Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Air France-KLM made progress toward resolving a long-running conflict over pay with Air France’s workforce after one of its pilots’ unions agreed in principle to accept a new pay offer put forward by the group’s new CEO Benjamin Smith.

(Source:atwdailynews October 11, 2018)

Hong Kong rights a wrong.

Hats off to Hong Kong Airlines for sticking to ludicrously cheap business class fares from USA after it published them on its website by mistake.

The tickets to Asian destinations - priced at a few hundred dollars for a round trip - were snapped up before the carrier realized its mistake.

CMO George Liu admitted that the fare was "definitely not a marketing gimmick, we really screwed up" he said. Liu learned of the slip up during a barbecue at a friend's house on vacation, but "we have decided to honour the tickets at our own cost. We’re willing to pay a price to keep our promises as a brand,'' he vowed.

Not all operators seem to be so concerned with their good name. In June, a certain UK airline that may still regard itself as the "world's favourite" voided the ticket of passengers who had managed to buy surprisingly cheap flights to the likes of Dubai and Israel through on-line travel agents.

(Source: Flight International magazine issue September 4-10, 2018)

New Canadian ultra-LCC Jetlines said delivery of its first two aircraft is on schedule for “early” second quarter 2019 following the second set of advance lease payments to Dublin-based lessor AerCap.

(Source: atwdailynews.com

Sometimes there’s a razor-thin line between good luck and bad and the unidentified pilot and passenger of what appears to be an ultralight had some time to think about that in South Africa on Friday. The aircraft hit a zipline over a 1,000-foot gorge near Rustenburg in the northwestern part of the country about 8:30 a.m. The line held as the aircraft became entangled in it and hung there for much of the day as authorities puzzled over a rescue. Meanwhile, inside the aircraft, the two unhurt occupants were doing nothing more than trying not to tempt physics. 

"After some time, rescuers reached the aircraft and found the man and woman inside the aircraft,” search and rescue spokesman Russel Meiring told enca.com. Rescue personnel equipped both patients with harnesses and began to lower them to the awaiting paramedics, 300 meters below. Once on the ground, the occupants were taken to a local hospital for a checkout but neither was hurt. "They explained to paramedics that the only thing they could do was not to move as they were scared that the aircraft would fall,” said Meiring. That included trying to call for help, which only happened when a passerby called it in sometime in the afternoon.

(Source: avweb.com,  October 1, 2018)