News and notes from around the interweb:

• U.S. Department of Transportation approves Aer Lingus joining the transatlantic joint venture with British Airways and American Airlines along with Finnair and Iberia.

  

• Air New Zealand may put in suites in the first row of its Boeing 787-10 business class, a one row ‘premium business class’.

• Citi transfers to ‘Shop Your Way’ were 1 to 12 but have been devalued to 1 to 10 and no longer are worthwhile.

• Korean Air will buy Star Alliance member and fellow Seoul-based airline Asiana subject to approval by South Korean regulators, creating the world’s 10th largest airline. The Asiana brand will continue to operate separately (and thus presumably retain its Star Alliance membership and exist outside of the Korean-Delta joint venture though Delta of course owns a significant minority stake in Korean Air).

  

• Embezzlement and corruption at Pakistan International Airlines of course there is, but just as likely at the government agency pursuing the charges…

• Last Tuesday an El Al Boeing 787-9 took off from Tel Aviv with cargo headed for Hong Kong. However once the plane landed it wasn’t permitted to leave. That’s because “cat tracks were discovered on the plane” and they couldn’t take off with an animal running free on board. Crew made an extensive search to find the cat, put out traps for it, and brought in local services.

  And since they weren’t able to find it, the aircraft sat on the ground for more than two days. It was only once it was determined that no cat was still on plane that aircraft 4X-EDL was permitted to leave. (HT: hnussbacher)

  The cat apparently infiltrated the plane at Ben Gurion Airport during the cargo loading. In the hours after the landing, the EL AL air crew tried to locate the cat. After the attempts failed, crew members from the airport joined the searches inside the plane and in the trunks, however all search efforts were in vain.

  At night, perhaps as a strong desire to end the saga and take off for Israel, traps were put in the plane, but they too failed to lead to a turnaround in finding the wayward cat.

• United Airlines responds to flight attendants who rebel against their bringing back (some) inflight service. Customers need to bring food and drinks on anyway! It’s not like inflight service is what causes customers to remove their mask. And United isn’t going to serve more than a single alcoholic beverage, which makes flight attendants happy (less work) and Scott Kirby happy (less cost).