American Airlines’ pilots union is weighing an offer for higher raises in a new two-year contract proposal, the latest attempt to seal up a labor deal at the country’s largest airline. If approved by the union’s board and ratified by the airline’s 15,000 pilots, aviators would get 12% raises on the date of contract signing, plus 5% after one year, and 2% after two years, according to a copy of the agreement in principal. The total would be higher than the raises American offered in June. More senior captains would get about $432 an hour two years after signing, while new first officers would get close to $110 an hour, according to the preliminary agreement. Airlines are scrambling to get labor deals done with pilots, their highest-paid unionized employees, and other groups. American and the other largest US carriers have been in negotiations with their pilot groups for months, with the pandemic derailing talks as travel demand collapsed. FedEx pilots are also in contract talks. “Getting our labor deals done is a very high priority for our people,” Southwest’s CEO Robert Jordan said on an earnings call on Thursday. Pilots are in short supply and regional airlines, where the shortage is most acute, have raised wages sharply this year. Those hikes included American Airlines’ subsidiaries where pilots got 50% increases through August 2024.<br/>
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Shareholders of British Airways and Iberia parent IAG have approved the company’s plan to purchase 50 Boeing 737 Max, including the high-capacity Max 8-200 and the as yet uncertificated Max 10. Boeing disclosed the agreement on 27 October, which includes options to purchase a further 100 737 Max aircraft. “We welcome today’s decision by IAG’s shareholders to approve a firm order for 50 737-8-200s and 737-10s, with options for 100 more, and we look forward to working with IAG on reintroducing the 737 in to the group’s fleets,” says Boeing head of commercial sales and marketing Ihssane Mounir. The approval follows IAG’s disclosure in May that it and Boeing had agreed to the terms of the 50-aircraft deal. At the time, the airline company said it intended to acquire 25 Max 8-200s and 25 Max 10s between 2023 and 2027. IAG said any of its airline companies – which include Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, Level and Vueling – could use the jets for “fleet replacement” purposes. But IAG’s plan to purchases the Max stretches back the Paris air show in June 2019, when it signed a letter of intent to purchase up to 200 of the narrowbodies. That agreement came at the Max programme’s nadir: the jet had been grounded earlier that year following two crashes, and Boeing was struggling to find new customers. The Max 8-200 is a high-capacity Max 8 variant that can carry up to 200 passengers thanks to changes that include the addition of an extra pair of exit doors. Max 8-200 customers include Ryanair and US discounter Allegiant Air.<br/>
Qantas Airways CEO Alan Joyce said an Australian sustainable aviation fuel industry could support 15,000 jobs as he again made the case for government support for aviation’s only immediate path to decarbonization. Incentives are key to kickstart domestic production of sustainable aviation fuel, Joyce said at a conference in Sydney on Thursday. Manufacturers need to see that making SAF, as it’s called, is a viable enterprise, he said. “Policy settings are really, really important,” he said. “They’re there in California, they’re there in Europe. They’re producing it.” Airlines are running out of time to scale up production of SAF, aviation’s best shot at reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. SAF currently accounts for less than 0.1% of global jet fuel use, partly because there’s not enough of it and it can be several times more expensive than normal fuel. Battery-powered aircraft don’t have sufficient range, while hydrogen-powered planes are years away and present fuel-distribution challenges, Joyce said. Australia’s vast land mass and feed stock could be put to use producing SAF, which can cut emissions by 80%, he added. A home-grown sustainable fuel industry would also offer energy security for military and commercial aircraft, he said. Qantas is having “really good discussions” with the new Labor government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Joyce said. Qantas and Airbus in June said they plan to invest as much as $200m to accelerate the adoption of SAF in Australia. <br/>