Ryanair plans to start operations from Sofia in October as it seeks to expand into smaller markets such as Bulgaria, CCO David O’Brien said. Ryanair plans to invest US$300m to deploy 3 aircraft at the Sofia Airport and will operate 21 routes, O’Brien said Wednesday. Ryanair plans to carry 1.5m passengers a year in 2017 from the Sofia and Plovdiv airports, up from estimated 700,000 people this year, he said. Destinations from Sofia will include Berlin, Barcelona, Valencia, Milan and Athens. “There’s the possibility to fly potentially from Sofia to 150 Ryanair routes out of Sofia,” O’Brien said. “That potential exists in the future. ” Ryanair will become the biggest foreign carrier at the Sofia Airport, which now has 52 international routes. <br/>
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Virgin Atlantic has signed a codeshare agreement with Flybe for a network of routes connecting its London Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow operations with 18 regional airports in the UK and Western Europe. The move comes 6 months after Virgin halted its Little Red project, which used Airbus A320s leased from Aer Lingus to provide feeder traffic from Manchester, Edinburgh and Aberdeen to London. That experiment was stopped, partly because of low load factors and partly because it was discovered that many passengers were using Little Red purely as a point-to-point service, rather than connecting with Virgin Atlantic long-haul services. The new codeshare was announced simultaneously with Virgin Atlantic revealing that it will be starting new routes from Manchester to Boston and San Francisco. <br/>
Gol reported a quarterly net loss of BRR1.130b (US$311m), 79% bigger than its loss a year earlier. Gol Linhas Aereas has posted a loss in every quarter of the past 4 years. Its net loss in 2015 nearly tripled from a year earlier to BRR4.291b. Q4 EBITDA earnings dropped 92% from a year earlier to BRR22m. Excluding aircraft rental costs, which are often denominated in US dollars, EBITDAR dropped 17% to BRR399m. To cut costs in the face of stiff inflation and shrinking demand, Gol said it planned to reduce departures by between 15% and 18% in 2016, deepening cuts from a prior forecast of cutting 4% to 6% in the first half of the year. Capacity, in available-seat-km, is now expected to fall between 5% and 8% this year. <br/>
Hainan Airlines’ subsidiary Lucky Air has rebranded as a LCC to further explore the potential in the Chinese low-cost market. As one of the most profitable carriers among Hainan Airlines’ subsidiaries, the carrier operates a fleet of 28 aircraft with plans to expand to 40 aircraft this year. Lucky is reconfiguring its cabin into all-economy class and taking various measures to reduce operating costs at all levels. According to the carrier’ s marketing director Zhang Guoping, it has increased the ratio of direct sale to 51% from 30% last year and this figure is expected to reach 60% this year. “So far, low-cost carriers account for 26% share of global market, but China’s low-cost carriers are still in an early phase,” Lucky Air president Ding Yongzheng said. <br/>
Three of Indonesia’s largest carriers—Batik Air, Citilink and Lion Air—are seeking a reappraisal of the EU carrier blacklist next month. Of the country’s major carriers, only Garuda Indonesia has been granted full EU access since it was delisted in 2009. “An EU team will review our Directorate General of Civil Aviation oversight of the airlines, both in terms of organisation and regulation,” Indonesian director of Airworthiness and Aircraft Operations, Muhammad Alwi said. He said the airlines would be subject to a safety and operations audit by a team of 7 EU inspectors that were scheduled to arrive in Indonesia in the last two weeks of April. As of the end of Dec 2015, Indonesia has 57 airlines banned on the EU list. <br/>