Aviation Daily Roundup: October 20

Emirates has formed an interline agreement with Airlink, the Johannesburg-based airline which previously provided feed for South African Airways’ long-haul routes.

Alaska Airlines has added Embraer E175 service in the state of Alaska, operated by partner Horizon Air.

Cathay Pacific appears to be close to revealing the major workforce cuts it has signaled will be one of the results of its strategic review.

The heads of IATA and Airlines for America (A4A) painted a sober picture of the state of the airline industry, conceding the COVID-19 crisis is unprecedented for commercial aviation and warning of a potentially slow recovery.

Oneworld carrier Finnair has finalized plans to cut approximately 700 jobs—over 10% of its workforce—in response to the COVID-19 downturn, although this figure is fewer than the 1,000 originally anticipated.

U.S. airline passenger groups believe a committee created by Congress to advise the U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) on issues related to air traveler consumer protections is fundamentally broken.

Lufthansa Group is revising further downwards its capacity planning for the 2020 fourth quarter (Q4), now that air transport demand in Europe is contracting further and no substantial re-opening of long-haul flights is in sight.

Estonia’s government has approved plans to increase the share capital of Nordic Aviation Group (NAG).

Seeing a potential uptick in air cargo and transit passengers to metro New York, Singapore Airlines (SIA) will resume the world’s longest scheduled flight between Singapore and New York-JFK starting Nov. 9.

France has so far lost 100 million passengers and 700,000 flights as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, air traffic management organization Eurocontrol said Oct. 20.

East African carrier Uganda Airlines is preparing to receive its first Airbus A330-800 in December, ahead of the carrier’s long-haul debut in early 2021.

The pace of progress in establishing air links between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has stepped up several notches with a flurry of announcements.