Our Business News

Flight attendants of Compass Airlines, a feeder service for Delta Air Lines Inc , said they sought arbitration by the National Mediation Board (NMB) that will allow them to strike if management fails to negotiate a new agreement. The flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), said if the NMB grants its request and agrees that management has refused to make significant movement, negotiations will be declared deadlocked leading to a “cooling off” period and a strike deadline. Compass Flight Attendants have been seeking an agreement that provides fair wages, better working conditions and benefits, AFA Compass [...]

AMSTERDAM Dutch delivery group TNT Express , which has agreed to be bought by U.S. rival United Parcel Service (UPS) , has conditionally sold its airlines operations to ASL Aviation Group. The flight operations’ sale depends on the completion of the merger of UPS and TNT Express, the Dutch company said in a statement on Friday. TNT Express and UPS had said in their takeover agreement that TNT’s airlines would be sold to comply with European Union rules that forbid a non-EU entity from owning or controlling 50 percent or more of an EU airline operator. The European Commission last [...]

BRUSSELS/ U.S. airlines, through industry group A4A, will lobby the United States’ newly-elected president as soon as he takes office on an issue that has triggered threats of a trade war. All year, an international row has raged over the European Union’s decision to include all airlines using its airports in its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), designed to curb planet-warming pollution. The European Union says it is protecting the environment. U.S. opponents say it has breached sovereignty to try to fill its empty coffers. Both houses of the U.S. Congress have passed rare blocking legislation – yet to be signed [...]

NEW DELHI Kingfisher Airline’s licence was suspended on Saturday after it failed to address the Indian regulator’s concerns about its operations, forcing the debt-laden carrier to stop taking bookings. Controlled by Vijay Mallya – the self-styled “King of Good Times” – and seven months behind on salary payments among other missed bills, Kingfisher’s fleet has been grounded since the start of the month when a staff protest turned violent. The airline, which has never made a profit since being founded in 2004 and reeling under $ 1.4 billion of debt, will have its licence reinstated if it provides a plan [...]

NEW DELHI Kingfisher Airline’s license to operate was suspended on Saturday after the debt-laden carrier failed to satisfy the aviation regulator’s concerns about its operations. Struggling to pay bills, Kingfisher is seven months behind on salary payments, and its fleet has been grounded since the start of the month after a staff protest turned violent. It has been suspended until further notice, Arun Mishra, director general of Civil Aviation told Reuters. The regulator had asked the carrier why its license to fly should not be canceled for failing to provide a “safe, efficient and reliable service”. (Reporting by Anurag Kotoky; Editing by Dan Lalor)

American Airlines parent AMR Corp reported a wider quarterly net loss on Wednesday, as it took charges tied to worker severance costs and its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. But excluding the special items, the company had a profit of $ 110 million for the third quarter as fuel costs fell and revenue edged higher. The company, which had pilot absences and maintenance issues that led to flight cancellations and delays at American in the second half of September, said those incidents had no material effect on third-quarter results. AMR, which sought U.S. bankruptcy protection last November, said its net loss [...]

A Qatar Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner at the Farnborough International Airshow, July 10, 2012.CNN’s Richard Quest says the carriers of the Persian Gulf are causing mischief again They have eschewed airline alliances but are forces with which to be reckoned Quest predicts changes including Air Berlin leaving oneworldThroughout it all the Gulf carriers will continue doing ad hoc deals where necessary Editor’s note: In this analysis piece, Quest Means Business presenter Richard Quest examines the air industry’s alliances. You can follow Richard Quest, CNN’s foremost international business correspondent, on Twitter. You can watch Quest Means Business on CNN, 1800pm GMT [...]

NEW: Contract negotiations between the company, pilots are expected to resume this weekThe company says it found six planes with seats that were not properly securedAmerican Airlines is evaluating the planes “out of abundance of caution”The airline company has suffered a series of problems in recent months “Out of an abundance of caution,” American Airlines said Tuesday it would inspect 47 Boeing 757 airplanes after seats on two of the company’s jetliners came loose.A Boeing 757 from Boston to Miami carrying 175 passengers diverted to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport on Saturday when three seats in row 12 came [...]

American Airlines said an internal investigation has revealed improperly installed clamps caused some seats to loosen in six of its aircraft and would inspect the seats in other planes. On Monday the company said it had temporarily grounded eight aircraft after some seats came loose on two flights. “Our maintenance and engineering teams have discovered that the root cause is a saddle clamp improperly installed on the foot of the row leg,” the company said in a statement. The airline, whose parent AMR Corp filed for bankruptcy protection in November, is inspecting all 47 of its 102 Boeing 757 aircraft [...]

American Airlines is blaming its recent spate of flight cancellations and delays on a labor dispute with its pilots. Broken coffee pots and reading lights, torn seat pockets could be delaying flightsMore than 1,000 American flights have been canceled and 12,000 delayed in the past monthSome travel agents have started directing their customers away from American Airlines American Airlines is making Karen O’Laughlin a little nervous.O’Laughlin, a longtime fan of the airline, already bought her American plane ticket to fly from St. Louis to New York to visit her grandsons next month.”I choose American because it’s a straight flight, no [...]