Southwest Pilots Sue Southwest
Southwest Airlines has taken its pilots for granted and used the pandemic to unilaterally impose changes to working conditions and pay. At least, that’s the case according to the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA), which filed suit against the airline in federal court this week.
The union alleges in its suit that the carrier illegally granted itself “force majeure” rights at the onset of the pandemic to make changes to its agreement with its pilots. This comes shortly after the union’s lawyers looked up force majeure on Wikipedia to confirm that it wanted to go forward with the suit.
Much of the union’s complaint centers around the airline’s infectious disease policy that “significantly altered the working conditions, rules, and rates for pay for pilots.” It also doesn’t care for the airline’s decision to tell pilots who might have been in close contract with a positive COVID-19 case to go into mandatory quarantine, saying that it used this to avoid paying pilots for work trips.
Russell McCrady, Southwest’s vice president of labor relations, disagrees with the suit, saying the airline is committed to pilots’ health and welfare, just as long as pilots continue to fly the airplanes without contracting any deadly viruses.
Iberia and Alaska Request Codeshare on 78 Routes
Alaska is not wasting any time making new friends in oneworld as the carrier is requesting permission to codeshare with Iberia on 78 routes from both Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The partnership would cover 62 domestic and 16 international routes from the two California airports. The 16 international routes would service Alaska destinations in both Costa Rica and Mexico. The airlines told the DOT its application is in the public interest because it will add additional services between the EU, the US, and these 78 locations. It also believes it would benefit the public because the two airlines want to make more money and these routes would allow them to do so, which would benefit the public… as long as the public buys shares of the company.
Iberia currently flies three-weekly flights to Los Angeles from Madrid for serious travelers and two-weekly flights to San Francisco from Barcelona under the LEVEL low-cost brand which is for all the cool kids. (If you don’t know the brand, you aren’t cool.) If the codeshare is approved, Iberia will be Alaska’s 15th codeshare partner.
Sale of SAA Nearing Completion According to Firm Buying SAA
Takatso Consortium, the preferred strategic equity partner of the South African government that will purchase a majority of SAA, is at an advanced stage in its negotiations to buy the airline according to the consortium.
Takatso is nearly complete with its due diligence of the carrier and did not identify any major issues, thanks to SAA’s well-placed hiding of Mango, a fleet of 37 Boeing B707s, and other fiscal weights around its ankles. The group is a JV between asset management firm Harith General Partners and ACMI specialist Global Aviation – not to be confused with US-based startup GlobalX. Global also owns the Lift Airlines brand, proving that a rising tide does lift all airlines… or any of them.
The consortium is moving forward with a 51% purchase of SAA from South Africa’s Department of Public Enterprises. The airline is hopeful to resume flying on September 23 with one domestic and five regional routes from Johannesburg.
Porter Debuts World’s Lightest Aircraft Seat
Porter Airlines, the Canadian carrier that hasn’t operated a flight in 18 months, used its hiatus to update the interior of its fleet, introducing the lightest seat ever used on a passenger aircraft.
All 29 of its Dash 8-400 aircraft feature the new TiSeat E2 from Expliseat, weighing in at 50% less than previous seats, dropping aircraft weight by 1,000 pounds. The seats are attached to the floor of the plane using heavy Canadian maple syrup as a glue-like substance.
As many other carriers have done, Porter is promoting the new slim seats as a passenger benefit due to the increased pitch. Most passengers would trade the extra half an inch of pitch for support around the general butt region, but airlines think otherwise.
Other aircraft upgrades include new carpeting and updated LED lightning. Porter also expects to enhance its aircraft by actually flying them with people for the first time in a year and a half, but we’ll believe that when we see it.
Eastern Airlines Launches Air Cargo Operations
Eastern Airlines – the North American version – announced it acquired 35 B777 aircraft to begin an air cargo operation. The carrier is jumping in with both feet, going for 35 planes from the get-go, as opposed to many carriers who start cargo flights with 1 or 2, or even 34 planes instead of 35.
The 35 are all passenger planes that are being converted into freighters, becoming class-E cargo aircraft. Eastern is designing the fleet to serve the e-commerce express freight market, ensuring that your bread maker purchased online gets to you within 72 hours.
The planes are expected to enter service early next year. The conversion from a passenger configuration will allow the entire main deck cabin to hold low-density, express freight cargo. The airline expects to offer general cargo sales, wet-leasing, dry-leasing and any other form of leasing for which it can make a buck.
- Air France KLM named Pierre Teboul its new Senior Vice President Commercial.
- Azul Chairman David Neeleman is joining the board of Lilium, a German-based company that’s designing an eVTOL jet.
- British Airways reopened its Concorde Rooms in both London/Heathrow and New York/JFK. Unfortunately, it did not return the Concorde to the skies.
- Cally Air in Nigeria is at risk of being grounded just a month after it began flying because it doesn’t seem to be interested in paying its bills.
- Emirates will take delivery of its final A380 this November.
- Kenya Airways is looking for another government bailout from the Kenyan government. The bailout would need approval from both Kenya’s treasury and Ryanair.
- Qantas plans to release oodles — that’s a technical term — of award seats at reduced rates when it begins international flying again this December.
- Rex deferred delivery of four B737-800 aircraft it was due to receive this year to mid-2022, probably because of something Qantas did.
- SWISS is launching dine-on-demand in business class, finally curing all that is wrong in the world.
- WestJet announced new service to Scotland, with the airline flying 4x-weekly to Glasgow from Toronto beginning May 20 and 3x-weekly to Edinburgh from Toronto, beginning June 2.
How do you deal with a sad astronaut? Just give them some space.