless, disingenuous negotiating tactic that they’ve announced during the holidays to put fear in the hearts of employees,”Weaks said, before invoking the airline’s revered founder. “This is not the way Herb Kelleher would have conducted business.”<br/>
The global pandemic has created a new aviation trend known as "preighter" flights, in which airlines retrofit their passenger cabins to hold packages instead of passengers, to increase their overall cargo capacity. With the holiday season approaching, Alaska Air Cargo has joined the fray, introducing an Alaska Airlines 737-900 passenger aircraft with seats that now serve as stowage containers. Alaska's retrofitted plane's cargo flights first took off in late November. Alaska Air Cargo enlisted HAECO Cabin Solutions, a division of HAECO, a global enterprise that provides aircraft engineering and maintenance services, to retrofit a single Alaska airlines passenger aircraft for cargo-only flights. HAECO Cabin Solutions designs have also been utilized by Cathay Pacific. "Our teams have been working since spring to identify the safest and most effective processes to increase our cargo capacity," said Torque Zubeck, managing director of Alaska Air Cargo. "HAECO's design will allow us to maximize the available space, increase our cargo capacity and protect the supply chain by connecting critical cargo to the communities we serve during this public health crisis." Each reconfigured 737-900 flight can carry up to 30,000 pounds, including storage in the aircraft's belly, filling "the main cabin passenger seats with an additional 13,500 pounds of cargo on top of what a passenger-only cargo flight can carry."<br/>
Norwegian Air Shuttle launched an emergency rescue plan on Thursday to save the struggling airline, unveiling proposals to downsize its fleet and raise new money from investors. It follows the filing for protection from creditors last month in Ireland under that country’s equivalent of Chapter 11 as it became aviation’s largest casualty of the pandemic. Norwegian’s fate was sealed when Norway’s centre-right government refused to offer a second bailout, triggering the latest proceedings. The company used Ireland to seek creditor protection as its subsidiaries there hold most of its aircraft. The company’s shares have plunged 99% in the past year, wiping out shareholders, as the stock was briefly suspended. Norwegian’s board proposed “reconstructing” the airline's balance sheet by reducing the size of its fleet, launching a new debt-for-equity swap and a rights issue of up to NKr4bn ($453m) in the form of new stock or hybrid instruments. The debt-for-equity swap, which would be its second of the year, would include aircraft financing liabilities, supplier liabilities and bond obligations. As part of the proposals, Norwegian said it could also only pay aircraft lessors when it used their planes to help it conserve cash, a so-called “power by the hour” deal. <br/>
El Al has been granted a degree of financial relief after the government agreed to provide advance payment to the airline for expenditure on security services. El Al says the ministry of finance has agreed to the request for advance payment of $15m for security expenses over January and February 2021. The airline states that this sum will be handed over once it provides confirmation that its controlling shareholder has transferred a further $10m to El Al as a loan. El Al’s controlling shareholder is Kanfei Nesharim Aviation which holds nearly 43% of the airline. The carrier says this shareholder has informed of its “readiness to issue” such a loan. It has been struggling to reinforce its financial situation having been unable to reach an agreement for a $250m loan intended as part of a funding support package. El Al states that the Israeli government, on 22 November, approved an extension to its current agreement concerning Israeli aviation security system activities to 31 July 2021, unless a new agreement is signed beforehand. The agreement had been due to expire on 30 November.<br/>
Bahrain’s national airline Gulf Air signed a memorandum of understanding with Israeli carrier El Al on Thursday, with Gulf Air direct flights to Tel Aviv set to start Jan. 7, a Gulf Air statement said. Bahrain and Israel formalised ties in September. The signing came during a visit of Bahrain’s Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed bin Rashid al-Zayani to Israel. The MoU allows for discussing potential joint codeshare operations between Manama and Tel Aviv and on global flight networks, and contains plans for greater commercial cooperation in the fields of loyalty, cargo, engineering and travel technology, the statement said.<br/>