United Offers Triple Pay to Pilots
United Airlines is offering triple pay to its pilots to pick up extra trips during January to keep the airline’s operation functioning and reduce the number of canceled flights.
United and its pilots’ union – the Air Line Pilots Association – reached an agreement on the higher pay after the union first rejected such overtures late last year. The carrier will offer three-and-a-half times pay for open trips taken from December 30 through today, with triple pay offered tomorrow through January 29.
United is one of several airlines paying its flight attendants and other staff bonus pay to keep its operation from falling (any further) off the rails, and now adds bonus payments to its pilots — both of which are on top of the 5x pay United pilots and flight attendants should receive as hazard pay for working flights to or from Newark during the holiday season.
SAA Moves Closer to Partnership with Kenya Airways
Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta announced during his New Year’s Day address that Kenya’s flag carrier plans to “join hands with partners in South Africa to establish a Pan-African airline, with unmatched continental reach and global coverage.” He forgot to add “… until it inevitably goes bankrupt sometime next year.”
Despite speculation that the two airlines would merge, SAA squashed that idea over the weekend, saying that the two airlines would continue planned cooperation but have no intention of merging. The two airlines signed a strategic partnership framework two months ago, and while neither has figured out what that means exactly, both are willing to move forward with a mutually-beneficial partnership.
SAA’s plan is to leverage each other’s networks with extensive codeshares but keep the two brands operating independently. Any idea of a full-on merger ended when SAA told Kenya Airways the two could merge, but KQ would have to rebrand itself as Mango to more efficiently use all the Mango-branded items laying around SAA’s offices.
United Flight Attendant Worked 23 Years with Stolen Identity
Federal agents arrested United flight attendant Ricardo Cesar Guedes at Houston/IAH and charged him with several federal crimes after it was revealed he had been living with a false identity for more than 20 years.
When pressed during questioning, Guedes said he took the identity of Wilson Ericson Ladd because well, would you want to have your name associated with United? Guedes stole the identity in the ’90s, during a pre-9/11 time when such things were much easier than they are now. He had a passport issued in his name and was hired at United in the late ’90s.
Perhaps more impressive then fooling the federal government and the state department for so many years was that he managed to keep his job as a FA through the downturns following both 9/11 and the pandemic. When asked for comment, United stated that Guedes is no longer employed by the airline, which makes sense because Wi-Fi in federal prison is notoriously spotty which would make Guedes unreliable – at best – in logging into his United employee app to bid on his next round of trips.
- Aeromexico has a pending a offer from Alinfra S.C. to purchase 49% of the carrier’s current capital stock offering.
- Air Caraibes joined Air Austral and Corsair’s merger talks like a lover scorned.
- AirAsia Group proposed changing its corporate name to Capital A in an effort to distance itself from all the failing subsidiaries it owns across Southeast Asia.
- Air New Zealand is now offering on-board catering as passengers exit the aircraft at their destination as the carrier has finally tired of watching people eat.
- Ariana Afghan Airlines issued an RFP for a three-month widebody wet lease, beginning February 1.
- China Southern received two new A350s late last week.
- El Al confirmed it will receive an additional aid package from the Israeli government.
- GOL‘s acquisition of Brazilian regional carrier MAP was approved by the Brazilian government.
- Indonesia Air Transport received an AOC to begin scheduled commercial operations.
- Philippine Airlines exited Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Restructuring last Friday, just in time to announce its 2022 New Year’s resolution of “not going bankrupt again.”
- Starlux took delivery of a new A321neo.
- TUI took delivery of a B737-8 MAX.
- World2Fly expects2fly scheduled ops sometime early in 2022.
I called the paranoia hotline last night. A guy answered the phone and asked “How did you get this number?”