More than 1,100 flights have been delayed or cancelled at San Francisco International airport since the airport closed its busiest and second-longest runway, 28L, to construct a new base layer below the runway surface. The closure, which began on 7 September and is due to last until 27 September, has frustrated thousands of travelers and caused chaos at one of the busiest airports on the West Coast. In a statement, the airport says airlines have tried to alleviate some of the pain in advance by implementing voluntary schedule adjustments. This resulted in total flights being reduced by 13% during the 20 days of the Runway 28L closure.
Airlines have also re-timed certain flights to reduce demand during peak times. Still, thousands of passengers have suffered through the disruption as construction crews reconstruct the runway which had been repaved just two years ago. During the project at that time, engineers discovered “the base layer was showing signs of fatigue cracking due to a large amount of aircraft activity in this area”, the airport says in a statement. They were not able to address the issue at that time, so further repairs had to wait until this month.

Source: FlightGlobal

French budget airline Aigle Azur's court administrator has received 14 expressions of interest about acquiring all or part of the ailing carrier. Aigle Azur was placed into receivership earlier this month after running out of enough liquidity to continue operations. It had started cancelling routes but subsequently admitted that its financial situation and operational problems were too great, and it suspended all flights on 7 September. Most of the proposals for Agile Azur concern purchasing "isolated assets", the administrator says, although it has received bids for more comprehensive recovery projects too. However, the administrator does not believe any of these proposals are currently viable: "Their industrial seriousness and their financing will have to be confirmed within the given deadlines." Air France-KLM said that it plans to bid for the airline in order to take control of its landing slots at Paris Orly airport. EasyJet has also expressed interest in purchasing Agile Azur's Orly operations. The administrator will now asses the offers and create a transfer plan. A further hearing of the Evry Commercial Court will take place on 16 September.

Source: FlightGlobal

AIR Namibia is experiencing a leadership vacuum after board chairperson Dee Sauls-Deckenbrock and her deputy Nangula Kauluma resigned last Thursday. Sauls-Deckenbrock is a practising lawyer with her own law firm, while Kauluma is an executive at First National Bank (FNB) Namibia. They were both appointed to the Air Namibia board of directors for a three-year term with effect from 1 January 2019. Their resignations come five months after the airline's acting managing director, Mandi Samson, relinquished the position she had held for close to five years on 15 March 2019. Works spokesperson Julius Ngweda said the ministry will be looking at filling those empty slots as a matter of emergency. “We know the situation Air Namibia is in financially, and it is not easy to sit in that chair as a managing director, a board chair or vice chairperson. Tomorrow [today], we will look into appointing someone new as a matter of an emergency,” he added. Public enterprises minister Leon Jooste yesterday said he and works minister John Mutorwa only found out about the resignations on Thursday afternoon. The resignations come at the brink of possible liquidation of Air Namibia due to the fact that the ailing parastatal has failed to make a profit since it was set up, and has relied on government bailouts amounting to N$8 billion to date. Jooste said he understands why the two – whom he described as “highly respected and busy professionals”, would not be expected to sacrifice their own businesses and careers to serve a public enterprises board. “I have complete understanding for their reasons, and I have no hard feelings at all. I honour both of them for making themselves available to serve, and they did so with supreme professionalism and dedication,” said Jooste. According to him, Air Namibia is on the agenda this week of the Cabinet committee on treasury, after which Cabinet would be approached. Ingrid Cupido, the airline's secretary, said in a statement on Friday that the resignations were due to a combination of personal reasons, and “significantly increased responsibilities in their respective professional roles”.

Source: The Namibian