Uzbekistan Airways, the national carrier of the Republic of Uzbekistan, has placed a firm order with Airbus for 12 A320neo Family aircraft (eight A320neo and four A321neo).
The new aircraft will join the carrier’s current fleet of 17 Airbus A320 Family aircraft. The choice of the engines will be made by the airline at a later stage.
Top Copyright Photo: Uzbekistan Airways Airbus A321-253NX WL UK32103 (msn 10676) LHR (Antony J. Best). Image: 959314.
Uzbekistan Airways aircraft photo gallery:
Korean Air will resume services to four major destinations in Europe starting in March.
After a 3-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the airline will restart the Prague and Zurich routes from the end of March, followed by the resumption of the Istanbul and Madrid routes at the end of April.
Starting on March 27, the airline will resume its operations to Prague three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The flights will depart from Incheon at 12:45 pm and arrive in Prague at 4:55 pm. The returning flights will depart from Prague at 6:50 pm and arrive in Incheon at 11:50 am on the following day.
Flights between Incheon and Zurich will begin on March 28 and operate three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Flights will depart from Incheon at 12:20 pm and arrive in Zurich at 5:30 pm. Returning flights will leave from Zurich at 7:30 pm and arrive in Incheon the following day at 1:35 pm.
From April 24, flights to Istanbul will resume operation three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Flights will depart from Incheon at 1:40 pm and land in Istanbul at 7:40 pm, while the returning flights will leave Istanbul at 9:20 pm and arrive at Incheon at 1:25 pm the next day .
The Incheon-Madrid route will resume from April 25 with services three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Flights will leave Incheon at 11:35 am and arrive in Madrid at 6:00 pm, while flights departing from Madrid will depart at 8:00 pm and arrive in Incheon the following day at 3:55 pm.
Top Copyright Photo: Korean Air Airbus A330-223 HL8211 (msn 1133) LAX (Michael B. Ing). Image: 959926.
Korean Air aircraft photo gallery:
Air Malta will add a new route from Malta to Lisbon on June 26, 2023.
Lisbon becomes the fifth new destination in the airline’s route expansion for summer 2023, in addition to Naples, Nice, Palermo and Tel Aviv.
Flights to Lisbon will operate twice weekly on Monday and Thursdays with Airbus A320s, through until October 26, 2023.
Top Copyright Photo: Malta – airmalta.com (Air Malta 2nd) Airbus A320-251N WL 9H-NEB (msn 8940) MUC (Gunter Mayer). Image: 959925.
Air Malta aircraft photo gallery:
Delta Air Lines will add to its portfolio of international routes with never-before-operated service to Auckland, New Zealand, from Los Angeles beginning this fall, while also boosting its trans-Atlantic service from its New York-JFK and Atlanta hubs starting this spring.
Daily flights between New Zealand’s largest city and Los Angeles will begin Oct. 28, 2023 on an Airbus A350-900 aircraft, as Delta becomes the only U.S. airline to provide nonstop service. This new destination joins other new Los Angeles service to Tahiti, Paris and London-Heathrow and will complement the airline’s current service from LAX to Sydney, where it operates 10 flights per week in the winter and daily service to Tokyo-Haneda. Delta operates more than 150 daily flights from LAX to 53 destinations across the globe as the airport’s leading premium global carrier.
Delta is forging its way to full network restoration, announcing its first slate of summer 2023 trans-Atlantic routes last fall to cities like Edinburgh, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Geneva and Stuttgart, many routes that have not been flown since pre-pandemic.
Delta will deliver its largest trans-Atlantic schedule ever from JFK next summer by offering more than 220 weekly departures to 26 destinations, including new daily service to:
Additionally, Delta will add a third seasonal flight to Rome beginning May 25, operating daily.
Top Copyright Photo: Delta Air Lines Airbus A350-941 N508DN (msn 190) RIV (Michael B. Ing). Image: 959924.
Delta aircraft photo gallery:
American Airlines has announced its largest schedule ever to London Heathrow Airport for next summer.
The carrier will operate 26 daily flights to LHR from 11 different U.S. cities.
AA will operate four flights daily from its New York (JFK) hub, Chicago (O’Hare) hub and Dallas/Fort Worth hub.
The airline will also operate three flights daily from its Charlotte hub and Los Angeles hub.
Twice-daily flights will also be operated from the Miami and Philadelphia hubs along with daily service from Boston, Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham and Seattle/Tacoma (fed by partner Alaska Airlines).
Top Copyright Photo: American Airlines Boeing 777-323 ER N730AN (msn 31554) LHR (SPA). Image: 931582.
American Airlines aircraft photo gallery (Boeing):
Hawaiian Airlines pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l, have reached a tentative agreement with management on a new four-year contract that includes substantial pay increases, including current industry-leading rates for the carrier’s new cargo operation.
The agreement includes an average 32.9 percent pay increase over the duration of the deal for HAL’s five aircraft types, including an average 16.6 percent increase on date of signing. It adds a signing bonus, raises company retirement contributions, creates a new health reimbursement account, increases schedule flexibility, and improves pilot quality of life.
One of the highlights of the proposed agreement is the pay rate for Hawaiian’s future fleet of Airbus A330F freighters, which it will begin flying for Amazon in 2024. The A330F rates will be the highest in the industry, surpassing existing rates at cargo giants UPS and FedEx Express.The HAL ALPA MEC unanimously approved sending the tentative agreement to the airline’s 1,000 pilots for ratification and will open two weeks of ratification voting on January 27. If ratified, the agreement would take effect March 2.
Top Copyright Photo: Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A330-243 N390HA (msn 1389) SEA (Michael B. Ing). Image: 959919.
Hawaiian Airlines aircraft photo gallery:
Delta Master Executive Council (MEC), represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA), voted to recommend that a comprehensive tentative agreement (TA) for a new pilot working agreement be submitted to the membership for ratification. The MEC also voted to recommend a letter of agreement on international job protections (global scope) be submitted to the membership for ratification.
The union’s Negotiating Committee will begin a series of road shows at each pilot base beginning January 23 to present the agreements to the membership and answer questions. Additionally, ALPA has provided the pilot group with full contractual language and launched a website that contains detailed information. The membership ratification ballot will open on January 31 and close on March 1.
Top Copyright Photo: Delta Air Lines Boeing 717-2BD N953AT (msn 55015) SEA (Michael B. Ing). Image: 959918.
Delta Air Lines aircraft photo gallery (Boeing):
Allegiant Air reported a 10.9% increase in passengers in December 2022 compared to pre-pandemic numbers in December 2019.
Scheduled Service – Year Over Three-Year Comparison
Top Copyright Photo: Allegiant Air Airbus A320-214 N262NV (msn 4122) (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish) LAS (Arnd Wolf). Image: 959630.
Korean Air is planning to relaunch flights between Seoul Incheon (Incheon) and Prague on March 27, 2023 after suspending the route three years ago.
Flights will operate three times per week using Boeing 777-300ERs.
Top Copyright Photo: Korean Air Boeing 777-3B5 ER HL8208 (msn 37645) YYZ (TMK Photography). Image: 959905).orean Air
Korean Air aircraft photo gallery:
Ghana Airlines, the new national airline of Ghana, is targeting the third quarter of this year in order to commence operations.
Ashanti Airlines won the tender bidding contest and will operate the flights of the new flag carrier.
Concept image: Boeing.
Ghana Airlines is being funded by the Zotus Group and will commence operations on domestic and regional routes, including unspecified European routes (probably London).
Ghana Airways ceased operations in 2004.
Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary has said he was hopeful of receiving 40 to 45 of 51 Boeing MAX aircraft due for delivery by the summer season, up from a previous forecast of 40 according to Reuters.
Top Copyright Photo: Ryanair Boeing 737-8 MAX 8 (200) EI-HGL (msn 65081) STN (Antony J. Best). Image: 959901.
Air Transat has announced it will close its flight attendants base at Vancouver International Airport.
As a result, more than 200 flight attendant positions will be eliminated.
These flight attendants will have the opportunity to be reassigned to bases in Montreal and Toronto.
Top Copyright Photo: Air Transat Airbus A321-271NX WL C-GOJC (msn 10521) (rainbow star) LGW (Robbie Shaw). Image: 959451.
SWAPA President Captain Casey Murray issued a call for a Strike Authorization Vote from the Association’s membership. This historic action on the part of the pilot union comes in the wake of Southwest’s largest meltdown and the utter lack of meaningful progress on a contract negotiation, with scheduling work rules and information technology asks in particular, that has been ongoing for more than three years.
Captain Murray stated, “While your Board of Directors and Executive Officers have had many strategic discussions on timing, I think it is best to consider what our customers have been through over the past several years and the past several weeks. It was the lack of discussion or commitment by our leadership team to rectify these issues for our passengers and our pilots that drove us to make the decision to carry forward on this path afforded to us by the Railway Labor Act.”
The vote will take place beginning on May 1 and will ultimately give the pilots the ability to strike once released to self-help. Murray continued, “We believe that May 1 provides a date that allows our union time to prepare and gives our customers time to book elsewhere, so that they can have confidence that their summer vacations, honeymoons, and family outings are assured.”
The vote will be counted at the end of May.
Southwest’s response:
The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association announced today its intention to call for a strike authorization vote on May 1, 2023.
“SWAPA’s call for an authorization vote does not affect Southwest’s operation or our ability to take care of our Customers,” said Adam Carlisle, Vice President Labor Relations at Southwest Airlines. “We will continue to follow the process outlined in the Railway Labor Act and work, under the assistance of the National Mediation Board, toward reaching an agreement that rewards our Pilots and places them competitively in the industry. The union’s potential vote does not hinder our ongoing efforts at the negotiating table. We are scheduled to resume mediation on January 24.”
As of October 2022, Southwest and the Union are engaged in negotiations with assigned mediators from the National Mediation Board. The mediators set the dates, location, and agenda for negotiating sessions and have continued to drive the parties toward closing out certain sections before addressing the more complex items in the contract.
The proposed vote does not affect operations in any way and is not an indication of an impending work stoppage. As always, the Southwest Team is focused on delivering a safe and reliable operation, along with our legendary Southwest Hospitality, to Customers.
Southwest Meltdown Detailed in New Podcast
New York Times podcast The Daily released this new podcast on January 10, covering the Southwest Airlines holiday meltdown.
Their description of the episode reads as follows:
Air travel was a mess over the holidays — in the last 10 days of December, 30,000 flights were canceled. While every airline was affected, one stood out: Southwest, which over the past few decades has transformed how Americans fly, melted down. In the last 10 days of the year, it canceled as many flights as it had done in the previous 10 months. So what went wrong?
Listen here: https://www.nytimes.com/column/the-daily
Top Copyright Photo: Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-8 MAX 8 N8812Q (msn 42662) IAH (Jarrod Wilkening). Image: 958681.
Ethiopian Airlines will add the Addis Ababa – Atlanta route on May 16, 2023.
The new route will operate four days a week with Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.
Schedule:
Top Copyright Photo: Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner ET-AYC (msn 65091
United Airlines (UAL) reported its fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 financial results.
Fourth-Quarter Financial Results
Full-Year Financial Results
Top Copyright Photo: United Airlines Boeing 777-222 N769UA (msn 26921) LAX (Michael B. Ing). Image: 959899.
United Airlines aircraft photo gallery:
