News from FlightGlobal – Page 481
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NewsVirgin Australia seeks $865m financial support from government
Virgin Australia is seeking A$1.4 billion ($865 million) in financial support from the Australian government to battle the downturn caused by the coronavirus crisis. “It is a preliminary proposal and remains subject to approval by the Virgin Australia Holdings Board and the Australian government and may or may not include ...
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NewsThai Airways to ground most of its fleet, seeks liquidity boost
Thai Airways International will ground 69 of 82 aircraft in its fleet and is looking for ways to boost finances as it battles the coronavirus crisis. The carrier said on 30 March that the figure excludes budget unit Thai Smile, which continues to operate domestic flights. Low-cost rival Thai AirAsia ...
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NewsJin Air uses 777 aircraft for cargo-only flights
South Korea’s Jin Air is the latest to deploy passenger planes on pure cargo operations as the coronavirus crisis wipes out business and leisure travel worldwide. The budget carrier says it will use its Boeing 777-200ER aircraft for cargo flights on the Incheon-Taipei route from 30 March to 13 April ...
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NewsAir NZ braces for $3 billion revenue plummet, starts layoffs
Air New Zealand has detailed how the coronavirus pandemic has all but wiped out its revenue this year and says it will start the process of laying off up to 3,500 workers this week In an email to staff, chief executive Greg Foran says revenue is on track to plummet ...
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NewsShort-time work begins for Lufthansa cabin crew and ground staff
Lufthansa has agreed short-time working arrangements with flight attendants and ground staff after suspending much of its operation amid the coronavirus crisis. Deals struck with trade unions and the company’s works council cover “at least” 27,000 of a total 35,000 employees, Lufthansa says. It adds that an agreement with pilot ...
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NewsAir New Zealand operates first Shanghai cargo flight
Air New Zealand is operating a cargo flight to Shanghai for the first time, as freight operations become “a really important part of what we do in the next quarter”. The carrier will deploy a Boeing 787-9 for the service, which departs Auckland around midnight today, carrying local food exports. ...
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NewsEurocontrol: All-cargo flights stay level as passenger traffic collapses
Efforts to maintain supply lines during the coronavirus crisis has meant all-cargo flights have barely declined in Europe despite the wipe-out of passenger operations across the continent. Pan-European air navigation organisation Eurocontrol states that, on 26 March, it logged 1,127 all-cargo flights – a fall of just 1% on the ...
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NewsAir Canada to cut 16,500 workers
Air Canada says it is cutting 16,500 employees and slashing its network by up to 90% in April and May, confirming earlier reports in Canadian media.
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NewsPassenger sues five Canadian carriers
Canadian airlines Air Canada, WestJet, Swoop, Air Transat and Sunwing have been accused of breach of contract in a class action lawsuit filed in the province of British Colombia for refusing to give passengers refunds to purchased tickets after the coronavirus severely impacted both domestic and international air travel.
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NewsEasyJet founder threatens board over Airbus fleet expansion
UK budget carrier EasyJet’s founder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, is threatening methodically to dismantle the company’s board if it fails to take action to reduce the airline’s commitment to additional Airbus jets. Haji-Ioannou, who has previously expressed concerns over the airline’s expansion, has laid out his attack plan in a strongly-worded communication ...
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NewsMahan A310 crew overran after displaced threshold blunder
Iranian investigators have found that a Mahan Air Airbus A310-300 crew mistakenly landed long and overran at Yerevan after failing to check which end of the landing runway was subject to a displaced threshold. The A310, arriving from Tehran on 26 May last year, had been cleared for an ILS ...
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NewsRussian low-cost carrier Pobeda halts flights until end of May
Aeroflot low-cost unit Pobeda has suspended all flights until the end of May following the introduction of travel restrictions by the Russian government.
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NewsEasyJet parks entirety of fleet after completing rescue services
UK budget carrier EasyJet has opted to ground the remainder of its aircraft fleet, after completing hundreds of repatriation flights in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. It has also reached an agreement to furlough cabin crew for a two-month period from 1 April, paying them through a UK government ...
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NewsQantas pilots vote in favour of Project Sunrise pay deal
Qantas long-haul pilots have voted in favour of a deal on pay and conditions for Project Sunrise flights. The deal means existing Qantas long-haul pilots will fly Airbus A350s if an order is made for the ultra-long-haul project, Australia’s biggest airline says in a statement. Project Sunrise is the airline’s ...
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NewsTwo more AirAsia carriers suspend operations from April
Indonesia AirAsia and Thai AirAsia are the latest among the AirAsia Group carriers to suspend operations, leaving just AirAsia Japan in service. Indonesia AirAsia will suspend domestic flights until 21 April and international flights until 17 May. Thai AirAsia will halt all domestic services during the month of April, having ...
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NewsJapanese and South Korean carriers further cut April schedules
Japanese and South Korean carriers have made further reductions to their summer schedules in light of the coronavirus outbreak. ANA had planned to serve a total of 4,653 flights on 72 routes between March 29 and April 24, but says 3,813 of those, on 68 different routes, have now been ...
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NewsThai A350 descended below 670ft while still far from Frankfurt runway
German investigators have detailed an approach incident in which a Thai Airways Airbus A350-900 descended to less than 670ft above ground while still nearly 6.5nm (12km) from touchdown at Frankfurt Main. The aircraft (HS-THF) had been inbound from Phuket, at night but in good visibility, on 1 January. While descending ...
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NewsCanada has ‘concerns’ about Air Canada-Transat merger
The Competition Bureau of the government of Canada says it has “competition concerns” about the planned takeover of Transat by Air Canada.
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NewsUK airspace visualisation illustrates coronavirus impact on traffic
UK air navigation service NATS has illustrated the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the country’s air traffic through a comparison with airspace activity a year ago. It has visualised aircraft movements on 25 March 2020, when 1,415 flights were handled, against the 6,224 flights on same date in 2019. ...
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NewsTrump signs economic aid bill
US President Donald Trump has signed a $2 trillion aid package designed to support distressed companies and employees after the coronavirus pandemic massively disrupted the US economy in the past weeks.