Food workers protest against understaffing in Los Angeles

Flying Food Group workers in Los Angeles airport went on strike on April 14, requesting more staff be taken on to cope with the workload and better equipment to do their jobs.

The company provides in-flight meals for Air France, China Airlines and Virgin Australia, amongst others. China Airlines and Virgin Australia said they had not experienced disruption to their schedules as a result of the action.

The strike, organized by Unite Here, comprised some 100 employees who sometimes work 12-15 hour shifts to compensate for lack of staff, with four workers often required to do the work of seven. Additional they bemoaned a lack of equipment, machinery and meal ingredients to do their jobs properly. Flying Food Group had previously promised to resolve the understaffing problem, but is yet to take action.

Southwest 737s to have widest seats in US

From 2016, customers of Southwest Airlines can expect to enjoy wider seats on the carrier’s 737 flights. Southwest intends to enlarge seats by almost an inch, taking them from 17.1 inches to 17.8 inches wide and earning them the accolade of the widest 737 seat of any US airline. By comparison, seats on the same model of aircraft belonging to Alaska Airlines measure 17 inches wide, and as much as 17.3 inches on some United Airlines 737s in economy class, according to the SeatGuru.com.

Southwest’s Chief Commercial Officer, Bob Jordan, said: “The new aircraft seats are the widest economy seats available in the single-aisle 737 market, and offer a unique design that gives our customers what they asked for: more space.”

Air Canada Teamsters approve new contract

A new contract affecting more than 500 US-based Air Canada employees was confirmed by Teamster members who voted 200-to-101 in favor of the agreement. The seven year contract provides increases to the top of the wage scale of 2% in 2012 and 2013, 3% in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and 2% in 2017 and 2018. In 2018 employees will additionally receive a 2% bonus.

Captain David Bourne, Director of the Teamsters Airline Division, said of the agreement: “We are pleased that our members at Air Canada have approved a strong contract that keeps their jobs secure and raises workplace standards at the airline. Our focus was to negotiate a contract worthy of our members’ hard work and dedication. That’s why we went back to the table after members voted down the previous tentative agreement. The members have now spoken, showing the new contract meets the exceptional standards that our members deserve.” The new agreement will be in effect until June 2019.

CanJet cuts 70% of its staff

Layoff notices, to become effective as of May 6, were sent to 47 of CanJet’s 62 pilots and 68 of its 100 flight attendants as a consequence of the cancelation of its European routes for summer 2015. The carrier announced it had to “realign [its] employee group to a much smaller group” after terminating its European routes because they weren’t proving to be profitable.

In winter 2014, the airline had to make 21 pilots redundant as it canceled 40% of its scheduled flights because of overestimated sales for its first winter season. Soon to terminate is CanJet’s contract for charter flights on behalf of Transat Holidays, which will further decrease flights from the airline’s schedule. The carrier is reportedly considering its options, possibly scheduled flights in Canada and internationally.

Virgin Atlantic Cargo gains new Jan de Rijk contract

A new three-year road feeder services contract between Virgin Atlantic Cargo and Jan de Rijk Logistics has extended the carrier’s delivery network to over 50 airports across Europe.

Under the new contract, the airline is to offer an even greater choice of destinations to customers sending freight on its flights into the UK from North America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

Virgin Cargo’s collaboration with Jan de Rijk will allow the airline to offer customers destinations across the Europe and Scandinavia, becoming responsible for moving some 50% of the airline’s cargo into Europe.

Sebastiaan Scholte, Chief Executive of Jan de Rijk, said: “Our customer service and operations teams are very familiar with the Virgin Atlantic Cargo product and this contract extension reflects the trust the airline has in our extensive trucking network. In addition, being Good Distribution Practice (GDP) and now IATA CEIV Pharma Handling certified will help to support Virgin Atlantic’s value proposition to customers in the pharmaceutical industry and their logistics partners.”

Jenny Holdaway, European Service Delivery Manager at Virgin Atlantic Cargo, said: “Jan de Rijk not only provides an extensive scheduled delivery network across Europe, they also understand our high customer service expectations and have consistently met our requirements.”

In addition to Jan de Rijk, Virgin Atlantic recently extended its contract with Cranleigh Freight Services, which provides its main trucking routes linking London with Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt and Paris, by a further three years.