News and notes from around the interweb:

• Despite post-coup cuts in service, will Turkish Airlines keep growing? Their CEO, it seems, doesn’t actually know some of the cities they serve.

• Why isn’t anyone flying Stockholm – Stuttgart?

• As South African Airlines craters, political opposition takes its leadership to court

• US government plans to stop letting you wear glasses in your passport photo

• While Delta, United, and American complain that the federal government gave air service contracts to JetBlue for codeshares with Emirates, undermining the ‘spirit’ of the Fly American Act (which is to subsidize US airlines), Delta, American, and United were all themselves awarded government contracts for their codeshares with foreign airlines.

  Here are some examples of nonstop GSA city pairs (nonstop routes, of course, being the preferred routing) that Delta was awarded but which it does not operate itself and uses a foreign codeshare airline using its DL code:

  Los Angeles-Brisbane (nonstop flight is operated by Virgin Australia; Delta does not serve Brisbane with its own aircraft);
  Honolulu-Seoul (nonstop is operated by Korean Air);
  Washington DC-Seoul (nonstop operated by Korean Air);
  Los Angeles-Taipei (nonstop operated by China Airlines);
  New York-Shanghai (nonstop operated by China Eastern);
  Washington DC-Paris (nonstop operated by Air France).

  Delta is not alone among the US majors in using its foreign codeshare partners for GSA routes. There are also numerous similar examples for American Airlines and United Airlines. For instance:

  Chicago-Amman awarded to American (nonstop flight operated by Royal Jordanian carrying the AA code; American does not serve Amman with its own aircraft);
  Chicago-Abu Dhabi awarded to American (nonstop operated by Etihad Airways carrying the AA code; American does not serve Abu Dhabi with its own aircraft);
  Atlanta-Frankfurt awarded to United (nonstop operated by Lufthansa carrying the UA code);
  Washington-Addis Ababa awarded to United (nonstop operated by Ethiopian Airlines carrying the UA code;​ United does not serve Addis with its own aircraft)

• Airlines get creative in the ‘post-fuel surcharge era’

• British Airways brings back their one-way free upgrade to first with paid business class travel offer

  

• ATSB reports on cockpit cockup in AirAsiaX flight to KL

  The ATSB found that “when setting up the aircraft’s flight management and guidance system, the captain inadvertently entered the wrong longitudinal position of the aircraft.