May 23, 2022

Good Leads the Way: UA Employee & Passenger Throw Down

A United Airlines employee and customer were caught on video exchanging punches last night at United’s check-in area at…guess which airport…Newark. The staffer appears to be a United Ground Express employee. UGE is a subsidiary of United and their personnel typically assist check-in staff with luggage tagging and loading bags on the conveyor belt.

Why the fight started is currently unknown, but rumors persist that the customer was distraught over a possible delay keeping him in Newark longer than he absolutely had to, leading to the increased tensions. Based on the videos currently circulating, it’s unclear who started the fight, but both parties hold some blame for the situation.

The passenger hits the UA employee hard enough to knock him to the floor. When he gets up, face bloodied, and tries to keep fighting, the passenger does seem to make an effort to deescalate the situation and stop the fighting. When reached for comment, Dr. David Dao scored the fight for the employee, but said it was a close one. In other good news, United is likely to have a new opening for a UGE position in Newark, so anyone hoping to take the plunge – now would be the time to apply.

Korean Disputes Claim that Asiana Merger is in Jeopardy

Korean Air came out Monday refuting reports from late last week that its merger with rival Asiana is in doubt due to antitrust challenges in China, the European Union, and the United States.

In what sounds a lot like damage control directed at its shareholders, KE said Monday that the review by all three governments is underway and without any setbacks. The deal was given conditional approval by the Korea Free Trade Commission in February, but still has a long way to go. The carrier was forced to reapply for approval in China last fall after the issue was not resolved quickly enough for the Chinese government.

The U.S. DOJ is receiving heat from United to deny the merger, with United concerned that the combined carrier would leave Star Alliance where Asiana resides and end up in SkyTeam. United also expressed concern over what the name of the combined carrier would be – saying that Koreana didn’t make sense and Asiorean had too many vowels.

To dissuade concern about the deal, the carrier revealed it spent $27 million on lawyers, consultants and advisors to push the deal through which may be having the opposite effect.

Ryanair FA Sacked for Having a Cocktail

A flight attendant for Ryanair’s wholly owned subsidiary Lauda Europe was fired after video emerged of him drinking a double shot of whiskey and a mini bottle of rosé.

The flight was met at the gate by local police who gave the FA a breathalyzer test which he failed in spectacular fashion. He blew a 50mg per 100 mL of breath, when the legal limit in the UK is 35 mg per 100 mL. The flight was operating from Rzeszow, Poland (RZE) to London/Stansted, a flight of about three hours.

The unnamed FA is scheduled to appear in court on June 8 and faces jail time if found guilty.

  • Air Cairo is adding ATR72s.
  • airBaltic took delivery of its 35th A220-300. The traditional gift for 35 is coral.
  • AZAL Azerbaijan Airlines released a financial audit that revealed the carrier received $146 million in federal aid in 2020 and then another $50 million last year.
  • Conviasa will begin operating a flight once every two weeks between Caracas and Tehran.
  • Firefly will resume flying to Singapore on June 13, more than two years after it suspended service due to the pandemic.
  • ITA flew 30,000 people on Friday, the first time its flown that many passengers in one day. And of the ~30,000, some of them actually got to where they were going when they wanted to be there.
  • JetBlue spent more than $300,000 to file its hostile takeover plan of Spirit with the SEC.
  • Norse Atlantic will use Navitaire reservation system called New Skies to sell tickets after a salesperson wowed someone at Norse Atlantic’s office named Bjorn.
  • Qantas will resume service to Wellington today with 10 weekly flight to Sydney and five weekly to Melbourne.
  • Starlux now plans to debut its new A330 business class in June.
  • Turkish received the first of seven B737 MAX 8 it has on order from BOC Aviation Limited.
  • Vietnam Airlines posted a net loss of $104 million for Q1, its ninth consecutive losing quarter, a feat matched only by the Detroit Lions.
  • Virgin Atlantic will return daily service to Cape Town on a B787-9 on November 5.
  • Vistara plans to add as many as 19 planes to its fleet by the end of next year.

My neighbor’s 6-year-old daughter lined up all her dolls over by their grill.

Looks to me like she’s preparing a barbie queue.