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The JetBlue Pilots Assn. filed a petition with the US National Mediation Board this week seeking to become the bargaining agent for the carrier's nearly 2,000 pilots.

Copa Holdings, parent of Copa Airlines and AeroRepublica, reported third-quarter net income of $30.3 million, down 35.6% from a $46.8 million profit in the year-ago period, a drop it attributed almost entirely to noncash fuel hedge losses.

China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines have started to ground aircraft and cut flights as there is little sign of a recovery in the slumping domestic market.

The four-day strike called by French pilot unions to protest a potential change in the retirement age is expected to cause "severe disruption" to Air France's schedule beginning today and could cost the carrier up to €100 million, AF KLM Chairman and CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta said.

Air Berlin has announced that it is to boost the range of available flights from Stansted Airport by offering services to nine new destinations in its winter 2008-09 programme.The airline's new flights will represent the first time it has served long-haul destinations from Stansted Airport.Six of the nine new destinations are in the Caribbean and the Americas, namely Cancun in Mexico, Punta Cana and Samana in the Dominican Republic, Miami and Fort Myers in the USA and Varadero in Cuba.The other new locations that Air Berlin will serve from Stansted Airport this year are Mombasa in Kenya, Bangkok in Thailand and Male in the Maldives.Titus Johnson, the airline's country manager for the UK and Ireland, said: "Air Berlin has a great reputation for providing full service at lower fares, and we're excited to now be able to offer travellers from London, east England and beyond even more choice to an exciting range of long haul destinations."He added: "Air Berlin is already unique in being the