Rebranded Italian airline Meridiana hopes to operate a fleet of 50 aircraft and carry 10 million passengers by 2022 after relaunching as Air Italy with the backing of Gulf carrier Qatar.
The move is a direct challenge to troubled Italian flag carrier Alitalia as it continues to struggle through bankruptcy proceedings.
Alitalia entered special administration last year after Qatar rival and 49 percent shareholder Etihad withdrew its support and the Italian government has indicated there will be no resolution before elections on March 4.
Qatar has taken a 49 percent stake in the new parent company of Air Italy with the previous sole shareholder, Alisarda, holding the other 51 percent.
The rebranded airline, which unveiled its new livery this week, will receive 20 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft over the next three years, starting April. It will also receive five Airbus A330-200 aircraft this year from Qatar ahead of these being replaced by Boeing 787-8 aircraft next year.
Air Italy is also extending its reach with new routes from Milan to New York and Miami already announced.
It said that would be followed new short-haul routes connecting Milan to Rome, Naples, Palermo, Catania and Lamezia Terme.
Further, plans included strengthening the short-range network to improve connectivity and launching the first long-range destination from Rome Fiumicino in 2019 with an aim of flying 50 year-round routes by 2022.
Qatar chief executive Akbar Al Baker said the partners aimed to build a sustainable airline alternative for the people of Italy and global travelers visiting the country.
“With high quality and an affordable schedule of services in the domestic, regional and intercontinental segments, Air Italy will achieve global scale in both fleet and network expansion, offering high-quality premium class products across all flights on a modern fleet,’’ he said in a statement.
Meridiana chairman Francesco Violante said the airline expected about 8 million of the 10 million passengers it planned to carry by 2022 would use Milan Malpensa airport.
“In support of this ambition, there is a great need to develop new skills and competencies amongst our people and for all to embrace change as a fantastic opportunity,’’ he said. “I wholeheartedly support this new effort.”
Meridiana says it has carried more than 100 million passengers to date as a full-service carrier, operating both short-haul and long-haul flights.
It has more than 1,400 dedicated employees, maintains codeshare partnerships with other major airlines, and is a full member of IATA. It is the biggest airline at Olbia Costa Smeralda airport.
Tropical Cyclone Gita at its full intensity near Tonga. Photo: NASA.
Disruptions to Air New Zealand flights from Wellington to Australia are expected to stretch into Wednesday after the remnants of Cyclone Gita prompted the airline to cancel all flights to and from the New Zealand capital.
The Kiwi carrier cancelled all flights into and out of Wellington from 2:45pm to midnight due to severe weather warnings that included winds of up to 150kmh (93mph).
The cancelled services included two Tuesday flights between Sydney and Wellington, one between Wellington and Sydney and one between Melbourne and Wellington.
The airline said in a travel alert this meant services from Wellington to Sydney and Wellington to Melbourne would also be cancelled on Wednesday.
Air New Zealand issued fare waivers for customers ticketed with it prior to Sunday February 18 that would allow them to defer travel to March 1 without penalty, subject to customers paying extra if travel in the same class was unavailable.
Where the proposed date of travel was unknown, the airline said the value of the ticket would be held in credit for up to 12 months.
“In this instance change penalty will be waived but fare difference and service fees will apply when re-booking,’’ it said.
Customers could also change destinations, but additional fares and taxes would apply, and normal refund rules were in force that meant non-refundable fares would remain so.
Travellers were advised to delay their journey and Air NZ warned any who chose to start their trip that they would do so at their own risk.
“Air New Zealand will not be liable for any costs associated with disrupted travel should a customer opt to travel as planned,’’ it said. “You will need to refer to your travel insurance provider for any incidental costs if your travel plans are disrupted.”
It also warned the nature of the cyclone meant return travel to and from Norfolk island could be further disrupted at any point and it would not be liable for any costs associated with the disruption.
The cyclone had previously battered the South Pacific islands of Tonga, Samoa and Fiji with winds of up 275kmh (171mph), causing widespread damage.
The latest cancellations comes after AirNZ recently warned it would be re-timing some international flights can cancelling a limited number because of problems with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines on its Boeing 787-9 fleet.
The global nature of the Trent 1000 problem means that Rolls-Royce does not have replacement engines available while maintenance work is performed on the existing Air NZ power plants.
Asia-Pacific airlines urge co-operation on cyber-threats. Image: SITA.
The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines has called on the region’s aviation industry to co-operate on strengthening cyber-security as increasing digital connectivity makes it a bigger target for hackers.
The AAPA recently joined forces with the Qantas Group, Australia’s Foreign Affairs Department, Singapore’s Ministry of transport and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore to find ways to strengthen cyber resilience in the region through a series of workshops.
The interactive workshops are designed to bring together industry stakeholders to look at issues such as risk awareness, strategic planning, strengthening resilience and fostering links within aviation.
“The risk of cyber-attacks is ever present,’’ AAPA director general Andrew Herdman said in a statement. “Although our cyber-security defenses may be robust, it is never enough. In the long term, system breaches and break-ins are inevitable.
“Therefore, on cyber-security, it is essential to work cooperatively together to strengthen our collective resilience, through shared intelligence and technological innovation.”
The first workshop was held at the Singapore Aviation Academy, Singapore, on February 7 and participants included representatives from regulatory agencies, airlines, airports, service providers, suppliers and academia.
It found aviation safety and security was built on a network of trusted relationships and that growing digital connectivity brought with it increased challenges and vulnerabilities
It also identified a need for a wider regional understanding of the shared cyber risk environment as well as to build more resilient systems.
These systems needed to focus on response and recovery aimed at re-establishing business continuity, participants said.
The identified issues are due to be discussed in the three remaining workshops in the public-private partnership.
“AAPA is committed to working in partnership with other aviation stakeholders to develop, implement and enhance strategies for strengthening cyber security and resilience of the aviation sector,” Herdman said.
Cyber-security has become an increasing worry for airlines and airports.
The AAPA move comes after the head of technology at Australia’s biggest airport last year called for an industry-wide conversation on the threats posed by cyber-attacks.
Sydney Airport general manager technology Stuart Rattray made the call during a presentation at the Australian Airports Association annual conference that outlined the increasing sophistication and rapidly changing nature of cyber-security threats.
United Airlines will start operating its new Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft from its Houston and Los Angeles hubs but economy travellers may have to rein in their expectations for the new plane.
While the airline is promising a new “extra spacious” United First in a 2-2 configuration, it says the seat pitch — a measure of the distance between seats — for its economy seating will be “at least 30 inches”.
A 30-inch seat pitch is in line with its current 737s and in budget carrier territory, although new seat deigns can help offset the crush.
United runs an economy class in several versions of its 737-800s with a 30-inch seat pitch and seats that are 17.3 inches wide, according to SeatGuru. One 737-800 version has some seats that are a hip-crunching 16.3 inches wide while the airline’s bigger 737-900s have a 30- to 31-inch seat pitch.
United’s MAX 9 will feature 179 seats, including 20 in United First, 48 in Economy Plus in a 3-3 configuration with 34 inches of seat pitch and 111 in economy.
Schedules released by the airline on Monday show the new quieter and more efficient version of the Boeing’s legendary workhorse will start flying from Houston on June 7 and from Los Angeles from June 29.
The first flights will be between Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Anchorage, Austin, Fort Lauderdale, Austin and Orlando.
Los Angeles-Honolulu and Los Angeles-Houston will be added on June 29. Also on that date, the MAX 9 will start flying Houston Sacramento and Houston-Tampa.
Customers will have access to in-seat power, will be able to buy satellite-based wi-fi or download the airline’s inflight entertainment through their personal devices.
United’s new first-class leather seats include a six-way adjustable headrest and a padded articulated seat cushion.
The seat is equipped with storage spaces for personal items, including an in-arm tablet/laptop slot, a personal water bottle console and double seatback pockets.
It also features a new tray table design with a flip-up mobile device holder that fits more than 200 phone and tablet models, a universal AC power plug to charge devices on the fly and a granite-topped extendable cocktail table.
United, which operated more than 1.6 million flights carrying 148 million customers in 2017, operates about 4500 flights a day.
Sixty-six passengers and crew are feared dead in the crash of an Iranian Aseman Airlines ATR-72-212, performing flight EP-3704 from Tehran Mehrabad to Yasuj in Iran.
According to Aviation Herald, the aircraft disappeared from radar near the Zagroz Mountains at about 08:45L (05:15Z).
The wreckage was later found near the village of Semirom at an elevation between 12,500 and 13,500 feet.
The ATR 72 was built in1993 and the airline has blamed weather conditions.
The airline initial reported there were no survivors found at the crash site but later retracted that statement.
It said: “Given the special circumstances of the region, we still have no access to the spot of the crash and therefore we cannot accurately and definitely confirm the death of all passengers of this plane.”
The Red Crescent deployed search and rescue teams to the site.
Sixty passengers, two security guards, two flight attendants and the pilot and co-pilot were on board.
Bad weather has hampered rescue efforts and emergency teams have had to travel to the crash site by land rather than helicopter.
Aseman Airlines has suffered eight crashes since 1990, three of which have been fatal.
The other two were in August 2008 when a Boeing 737, EX-009, crashed near Bishkek-Mana, in Kyrgyzstan killing 65 of the 90 aboard.
And in October 1994 a Fokker F-28, EP-PAV, crashed near Natanz killing all 66 on board.
Emirates president Sir Tim Clark with Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce. Photo: Qantas
Emirates and Qantas are set to get their wide-ranging alliance re-authorized by Australia’s competition watchdog for another five years.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said Friday it was proposing to re-authorize the deal covering the carriers’ air passenger and cargo operations because it believed it was likely to result in a range of public benefits.
But its draft determination imposed a condition on operations between Sydney and Christchurch to offset competitive concerns.
The deal was first approved in 2013 and saw Qantas abandon Singapore to use Dubai as the hub for its London operations.
It has since decided to reroute its London-bound A380 flights back through Singapore and to fly nonstop between Perth and London using its new Boeing 787-9s.
“Combining the networks of Qantas and Emirates provides customers with access to more flights and destinations under a single airline code and improves connectivity,” ACCC Commissioner Roger Featherston said in a statement
“Loyalty program members will also continue to benefit from the ability to earn and redeem points on both networks and use lounge access and other reciprocal benefits,” Featherston said.
“However, the ACCC is concerned that the alliance is likely to significantly impact competition on one route, Sydney to Christchurch; Qantas and Emirates are the two major operators on this route and their only competition is from the Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand alliance.”
The ACCC will require Qantas and Emirates to provide regular reports on seats and passengers flown, fares and route profitability.
The condition would also allow the ACCC to set a minimum level of capacity on the route if it believed the alliance was limiting the number of seats to push up air fares.
The competition watchdog previously had reporting and capacity conditions on four routes between Australia and New Zealand but Emirates has since stopped flying the Sydney-Auckland route and will withdraw services to Auckland from Brisbane and Melbourne next month.
Both airlines welcomed the news, with Emirates noting more than 8 million passengers had had benefitted from the alliance since 2013.
A Qantas spokesman said the first five years of the partnership had lived up to the promise of serving customers better and network changes over the next five years were designed to reinforce this.
“With three options to get to Europe, via Perth, Singapore and Dubai, and more frequencies between Australia and New Zealand, the partnership better reflects customer demand, leverages new aircraft technology and plays to each airline’s respective network strengths,” the spokesman said.
Qantas is looking for new even longer-range planes that will allow it serve more destinations non-stop. Its Project Sunrise asks Boeing and Airbus to extend the range of their newest aircraft to allow to operate non-stop missions such as Sydney-London.
Emirates president Tim Clark told Fairfax Media during a recent visit to Australia that this could challenge his airline’s relationship with the flying kangaroo but he was confident the carriers could maintain a “formidable” partnership.
The ACCC is seeking submissions on its draft determination by March 7.
In a separate decision, the ACCC said it would continue to allow Jetstar Asia, Jetstar Pacific and Jetstar Japan to co-ordinate services and act as single body in areas such as flight scheduling, sales and marketing, and pricing.
The Jetstar airlines also sought to coordinate with their shareholding airlines Qantas, Japan Airlines and Vietnam Airlines, on passenger and cargo services within Asia.
“The ACCC considers that continuing this coordination should lead to public benefits, such as better products and services, and more convenient flight times for consumers,” Featherston said.
“This conduct is likely to result in little, if any, lessening of competition. Our view is the joint venture airlines would be unlikely to compete directly with each other or their owners in the absence of the proposed coordination.”
The ACCC noted the re-authorization did not extend to allowing coordination between the owners of any of the joint venture airlines.
Ethiopian Airlines, one of the oldest airlines in Africa, is now the continent’s biggest carrier.
Ethiopian has surpassed former market leaders South African Airways, Egypt Air and Kenya Airways in areas such as passengers carried, fleet size, route network and profit.
But this is a relative achievement from a global perspective.
“Africa is the second biggest continent, but only generates less than 3 percent of worldwide air traffic. That’s mostly due to the lack of liberalised transport markets,” Tewolde Gebremariam, the CEO of Ethiopian Airlines since 2011, tells AirlineRatings in an interview in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopian Airlines has long embraced the fact that it is not enough to serve 54 destinations in Africa alone.
Thanks to massive help from China, a huge new terminal building is currently going up at Bole Airport in Addis Ababa. This will more than double capacity at the airport to 22m passengers annually when the terminal opens later this year.
It was also the Chinese who built huge new maintenance hangars for Ethiopia at Bole and who are now constructing the airline’s new 700-room hotel.
Ethiopian’s maintenance hangar. Photo: Andreas Spaeth.
With support from the People’s Republic, Ethiopia and its airline are aspiring to become global players.
“We are doing this for the whole world, we are developing Addis Ababa as the Dubai of Africa,” Gebremariam says of the ambitious goals.
He has already proven that these are not empty promises. When he took office in 2011, while Ethiopian Airlines was still number four in Africa, he crafted “Vision 2025” and set out to double passenger numbers to 18m customers and the fleet to 140 aircraft by 2025.
In the six years to 2017, Ethiopian had already doubled its capacity and surpassed all African competitors.
“In Vision 2025 we had set out plans for every year, until then it was for example the goal to serve 90 international destinations. Now we already have over 100 in our network,” Gebremariam says.
Furthermore every year of the plan so far proved to be profitable: Ethiopia has been constantly in the black for a decade, a rare exception in Africa.
“As we are fully government-owned we don’t have any other way to raise money, we can’t go to the stock exchange for example, so we have to make sure to be profitable,” the CEO says.
One reason for that profitability, however, is the very low level of salaries in Ethiopia. Analysts have warned the opening up of the Ethiopian economy will put pressure on wages to rise to international levels, which might be a challenge for the airline.
At the end of January, the African Union launched a new attempt in Addis Ababa to launch Open Sky for Africa and 23 states have signed up, among them those generating the most traffic. Implementation may take years as every country has to ratify it first.
“As Africa’s biggest airline we have to lead the integration and liberalisation of Africa,” says Gebremariam.
For this, Ethiopian cleverly takes advantage of the fact that many African states can no longer afford their own national airlines and turn to it support.
“We have created other hubs in Western Africa, besides Addis. That has enabled us to get around some of this protectionism,” notes the CEO. “We also have an affiliated airline in Togo, ASKY, that flies now to 22 destinations in Western and Central Africa.”
Tewolde Gebremariam has been CEO of Ethiopian Airlines since 2011. Photo: Andreas Spaeth.
Currently Ethiopian is establishing a presence through cooperation with or partial ownership in airlines of nations as diverse as Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Chad and Djibouti and even more.
But routes outside the home continent are increasingly playing a bigger role, Dublin is a good example. Since June, 2015 an Ethiopian Boeing 787 flies four times weekly from Addis Ababa via the Irish capital to Los Angeles in both directions with full traffic rights.
By the end of 2017, Ethiopian had gained an additional one million passengers to and from Dublin in this way. Westbound flights from Addis Ababa to Washington-Dulles and Toronto also stop in Dublin to refuel.
“But now we have found means to fly non-stop with both the 777 and 787 between Addis and Washington, at least during some months,’’ Gebremariam says. “This saves customers about two hours of travel time and imposes only a small weight penalty on us, meaning we can’t sell all seats,”
An important part of Vision 2025 for the airline is to establish an axis of traffic from South America via Africa to Asia and Ethopian will add Buenos Aires to its network from March.
Other new international new destinations this year will be Chicago in the uS as well as Geneva and Lisbon in Europe.
Also high on the priority list is Munich, hub of Star Alliance partner Lufthansa. Frankfurt is already one of Ethiopian’s main European gateways, having been served continuously for 60 years.
“We only want to go to Munich in cooperation with Lufthansa, but currently we are working to form a joint venture first on the Frankfurt to Addis route,” says Gebremariam.
Ethiopian has always been at the forefront of fleet modernization and the Vision 2025 goal of 140 aircraft has already been raised to 160 aircraft, with equal shares of wide-bodies and narrow-bodies.
Ethiopian is habitually the first airline in Africa to introduce the newest-generation jets on the continent.
This was the case with the Boeing 777-200LR (November 2010), 787-8 (August 2012), 777-300ER (November 2013) and most recently the A350 (September 2016).
With an average fleet age of less than six years, the airline also ranks in the top tier on a global level.
And modernization continues. A factor here is the elevation of the Ethiopian capital’s airport, 2,334 metres above sea level, which limits aircraft operations.
“We will order ten to 20 Boeing 777Xs until the end of 2018, a mix of -8s and -9s,” states Gebremariam.
“We delayed the 777X order because Airbus promised us the A350-1000, but then we saw the figures and it was clear the -1000 will not perform well out of Addis.
“The Boeing 777-300ERs will be replaced by the 777-9 with about 50 seats more, while the 777-8 will replace our 777-200LRs.”
Delta’s fallen in love with Cincinnati once again, rekindling a flame that all but died in the wake of the airline’s merger with Northwest Airlines when it “de-hubbed” Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG).
These days Delta refers to Cincinnati as a “focus city,” one worthy of more flights to more places but not quite hubbish.
Over the past couple of years Delta has been steadily re-building CVG, growing the airport to 82 peak-day departures to 36 destinations—including nonstop service to Paris Charles De Gaulle.
The latest additions: a daily CRJ-700 nonstop to Austin come May 1 and nonstop service to Phoenix, which gets off the ground November 4.
After establishing a strong Cincinnati hub in the pre-Northwest days, Delta cut CVG flights significantly when it merged.
The calculus was that Detroit and Minneapolis would be the airline’s mid-continent hubs, that there wasn’t a place for three full-blown hubs in that part of the country.
Memphis suffered a similar fate in the south. Northwest’s Memphis hub lay a too-close 330 miles to Delta’s megahub in Atlanta.
Of late, Delta’s been on a bit of a mission to rekindle the favor of local travelers in the Ohio River Valley city of Cincinnati. It seems to be working.
“CVG is pleased to see Delta grow its business at CVG,” says Candace McGraw, the airport’s chief executive officer. “Delta experienced local passenger growth of more than 10 percent in 2017 and has increased their passenger volume at CVG for 27 consecutive months.”
In the wake of the Northwest merger, Delta operates nine domestic hubs: Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York JFK, New York LaGuardia, Salt Lake City and Seattle.
The latter, Seattle (SEA), is the airline’s latest hub. The scenario in the Pacific Northwest powerhouse pits Delta against hometown Alaska Airlines in what some believe to be a move to eventually spark a merger with Alaska.
A Qantas decision not to spend more on fleet renewal may backfire if it needs to replace ageing planes at the same time it resumes paying company tax, a new report has warned.
Despite the fanfare surrounding delivery of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, the report by S& P Global Ratings notes that investment by Qantas in new aircraft has remained subdued in recent years as it returned capital to shareholders.
This has seen the average fleet age of the Qantas fleet rise to just below 10 years, putting it behind its Asian peers but still ahead of US carriers.
S&P estimates the airline in mid-2017 had almost 12,500 seats more than 14 years old — the equivalent of 72 Boeing 737-800s or 53 Boeing 787-9s.
The ratings agency said the airline’s most recent guidance indicated aircraft investment would not grow until the year ending June 30, 2020, “at which point a sizeable funding task potentially looms”.
“Since its financial turnaround in fiscal 2015, Qantas has used surplus capital to fund shareholder returns rather than to grow invested capital,” S&P credit analyst Graeme Ferguson said. “We do not view this as sustainable.”
Qantas has not paid company tax since 2011, despite record profitability, and S&P believes tax losses carried forward could see this situation remain until 2020.
This could see Qantas could face the need to spend a sizeable amount on aircraft at an inopportune time, Mr Ferguson said..
“That’s because the airline’s investment in new aircraft may coincide with the resumption of company tax payments,” he said. “Moreover, Qantas’ financial framework limits the extent to which investments can be debt-funded, and the Qantas Sales Act may complicate the airline’s access to equity.”
The report found Virgin Australia’s younger fleet meant it was better able to take a limited “capital holiday” and put off fleet investment.
“Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd.’s fleet is young by domestic and global standards and we believe it can afford to take a limited capital holiday without becoming uncompetitive, Mr Ferguson said. “We believe any cash windfall will importantly help Virgin to become more self-sufficient financially.”
Australia’s major carriers have settled into a duopoly and S&P noted the industry profit pool remained at record highs, with neither airline looking to restart the profit-draining capacity war that ended in May, 2014.
It said the sector had benefitted from disciplined capacity growth, structurally lower fuel prices, less adversarial industrial relations and a stable macroeconomic environment.
These tailwinds were likely to remain even if rising Australian dollar-denominated fuel prices and increased international competition had to the potential to remove “some of the earnings gloss”.
But the analysts warned the Australian aviation industry’s current high barriers to entry were not impregnable.
“If an extended capital holiday leaves incumbent carriers with an old and uncompetitive domestic fleet, the door could be left ajar for a new entrant,’’ they said. “We are not there yet, not even close, but these longer-term trends are worth monitoring.”
Qantas has confirmed it expects to start paying tax again soon.
But it denied that it was facing problems funding aircraft acquisitions, saying its balance sheet was “as stong as it has ever been”, its debt levels were towards the bottom of the target range and it had a flexible aircraft order book.
“Around 60 per cent of our existing aircraft are debt free and our recent aircraft purchases have been in cash because our business is performing strongly,” it said.
Khairuldeen Makhzoomi was taken off a Southwest flight for speaking Arabic. Screengrab: CNN
A Muslim student kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight for speaking Arabic during a phone conversation has sued the US carrier for discrimination.
A lawsuit filed in the US District Court alleges Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, an Iraqi refugee who is an American citizen, was thrown off the plane after talking to his uncle in Baghdad in Arabic while waiting for the airline to complete boarding.
Makhzoomi, at the time a public policy student at the University of Californa Berkeley, was telling his uncle he had just met and had dinner with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
“Shortly after taking his seat, Mr. Makhzoomi was approached by a Southwest Airlines official and local law enforcement officers, removed from the plane, interrogated, searched, publicly humiliated, and denied further travel on the airline,’’ said the lawsuit, filed with the assistance of Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“Southwest Airlines discriminated against and wrongfully removed Mr. Makhzoomi from his flight for no reason other than for speaking in his native language.
“In doing so, the airline, by and through its agents and employees, intentionally violated Mr. Makhzoomi’s civil rights.”
The lawsuit alleges a Southwest employee admonished Makhzoomi for talking in Arabic and asked about the conversation.
Makhzoomi explained he was talking to his uncle to his uncle about the conference to which the agent allegedly replied: “Why are you talking in Arabic? You know the environment is very dangerous”.
He was removed from the plane and made to stand in a corner for 45 minutes before being “aggressively patted down and invasively searched in front of a crowd of onlookers and half a dozen police officers, including a K-9 unit”.
He was subsequently interrogated by the FBI before being cleared after hours of questioning.
The complaint said an FBI officer told him: “Well, I think you’re done with Southwest. Next time you are flying, don’t use your phone, just sit there, and I advise you to apologize to Southwest.”
Southwest refunded the man’s ticket but refused to book him on another flight.
“Southwest Airlines removed Mr. Makhzoomi from a flight and turned him in to local and federal law enforcement for no reason other than his spoken language,” said Zahra Billoo, CAIR-SFBA executive director. “What Mr. Makhzoomi experienced is the essence of religious profiling, and every Muslim airline passenger’s worst nightmare.”
Southwest told CNN in 2016 its staff investigated “potentially threatening comments” made by Makhzoomi.
“We wouldn’t remove a passenger from a flight without a collaborative decision rooted in established procedures,” the airline said at the time. “Southwest neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind. Our company could not survive if we believed otherwise.”
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