Independent industry figures confirm that Ryanair carried more international passengers last year than any other airline in the world. IATA figures show that the airline carried 101.4m international passengers last year, well ahead of its nearest pursuer, EasyJet, which had 62.6m customers. Emirates, was in third with 51m and Lufthansa came fourth with just short of 47m. A number of US airlines, including Southwest, whose low-cost model Ryanair used an initial template, carried more passengers, but much of its business was domestic. Southwest carried 119m people last year. Much of its traffic was within the US, although it also serves destinations in Central and South America. A Ryanair spokesman said that the airline expected to fly more than 117m people in 2016. <br/>
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AirAsia values its wholly owned leasing arm at US$1b, and aims to attract an equity investor to the unit by end-2016, it said. The airline aims for its Asia Aviation Capital (AAC) to expand its portfolio to about 200 aircraft in 5 years from the current 55, AirAsia said. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that AirAsia was looking to sell a majority stake in AAC and could value the business at about $1b, significant for a company that currently has a total market value of $1.9b. A successful deal will help CE Tony Fernandes to bolster the airline's finances and cut debt. AirAsia plans to tap potential suitors including the leasing units of China's HNA Group, China Merchants Bank, and the aviation leasing company backed by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing. <br/>
Cyprus’ civil-aviation regulator has conducted an audit of start-up carrier Cobalt, following 2 incidents involving technical faults in the first few weeks of the airline’s operational life. In the first incident, the flight crew of one of Cobalt’s 3 Airbus A320s received an abnormal landing-gear warning shortly after take-off from Larnaca, Cyprus, to Manchester, England. The second occasion of interest to the Safety Regulation Unit (SRU) was a cabin-pressurisation event on a flight from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Larnaca. “What we’ve been looking at is to reassess or review a few things, in case something is not normal,” SRU chief Andreas Paspalides said. “We conducted an audit of documents [Aug. 22-23].” Given the fact that Cobalt was a new operator, the SRU wanted to ensure that all was in order, Paspalides said. <br/>
Given pilot shortage forecasts, a new ab initio hiring program launched by a US airline is going to be watched closely. JetBlue Airways’ Gateway Select program inducted its first class of cadets late this summer. One of 7 dedicated pipelines leading to the JetBlue cockpit, Gateway Select is the first modern example of a zero-time, trainee-to-airline-pilot program by a US carrier, despite the practice being established in Europe and Asia for some time. The issues that made ab initio popular in other parts of the world—a dearth of indigenous pilots from general aviation and the military—are expected to spread to North America as a bubble of retirements hitting mainline airlines over the next decade combines with fewer pilots entering the profession because of the costs and time required. <br/>
Pilots at Southwest Airlines picketed at the airline's hub at Love Field in Dallas Wednesday. The pilots are not on strike, but they're trying to draw attention to their demands for better contracts and the slow pace of negotiations. Pilots at Southwest have been in mediated talks with the airline for 2 years following 2 years of standard negotiations. "During that time, executives have enjoyed nearly 50% in average raises, and shareholders have enjoyed nearly US$6b in stock buybacks while Southwest pilot wages have been stagnant since 2011 and are well behind industry standard wages," said the union. The union is seeking pay raises totalling 32% through 2019, but it says part of that is to cover retroactive pay hikes back to 2012, when its last contract became open. <br/>