The International Brotherhood of Teamsters representing 10,000 United Airlines technicians has voted to reject a contract offered by the US major, calling it a "disgraceful economic proposal". The union says that 99.5% of Teamsters voted "to reject this greedy carrier's attempts to cut their wages and send their work to communist China". Teamsters general president Sean O'Brien and airline division director Chris Griswold state that United executives "think they can strong-arm 10,000 Teamsters technicians into accepting a terrible deal". They add: "United's radical, un-American contract proposal is dead on arrival. United raked in $4 billion in profits last year off the backs of highly skilled, hardworking Teamsters who keep planes flying safely. Rather than reward them, United wants to gut good American jobs and gamble with safety. "United's short-sighted cash grab reflects everything that's wrong with big business at a time when we should be bringing back jobs to America." In response to the Teamsters statement, United tells Cirium that "while the Teamsters have suspended talks to hold this nonbinding advisory vote, we remain ready to reach a high-quality contract that makes our aircraft technicians proud". United adds: "We look forward to hearing when the union plans to re-engage on negotiations."

South African Airways (SAA) has disclosed that its pilots have accepted an extended salary and benefits package, effectively ending their work-to-rule industrial action. The carrier says this decision marks a "pivotal" moment as it concludes the 2024 wage negotiations for the pilots' bargaining unit. "We are pleased to see the pilots recommit to their roles and return to the flight deck, underscoring their dedication to the airline's success over the years to come," states group chief M John Lamola. "Their resolution aligns with the airline's best interest, its entire workforce and, most importantly, the thousands of customers who depend on SAA to connect them to destinations across South Africa, the continent, and the globe."

Airbus is preparing to test a pilot programme, in 2025, designed to enable sustainable aviation fuel buyers to book a certain amount of SAF and claim corresponding emission reductions, even if the fuel is used elsewhere. The aim of the initiative is to boost SAF supply and demand worldwide and provide a flexible, scalable solution to accelerate SAF adoption, the European airframer says. It adds that a first memorandum of understanding was signed by SMBC Aviation Capital, followed by AerCap, Comlux, Luxaviation, Novespace, Rive Private Investment and SAF Aerogroup. As a facilitator, Airbus will purchase SAF certificates and manage associated sustainability attributes through registry at certification body Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials. The certificates will then be resold to interested customers, such as aircraft and helicopter operators, to stimulate SAF demand. Participants in the programme hope to generate insight into the capacity and robustness of the mechanism and assess market interest in third-party facilitation of such integrated SAF solutions. "For a lot of smaller operators, getting access to SAF can be challenging depending on the amount of SAF needed," states Airbus head of sustainable aviation fuel and carbon dioxide removals, Julien Manhes. "Through this initiative, Airbus can simplify and de-risk the process for operators and SAF suppliers, by financially securing SAF certificates upfront and sharing them when customers need them."