New York City has sued American Airlines, alleging the airline is illegally retaliating against workers who call in sick under the city's Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law. The city's lawsuit filed with the New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings seeks civil penalties and $375,000 in restitution for 750 ground crew workers, including agents, representatives, fleet service and mechanical employees. The city alleges on 29 July that the Texas-based airline "violated its ground crew’s rights by engaging in practices that make workers afraid to exercise their rights because they will be disciplined for using a sick day," says Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Commissioner Lorelei Salas on 29 July. These practices include assigning disciplinary points for each sick day used by ground crew workers. “We will not tolerate any employer that violates employees’ rights to their paid safe and sick leave,” Salas says. "Workers in major transportation hubs where thousands of people pass through everyday should not have to choose between going into work sick or getting in trouble for exercising their right to take a sick day."

Source: FlightGlobal

Start-up carrier Air Antwerp has received its first aircraft, a Fokker 50, painted in the operator's colour scheme. Air Antwerp has revealed that the turboprop is a 1990 airframe (OO-VLS) originally delivered to Lufthansa CityLine. It was subsequently operated by carriers including Air Nostrum and VLM Airlines, before being acquired by a company identified as Largus Aviation by Cirium's Fleets Analyzer. The Fokker 50 was flown from Malmo to Antwerp on 27 July, where the carrier says it will use the aircraft in training exercises. Air Antwerp's livery features red and maroon stripes on a white fuselage, with a similarly-coloured logo on the vertical fin resembling a hand.

Source: FlightGlobal

The European Commission has approved the merge of Air Nostrum of Spain and CityJet of Ireland. The EC issued this statement:The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the creation of a joint venture between Fortress Investment Group, of the US, and Air Investment Valencia, of Spain. It will combine the activities of CityJet of Ireland and of Air Nostrum of Spain. The activities of CityJet and Air Nostrum overlap in the provision of wet-leasing services to airlines and charter flights. The Commission concluded that the proposed transaction would raise no competition concerns, because the companies have moderate market shares, a sufficient number of competitors remains on the market and the barriers to entry are low. The transaction was examined under the normal merger review procedure. CityJet employs 1,250 people across 9 European countries and operates an extensive regional network of services under wet lease contracts with Air France, Brussels Airlines and SAS with a fleet of over 40 aircraft based in nine locations across Europe. This fleet includes 22 new Bombardier CRJ900 regional jets acquired specifically for wet lease services. The two airlines are coincidentally of very similar age, having been founded in 1993 (CityJet) and 1994 (Air Nostrum), both now being close to their 25th year of operation.

Source: World Airline News