Come June, Erie, Pa., will be a one airline town. United Airlines will end flights to the community on the shores of the lake of the same name leaving American Airlines as the community’s sole air carrier, a shift that comes as airlines struggle to recover and grow their schedules in a constrained market. The cause for the Erie suspension, as a spokesperson for Chicago-based United put it, is the well-documented US pilot shortage affecting primarily regional carriers. But pilots are not the only issue. Continuing aircraft delivery delays at Airbus and Boeing have also hamstrung airline schedules; the latest example being American’s decision to suspend flights between Philadelphia and Madrid in May and June due to late Boeing 787 deliveries, The Wall Street Journal reported. And the Federal Aviation Administration has suspended usage rules for 10 percent of slots at airports in New York and Washington, D.C., this summer due to a shortage of air traffic controllers. The rule suspension allows airlines to reduce their schedules at restricted airports without fear of losing their valuable landing and takeoff rights. “The operation is getting more challenged as we start to move into the peaker parts of the schedule,” United CEO Scott Kirby said earlier in March. He has previously described the industry as ill-prepared for the post-pandemic operational realities. The situation has forced US airlines to cut capacity from their spring and summer schedules. The industry has shaved more than 3 percentage points from its second quarter capacity plans since January, according to data from TD Cowen and Diio by Cirium. Industry capacity is now scheduled up 3% compared to Q2 2019. Hawaiian Airlines reduced its scheduled Q2 capacity by 7% in March compared to January, United by 6%, and American by 4%.<br/>
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Austrian Airlines canceled more than 100 flights on Tuesday as workers strike to demand higher pay, the latest in a string of protests sweeping the European aviation industry in the run-up to the busy Easter travel season. The company has offered a wage hike of as much as 12.3%, according to the Chamber of Commerce in Austria. Worker representatives said the proposal only applies to some employees, while most would have to contend with an increase of 10%. The union meeting started at 9 a.m. in Vienna on Tuesday. A similar gathering earlier this month turned into a warning strike lasting into the early afternoon hours. Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the owner of Austrian Airlines, grounded flights in Germany on Monday amid a similar dispute over salaries. In France, protesters have clashed with police, opposing plans to raise the minimum retirement age. And in the UK, British Airways canceled flights over the Easter vacation because of protests at Heathrow airport ground staff.<br/>
The first direct flight from Auckland to Bali since COVID-19 halted the route three years ago has taken off, marking a major milestone for Air New Zealand. Flying direct to the Indonesian holiday hotspot dramatically cuts down travel time for Kiwis who have been getting there via stopovers in Australia. Operated on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, NZ64 took off from Auckland Airport at 12:25pm on Wednesday. It's set for a just over nine hours of travel time before touching down in Denpasar at 4:20pm (local time) after covering more than 6700km. The flight marked "another milestone" in the post-COVID-19 travel era for the national carrier, said chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty. "It's pretty much the last of our seasonal services to be resumed and with Bali being such a high-demand destination for Kiwi travellers, we're thrilled to be able to have direct services operating again," she told Newshub. Around 17,000 Kiwi tourists travelled to Bali via the direct Air NZ service in 2019, said Geraghty. "We had 10,000 seats sold in the first week that we announced [the] resumption of the services and we're seeing demand come through quite strongly since that point [in October]."<br/>