Moss Airport Rygge may be closed from Nov 2016, because Ryanair threatens to stop operations due to seat tax. THE Norwegian govt decided to introduce a seat tax for the airports in Norway. Then Ryanair announced they will stop their operations in Rygge. The board of Rygge airport will discontinue operations if Ryanair withdraws from the airport. Around 1000 employees will lose their jobs. The airport director states that the airport tried in a systematic way to get the govt to change its decision. Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg refuses the criticism that the problem is the tax. "None of the Norwegian airports are closed down because of a tax on flights. In this specific case it is a matter that Ryanair does not wish to make use of the airport at Rygge, allegedly because of the new tax," writes Solberg. <br/>
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Air NZ’s stake in Virgin Australia Holdings has attracted several potential buyers and talks are under way about a possible deal, said Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group Ltd. It’s not yet clear whether Virgin Group itself, which owns about 10% of Virgin Australia, will increase its stake in the airline, Branson said Thursday. “There are discussions going on with them and a number of different parties and we will watch with interest what happens,” Branson said. “Whether or not we will end up buying it, we will have to see. I am a great believer in Virgin Australia.” Air NZ, the biggest investor in Virgin Australia, in March said it may sell its 26% stake as Virgin Australia carries out a capital review. Morgan Stanley estimated last month that the Australian airline needs a further A$700m of funds. <br/>
WOW Air is to add 3 Airbus A321-200s, 1 A321-200neo and 1 A320-200neo to its fleet, sourced from Air Lease Corp. WOW Air is taking the aircraft on long-term lease. One of the A321-200s was delivered earlier this month and the remaining 2 will arrive in Q3 and Q4 2016. The A320-200neo and A321-200neo will follow in Q1 2017 and Q1 2018, respectively. “ALC purchased 3 of the aircraft from another operator just after delivery from Airbus and the other 2 aircraft are from ALC’s order book with Airbus,” it said. WOW Air, which was created in Nov 2011, operates a fleet of A320s, A321s and A330s. This summer it will serve 29 destinations across Europe and North America. <br/>