Air Transport

Cargolux Airlines International has committed to hiring 120 employees and adding one more Boeing 747 freighter to its Luxembourg-based fleet in order to avert a strike, and to pave the way for a new collective work agreement.

Targeted at the Airbus A330-300 replacement market, the third derivative of the 787 family is 95% common with the 787-9.

The expansion of Tianjin Airlines, Airbus’s commitment to set up an A330 completion center in China, and the country’s bulk orders for the Airbus widebody aircraft are connected. The common element is the Tianjin city government.

HNA is the parent of Hainan Airlines and several other carriers in China. It is also the largest private airline group in what many believe will soon be the world’s largest single air transport market. Therefore any HNA acquisitions need to be taken seriously.

FedEx has been enough to keep this line going, but are more sales imminent?

France’s Transavia has chosen Germany as the country where it will establish its first base outside its home markets.

WestJet Airlines is looking to feed its U.S.-Canada flights through new codeshare relationships with Emirates Airline and TAM Linhas Aéreas, two recent filings with the U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) show.

Lufthansa and its three main unions have pledged to restart their relationship following a highly damaging series of strikes by pilots and cabin crew.

United Airlines has taken an aggressive stance toward Virgin America’s entry into the San Francisco-Denver market, adding five additional flights on weekdays beginning in March.

After testing the waters by offering its Mint premium cabin seasonally in the Caribbean, JetBlue has seen some early success with the introduction of Mint in Barbados, and will fly Airbus A321s with the new cabin there year-round.

Due to a delay in receiving its own ETOPS certification, which it partially blames on Boeing Capital, WestJet Airlines will wet-lease two Boeing 767s from Omni Air International for one month beginning on Dec. 11, an airline spokesman said.

The White House and Congress are considering possible changes to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) being proposed in the aftermath of last month’s terrorist attacks on Paris.

Malaysia Airlines and Emirates Airline are starting a codesharing agreement based upon an existing interlining deal.

Tianjin Airlines intends next year to add Europe to intercontinental plans that already include Vancouver as it introduces Airbus A330s into a fleet that is dominated by regional jets.

Members of the U.S. Congress said they have reached a bipartisan agreement on surface-transportation legislation that includes a provision to reauthorize the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im).

Cardiff Aviation’s Bruce Dickinson takes an innovative approach, combining MRO services with airline operations and leasing.

Boeing has completed a five-year fatigue test of the 787 airframe, validating the basic strength of the predominantly composite primary structure and helping to define maintenance and inspections to cover the aircraft’s full projected-service lifetime.

Test runs of the first Trent 7000 for the reengined Airbus A330neo are getting underway at Rolls-Royce’s Derby test site in the build-up to certification work, expected to run through early 2017.

The FAA has downgraded Thailand’s aviation safety rating, a move widely expected following audits of the Thai regulator by the U.S. agency and ICAO.

Hawaiian Airlines will operate daily flights between Honolulu and Tokyo Narita Airport starting July 22, 2016.

Mitsubishi Aircraft has conducted the second and third test flights of its MRJ regional-jet program, first retracting the undercarriage and then the flaps of the aircraft.

The U.K. government has revealed that it could sell off its remaining share of U.K. air navigation service provider (ANSP) National Air Traffic Services (NATS).

While the Chinese air transportation industry wonders whether the government will merge major carriers, China Eastern’s rivals keep building up at Shanghai.

The airline is finalizing a 10-year blueprint that will include either 787s or A350s, but may defer some other orders.

Anything that can catch fire will catch fire in the hands-on testing facilities within the FAA’s Fire Safety Branch.