Business: Good week - Bad week

Good Week

© Skyteam

DELTA PILOTS The carrier and its pilots' union agreed a voluntary early retirement programme to address overstaffing. The scheme includes a severance payment, medical benefits for a limited amount of time, and retiree travel. Up to 9,400 pilots are eligible. Chief executive Richard Anderson says the carrier needs to save cash and is offering voluntary early out deals and early retirement to virtually all its staff, adding: "We have not seen any green shoots."

 

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Bad Week

© SAA

AFRICA'S AIRLINES The continent's carriers have not escaped the downturn and are likely to suffer heavy losses in 2009. African Airlines Association president and LAM Mozambique Airlines chairman Jose Viegas says first-quarter profitability was "quite poor", adding: "Southern African airlines are facing an unprecedented crisis. In the last 12 months alone, some have filed for bankruptcy. The lack of cashflow has hit the region's so-called 'big brothers' too."

Source: Flight International