More than 250 flights to and from Europe’s third-busiest airport have been cancelled because of the collapse of the fuel system. The airport said the firm responsible, Aircraft Fuel Supply, had fixed the problem by 10pm – after a gap of around seven hours during which fueling was at a standstill: “The aircraft fuel supply system is reactivated and planes are being refueled right now.” KLM, which has far more flights than any other airport at the Dutch airport, said: “ This has caused delays and a large number of the European flights as well as a limited number of intercontinental flights have been cancelled so far. “The expectation is that tomorrow (25 July 2019) the operations can be restarted gradually. This means there may be a number of cancellations as well.”

Source: FlightGlobal

American Airlines has welcomed the United States department of transportation’s final approval of a joint business agreement with Qantas. American and the Australian flag-carrier now have the opportunity to jointly offer more products that will better serve customers flying between the United States and Australia and New Zealand. This has been a longstanding business objective of the partnership.“We look forward to working closely with our valued partner, Qantas, on this new joint business,” said American chief executive, Doug Parker. “We now have the opportunity to launch new routes and provide enhanced service with better schedules, additional frequent flyer benefits and continued investments in the overall customer experience. “We are grateful to secretary Chao and the department of transportation team, as we welcome this fantastic news for our customers and team members.” Final approval follows the department’s tentative approval of the joint business in June.

Source: Breaking Travel News

UK pilot union BALPA is giving British Airways "one last chance" to negotiate on pay and benefits after the carrier lost a High Court bid to prevent strike action. Pilots on 22 July voted to strike over pay. The next day, a High Court judge ruled that the ballot had been issued correctly and that the result could therefore stand.

BA says it will appeal the judgement, but is also urging the union to return to talks. "We are very disappointed with today's decision," stated the IAG-owned carrier on 23 July. "We will continue to pursue every avenue to protect the holidays of thousands of our customers this summer." BALPA describes the delay caused by the court action as frustrating. "BA could have spent this time coming back to the negotiating table instead of trying – and failing – to tie us up in legal knots," states general secretary Brian Strutton. "We have still not set any strike dates to give BA one last chance to commit to negotiating on pilots pay and rewards with us at Acas later this week," he adds.

Source: FlighGlobal