unaligned

Southwest has yet to work out how to avoid a meltdown like the one it had last week with the cancellation of nearly 16,000 flights and faces a revenue hit of up to $1b, a top pilots union official said. “They don’t know what it is that they’re going do in terms of corrective action because they haven’t sat down and run the post-mortem on it,” Tom Nekouei, a vice president at the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, told Reuters. Nekouei said he and other union leaders had a conference call with the Dallas-based carrier’s Chief Executive Bob Jordan on Monday to discuss the issue. On the call, details of which have not been reported before, Nekouei said the company offered no immediate solutions. The pilots union, which is in heated contract negotiations with Southwest, on Dec. 31 published a letter signed by Nekouei, denouncing company leadership as a “cult” that has spent the last 15 years destroying the airline’s legacy. Before the recent crisis, Southwest had cultivated a reputation for reliable customer service, humorous flight crews and low-cost flights. Southwest canceled the flights in the week ended Dec. 29 due to bad weather and meltdown of its crew scheduling system, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. Southwest, which has said it is making “solid progress” to return operations to normal, had no immediate comment on Thursday. The unions have blamed the company’s “outdated” technology and processes for the biggest operational meltdown in its five-decade history that left many upset customers stranded during the holiday travel season. The White House has said Southwest “failed its customers” and the government would seek to fine the low-cost airline if it doesn’t properly reimburse people for their losses. The company, which was sued for not providing refunds to stranded passengers, previously sent an email apology to affected customers.<br/>

Southwest CE Bob Jordan said Thursday the company will carry out a thorough review of the disruption from a winter storm that forced it to cancel nearly 16,000 flights. "Restoring the trust of our customers and employees is everything to us," he said in a video message. Jordan also said the airline has made "great progress" in processing tens of thousands of refunds and reimbursements a day.<br/>

JetBlue Airways plans to boost its North Atlantic operations by launching new daytime flights from New York to London – and an alternative to its transatlantic red-eyes. Starting 25 March, the New-York based discount carrier will begin operating daily flights that will depart John F Kennedy International airport in the morning and touch down at London Heathrow airport in the evening of the same day, JetBlue said on 5 January. Currently, JetBlue’s flights from JFK to Heathrow are overnighters. On 26 March, the airline will launch westbound flights from London to New York that are scheduled to fly exclusively during daylight hours. The new schedule – made possible by two slots at Heathrow recently obtained by JetBlue – will provide JetBlue customers “the all-new option to arrive in the United Kingdom the same day they depart the United States,” the airline says. Meanwhile, JetBlue will reduce its service between JFK and London Gatwick airport from twice to once daily, and will maintain a total of three daily flights between New York and London. JetBlue also operates daily flights between Boston Logan International airport and London Heathrow and London Gatwick, making it “the only airline to offer service between New England and two of London’s busiest airports”, JetBlue says. On 9 December, JetBlue expanded its operating partnership with American Airlines with 11 new routes from Boston and New York as a pending decision in a federal antitrust trial challenging their so-called Northeast Alliance (NEA) looms. The carrier is also tentatively set to acquire rival discount airline Spirit Airlines in a $3.8b takeover bid that is pending federal regulatory approval. <br/>

Sunwing has issued an apology to passengers left stranded after winter storms upended operations but says "most of our customers enjoyed their holidays with minimal disruption." In a joint statement on Thursday, Sunwing Travel Group CEO Stephen Hunter and Sunwing Airlines president Len Corrado said they are "incredibly sorry for letting our customers down." "We regret that we did not meet the level of service our customers expect from Sunwing," the executives said. "We had clear failures in execution, particularly in responding to weather-related delays and the aftermath of severe weather disruptions, which limited our ability to reposition aircraft and crew to other airports to help alleviate the backlog in flights." Hundreds of passengers were affected by Sunwing flight disruptions, which began to pile up on Dec. 22 due to weather. Some customers were stranded for days in tropical destinations amid a flurry of cancellations, winter storms and a breakdown with the airline's digital communication service that left some flights with empty seats.The company said it has completed all recovery flights related to holiday disruptions and has a plan to fix technical issues with flight alert notifications and communication flow to customers. The airline is also continuing to "actively work to reunite customers who travelled during this period with their baggage in a timely fashion."<br/>

Just three days before flight PS752 was shot down from the sky over Iran, Mohammad Aminnia celebrated his engagement to a woman he describes as one of the most brilliant he has ever known. "She was full of life. Full of energy," Aminnia said. "She didn't even want to sleep because she always told me, 'life is short and I want to experience a full life,' but I didn't know life was going to be too short for her." Aminia's fiancée was Masoumeh Ghavi. She was on her way back to Canada with her sister, Mahdie, when Iranian forces fired surface-to-air missiles at the passenger plane, killing all 176 people onboard. The Ukraine International Airlines flight, bound for Kyiv, went down on Jan. 8, 2020, just minutes after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport. Most of the passengers were headed to Canada, with many being either citizens or permanent residents. They were dentists and doctors, whole families with small children, newlywed couples and students returning from holidays. Now Aminnia is among those calling for action. A demonstration was held on Thursday in front of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) office in Montreal. Demonstrators are forming a sit-in and holding a hunger strike until Sunday. About 20 people gathered during the day, and more were expected to join the protest, Aminnia said. "The community is angry and sad," said Aboozar Behesti, the co-founder of Women, Life, Freedom — the group behind the demonstration. He said the protest is about condemning the ignorance of the ICAO.<br/>

The EC)has authorised French state aid of E136.8m to Air Austral, of which E119.3m is earmarked for restructuring the airline and E17.5m in compensation for damages suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic. In a January 5 statement, the EC also announced it had approved the restructuring plan, which runs from January 2022 to March 2025. Air Austral will contribute towards its funding through its own or private sources of funds. The new aid followed a loan of E20m from the French state to Air Austral on January 18, 2022. Measures aimed at limiting distortions in competition will remain in place during the above-mentioned restructuring period. These include limitations on the number of seats and routes operated by Air Austral and a ban on acquiring stakes in other undertakings and business agreements with other airlines. Brussels believes the restructuring plan will ensure the airline's long-term viability and prevent it from being wound up, which it said would harm Réunion as an outermost and assisted department of France. It reiterated that Air Austral ensured territorial continuity between Réunion and neighbouring Indian Ocean islands (Mayotte in particular) and mainland France.<br/>

Egyptian carrier Air Cairo is aiming to build a fleet of 30 aircraft by March this year, having introduced three Embraer 190s as part of its modernisation programme. The airline received the twinjets through Egyptian company CIAF Leasing, based in the country’s capital, which took delivery of the aircraft in December. CIAF Leasing’s order for three E190s was unveiled during the Dubai air show in 2019. CE Salah Sahem describes the variant as an “excellent addition” to its E-Jet fleet. Air Cairo has revealed that it had brought three E190s – registered SU-BVG, -BVH and –BVI – into its operation under an expansion plan which has taken its overall fleet to 24. This fleet includes 17 Airbus A320-family jets – among them several A320neos – and four ATR 72 turboprops. Air Cairo says it expects to increase the fleet to 30 aircraft by March this year. This is in line with its aim to broaden its network to reach “the largest number of external and internal destinations”. It says it operates to more than 40 cities and claims to have the largest domestic operation in Egypt.<br/>