Aviation News

Some 2,600 workers in the airline’s catering, airport services and call center operations get the pink slip

PHILIPPINE Airlines said Thursday it had sent termination notices to about 2,600 workers as it started outsourcing jobs such as catering amid losses.

Airline president Jaime Bautista said the workers in catering, airport services and call center units would be laid off by Sept. 30 but could be employed by the companies that the carrier had contracted to provide those services.

Those who would accept the offer by Sept. 9 could start work on Oct. 1, he said, adding 400 had so far signified their willingness to accept the offer.

A union of airline employees has rejected the plan and said it will exhaust all remedies, including seeking a court resolution.

The airline is to spend about P2.5 billion for the employees’ severance package.

“The spin off/outsourcing is a painful but necessary decision to ensure PAL’s viability and long term survival,” Bautista said.

“We assure the affected workers that they will all receive their separation pay and other benefits that are at par, if not better than, industry standards. Guaranteed employment also awaits them at our third-party service providers.”

The airline said it had started town hall-style meetings to answer workers’ questions about its outsourcing program.

Gerardo Rivera, president of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association, slammed their termination.

“We have sacrificed our collective bargaining rights since 1998, so it is unjust for PAL to reward us with retrenchment for it,” Rivera said.

“We appeal to management to craft a business model that does not include outsourcing jobs.”

Rivera said he believed the airline would include other ground employees doing administrative work in the retrenchment.

“I don’t believe that they are only after the 2,600 employees,” he said.

“Our sources say the management is looking at getting rid of all its ground employees.”

The airline started implementing its outsourcing plan after the Office of the President upheld its prerogative to spin of its non-core units on Aug. 11.

Acting Labor Secretary Romeo Lagman first recognized the validity of the airline’s outsourcing plan on June 15, 2010. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz then affirmed it on Oct. 29 of the same year.

source: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com

United Continental Holdings (NYSE: UAL) announced that the first of its Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft enters the assembly phase at Boeing’s facility in Everett, Wash., today. In early 2012, United will be the first North American carrier to take delivery of the aircraft, marking the first of 50 Dreamliners for the airline.

During assembly, Boeing will join the forward, center and aft fuselage sections, the wings, the horizontal stabilizer and the vertical fin.

The first United 787 will be configured with 36 flat-bed seats in BusinessFirst, 63 extra-legroom seats in Economy Plus and 120 seats in Economy. The aircraft’s revolutionary cabin environment and aerodynamic design allow it to fly farther, faster and more efficiently. Customers will experience improved lighting, bigger windows, larger overhead bins, increased cabin humidity, reduced cabin pressure and enhanced ventilation systems, among other passenger-friendly features.

“We are proud to be the first North American airline to receive the 787, which will be a game changer for the new United and the industry,” said United Airlines President and CEO Jeff Smisek. “The 787 will be a very comfortable, customer pleasing aircraft, and with its range, fuel efficiency and superb operating economics, the 787 will allow us to enter new long-haul markets and also replace older, less-efficient widebody aircraft.”

United Continental Holdings subsidiaries Continental and United each ordered 25 of the state-of-the-art aircraft. The company will announce the 787 flight schedule later this year.

About United Continental Holdings, Inc.

United Continental Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: UAL) is the holding company for both United Airlines and Continental Airlines. Together with United Express, Continental Express and Continental Connection, these airlines operate an average of 5,765 flights a day to 377 airports on six continents from their hubs in Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Guam, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark Liberty, San Francisco, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. United and Continental are members of Star Alliance, which offers more than 21,200 daily flights to 1,185 airports in 185 countries. United and Continental’s more than 80,000 employees reside in every U.S. state and in many countries around the world.

source: http://www.prnewswire.com

Changes in the sun's magnetic field could expose passengers and crew to radiation.

SCIENTISTS say people travelling on aeroplanes and spacecraft could be exposed to radiation as the sun’s magnetic field changes.

Professor of Space Environment Physics at the University of Reading, Mike Lockwood, claims dramatic shifts in the sun’s natural cycle are causing more dangerous particles to reach Earth.

The sun’s “grand solar maximum” is expected to move to lower average activity over the next few decades to a “grand solar minimum”. Throughout this process, there is greater flux of dangerous particles generated by the sun, heading for Earth.

“Analysis shows that the risk of the space-weather effects is considerably enhanced over the next century compared with the space age thus far,” Professor Lockwood says.

The Earth’s magnetic field is expected to protect most of us from harm, but the professor says because the last time changes of this sort took place was in the 1700s, the effects on aviation are unknown.

An airport official smuggled a hive of bees on to a plane, panicking passengers when they escaped mid-flight in one of a series of lapses at the provincial Blagoveshchensk facility in Russia, reports said yesterday.

The bees made a break for freedom during a flight to Moscow from the far eastern city after they were illegally stashed in a box in a coat locker in business class, a spokesman for the Yakutia airline said.

“It was frightening. The passengers were in shock,” Andrei Savostin said.

“The crew showed heroism. The (flight attendants) managed to tape up the cloakroom doors to stop the bees flying out.”

The incident on May 28 was exposed yesterday in a front-page story in state newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta which alleged systematic failures at Blagoveshchensk airport.

Carrying insects aboard a plane is banned under Russian aviation rules, but the bees were carried on by the airport’s deputy director, Anatoly Smirnov, who skipped security checks, Rossiiskaya Gazeta alleged.

The passengers included officials from Moscow, who were seen off by the deputy governor and seated in business class, it reported.

Blagoveshchensk’s transport prosecutor told Rossiiskaya Gazeta that the incident had been investigated and the airport management had been sent a letter of warning.

The prosecutor, Denis Mazein, declined to answer questions by telephone.

At the same airport earlier this month, an airliner overshot the runway on landing, seriously damaging the plane and prompting the regional governor to reprimand the management for decrepit equipment and security lapses.

Lax security at Russian airports was exposed in 2004 when two suicide bombers bribed their way on to flights at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, despite lacking valid tickets.

In June a woman was caught at the same airport, Russia’s busiest, after managing to board a plane without a ticket, documents or any luggage.