Australia’s Alliance Aviation has executed an aircraft sale and purchase agreement to acquire an additional Embraer E190 jet. This acquisition will take the E190 fleet to 33, Alliance says in a 1 April filing to the Australian Securities Exchange. This aircraft was previously operated by Helvetic Airways in Switzerland and is a sister ship to two other E190s in its fleet, bearing registration VH-XFL and VH-XFM. These were acquired in the middle of 2021 and are both based in Adelaide. Alliance adds that the aircraft is already in Australia and only requires “minor maintenance and to be painted in Alliance livery before it can commence revenue operations”. Alliance’s managing director Scott McMillan states: “Acquiring the sister ship of the two E190s servicing contracted routes out of Adelaide will enable Alliance to re-deploy Fokker capacity elsewhere across the network. “In addition, basing this aircraft in Adelaide will also lead to base simplification by creating efficiencies across crewing, operational and engineering services.”

Representatives from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Boeing will travel to China to support official investigations into the China Eastern Airlines MU5735 crash. China has issued visas to NTSB investigators and technical advisors from the FAA and Boeing, NTSB said via its official Twitter account on 30 March. “The team hopes to depart this week.” CFM International will serve as a technical advisor to the NTSB for the Civil Aviation Administration of China's (CAAC's) investigation and there are currently no plans for representatives of the engine maker to travel to China. NTSB added: “The NTSB team will not release any information about the investigation as that authority belongs to the Chinese government under ICAO Annex 13.” The aircraft involved in the crash is MSN 41474, a Boeing 737-800 of 2015 vintage fitted with CFM International CFM56-7B engines. On 21 March, it had 123 passengers and nine crew on board a scheduled domestic flight from Kunming to Guangzhou, when it crashed into the mountains in the southern Guangxi province. There are no survivors. The aircraft’s cockpit-voice recorder was found on 23 March at the crash site, on the ground surface 20m south-east of what authorities determined as the main impact point. The flight-data recorder was retrieved on 27 March, 1.5m below the ground surface and 40m from the main impact point. The flight recorders suffered severe damage to various parts, according to the CAAC, and have been sent for decoding. While the cause of the crash is still unknown, China Eastern suspended all 737-800 operations as an emergency response and plans to conduct a comprehensive investigation, according to a news article published by the CAAC on 24 March. The article cites the chairman of China Eastern Airlines’ Yunnan branch Sun Shiying as saying the airline seeks to eliminate any unknown safety issues. China Eastern has sufficient capacity, he added, and the return to service of its 737-800s will be guided by civil aviation regulations.

Members of Alaska Airlines’ pilots’ union plan on 1 April to picket outside of airports in Anchorage, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles as talks for a new contract with the airline have stalled in recent months, the Air Line Pilots Association states. "It has been nearly three years since the Alaska pilots began contract negotiations," ALPA says. "The current contract trails those from comparable airlines in several key sections and is not competitive when it comes to attracting and retaining pilots." The Covid-19 pandemic drags on yet US airlines are scrambling to hire pilots and staff similar to their position in 2019. Carriers expect a recovery of US travel demand in mid-2022, increasing the urgency of recruitment, the strain on existing flight crews to meet schedules, and the bargaining power of unions. Pilots from Canada plan to attend in solidarity at Alaska's informational pickets, ALPA says, reflecting the support of unions to voice their common grievances. Flight crews face record-high passenger violence during their shifts, while flight delays caused by storms and staff shortages at airports also drive unions to call for more flexible schedules. Members of the Allied Pilots Association union, which represents pilots of American Airlines, also plan to attend the Alaska picket in support. American pilots also protested on 10 March alongside members of Delta Air Lines’ pilots' union outside of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport seeking more flexible schedules from Delta. Scheduling practices at American are also a concern among members of its pilots’ union.