Analysts said they did not expect the vote to affect Boeing's operations or share price in the short term, since engineers can continue working under the current contract after it expires on October 6.

Boeing said that should talks go beyond October 6, the contract would terminate on November 25 because Speea had filed a 60-day termination notice.

"No strike can take place until after November 25," Boeing said.

South Africa has agreed to guarantee $600 million in loans for troubled state airline South African Airways over the next two years, a move that could put further pressure on the government's strained budget.

The Department of Public Enterprises said in a statement on Tuesday the 5 billion rand guarantee would require the airline to develop a turnaround strategy to be approved by it and the finance ministry.

"The guarantee will enable SAA to borrow from the financial markets, thus ensuring that the airline continues to operate as a going concern," it said.

KQ passenger numbers Oct-Dec 2012 not so rosy.

http://www.standardmedia...&utm_medium=twitter

-> The company put into the market capacity totalling 3,613m seat kilometres which was 1.1% above prior year’s level. Slow growth but still excessive when considered vs 'sales'.
- > Traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometres at 2,519m was 1.7% below similar period last year.
Very Important figure & declining
-> The total passenger tally, which closed at 991,149, indicates a growth of 3.6% compared to similar period last year.
-> The resultant cabin factor at 69.7% was lower than prior year’s 71.7%. Ouch! This hurts as it means fewer seats are filled. fixed costs do not change.
-> Cargo capacity dropped 10.7% with a proportionate decline in tonnage during the period. Ouch! Cargo adds variable revenue at fixed costs. The good news seems an increase in Far East cargo but a drop in UK/Europe cargo