Ryanair said it will cut routes and jobs in Italy later this year as a result of a 40% increase in passenger departure taxes. Ryanair said that from October it would drop 16 routes and 600 jobs after the Italian govt raised departure taxes to E9 (US$9.81) from E6.50 to help pay for layoffs at Alitalia. "Ryanair had no choice but to close 2 of its 15 Italian bases, Alghero and Pescara, and move its aircraft, pilots and crews to countries that have lower tourism costs," said David O'Brien, Ryanair's CCO. Cutting 8 routes from the Sardinian city of Alghero, 5 from Pescara on Italy's Adriatic coast and all of its current service in the southern city of Crotone will cause 600 job losses and 800,000 client losses, Ryanair said. The tax increase will "seriously damage Italian tourism," O'Brien said. <br/>
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EasyJet said it will trial a new fuel cell system on planes that could cut its fuel bill by up to US$35m a year, as part of its battle to keep fares low and compete against Ryanair. EasyJet said that, if trials of an Airbus fitted with a hydrogen cell in its hold were successful, its planes would be able to taxi to runways without using its engines. The airline is already benefiting from a drop in the oil price over the last 18 months, but it could cut its bill further with this new technology, head of engineering Ian Davies said. About 4% of the airline's total annual fuel consumption is used in taxi-ing at airports, Davies said. The new technology, which involves a fuel cell capturing energy from the aircraft's brakes when it lands, would also help reduce the airline's carbon dioxide emissions. <br/>
Emirates continues to be the most valuable airline brand, pipping the likes of Qatar Airways, British Airways and United, according to the latest consultancy Brand Finance report released this week. Emirates, with a value of US$7.5b, ranked 171st on the report that ranks the top 500 global brands. The airline has been ranked the most valuable airline brand 5 years in a row since it took the spot from Lufthansa in 2012. This year’s list features the largest number of airlines — 9 — since 2009 when 12 airlines were featured with Emirates also topping the ranking among airlines that year. Qatar Airways, Air China and China Eastern Airlines feature on this list this year having not been on it last year while this year also sees Lufthansa fall off. Delta was the second most valuable airline ranked 218th. <br/>
A passenger jet made an emergency landing in Somalia’s capital when a fire broke out shortly after take-off, with 2 people suffering minor injuries, an official said. The Daallo Airlines plane returned to Mogadishu’s airport Tuesday after a bang was heard on board and a fire erupted, Ali Ahmed Jama, Somalia’s minister of air transport and civil aviation, said. He said investigations are under way to discover the cause. The jet was bound for neighbouring Djibouti. Published photos show a large hole in the aircraft’s fuselage close to the right wing. The minister said there was damage to the plane’s wing and inside it. Daallo Airlines, based in Dubai, flies regularly between Somalia’s capital and cities including Djibouti and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. <br/>
Protests against the privatisation of Pakistan’s national carrier turned deadly in the financial hub Karachi Tuesday, leading to the pilots indefinitely boycotting all international and domestic flights. Two men died and several were injured as police and paramilitary forces faced off against hundreds of protesters outside the office of Pakistan International Airlines near the city’s main Jinnah terminal. Pakistan Airline Pilots’ Association, at a meeting of its executive body, decided on the boycott action until the situation improves. The sale of a 26% stake in PIA is key for prime minister Nawaz Sharif to fulfil conditions under an IMF loan. As many as 18,000 employees have demanded officials call off the sale over the past month, said a spokesman for the workers. <br/>
Flight attendants at Porter Airlines have soundly voted to reject union representation. The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which led the organising drive, said Tuesday that 166 voted No, while 79 voted Yes. One ballot was spoiled. A spokesman for the union declined to comment, but Porter spokesman Brad Cicero said in a statement that the results are “a strong vote of confidence in Porter.” In all, 171 people were eligible to cast a ballot in the electronic vote, which began last Friday and wrapped up Tuesday. Under federal rules at least 35% of the affected group must participate in the vote for it to count. In addition, 50% plus one vote must endorse the union for it to win certification. Last week, Porter CE Robert Deluce sent out an email to flight attendants, urging them to vote against the union. <br/>
SAS Danish subsidiary Cimber will cancel 760 services through mid-May as it fights to overcome a shortage of pilots. SAS acquired Cimber in December 2014 to handle regional and short-haul flights on thinner European routes, using a fleet of 12 Bombardier CRJ900s. SAS transferred some pilots over to the new subsidiary, but expansion at the parent company means many are returning, leaving gaps in Cimber’s aircrew workforce. “Some of those pilots had already been with SAS and had it in their contracts the right to come back if expansion occurred,” SAS head of media Knut Morten Johansen said. Instead of trying to plug gaps in schedules as they occurred, he said, a decision was made to cancel the services through May to give some more certainty to services and passengers. <br/>
Alberta’s flood of job losses hit WestJet Airlines, as the airline reported sharply lower profit amid growing concerns about industry overcapacity. The airline saw a steep drop in ticket sales in Q4 of 2015, a plunge it attributed to dwindling oil-patch employee severance packages and bonuses. Alberta shed about 51,000 full-time jobs last year as oil prices collapsed to about US$ a barrel from more than $100 in 2014. WestJet’s profit fell by 27% in the final 3 months of 2015 to C$63.4m, or 51 cents a share. Analysts had been expecting per-share profit of 63 cents. Revenue per available seat mile fell by almost 6%. WestJet shares have lost about a third of their value since early October. WestJet appeared to have been caught off-guard by the drop in ticket sales, which has been steeper than in the slump of 2008-09. <br/>