Aer Lingus and Ryanair are still in talks for the budget carrier Ryanair to provide feeder services for Aer Lingus's long-haul flights, and the head of parent company IAG believes a deal is still possible. "We continue to have dialogue with Ryanair at Dublin. Personally, I see no reason why we can't reach a sensible commercial agreement with Ryanair," IAG CE Willie Walsh said Friday. Ryanair's chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said earlier this week that he expected his airline to strike a deal to provide transfer traffic for one of Europe's long-haul carriers at some point next year. Using low-cost carriers for feeder flights could be a cost effective way for some long-haul operators to bring more passengers into their hubs for their flights, but so far no deal has been struck as the parties try to agree terms over revenue and how to manage missed connections.<br/>
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The integration of Tigerair and Scoot will strengthen parent company Singapore Airlines' position in the low-cost segment and provide new opportunities in a challenging global environment, SIA CEO Goh Choon Phong said Friday. In the second half of next year, Tigerair will come under the Scoot brand name and both airlines will operate under a single licence, according to a statement from Budget Aviation Holdings Friday, which owns and manages the low-cost airlines under the SIA Group. Commenting on the decision, Goh said the group realised that the creation of Budget Aviation Holdings in May was insufficient to capture the full benefits of an integration, and hence "the best way is to go with one brand". "There are a lot of synergies that we cannot fully exploit because they are still two different entities ... (under) two different AOCs (air operator's certificates) and therefore, different regulatory requirements," he said. "One single brand will bring about the ultimate benefit of a full integration in all aspects of the budget side of the business." Lee Lik Hsin, CEO of Budget Aviation Holdings, added that both Scoot and Tigerair have contributed to the group's profitability, with both airlines’ earnings improving over the past six months. The integration will help to improve revenue further, he said. "There's a limit as to what (economies of scale) can bring. On the revenue synergy side, however, I think it's fair to say we are a lot more optimistic about what we can get from a single brand."<br/>
Norwegian Air reported a 16% increase in passenger numbers for October to 2.77m. In October Norwegian added 23% more capacity (in available seat km), and saw a traffic gain of 24% in revenue seat km. Load factor was up 0.6 percentage points at 88.4%. “Our long-haul routes are more or less full, which proves that customers on both sides of the Atlantic appreciate high quality and low fares,” Norwegian Air’s CE Bjørn Kjos said. Separately, Norwegian Air said Sweden and the US have signed a bilateral agreement to introduce US border control at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport, which means passengers will not have to go through immigration procedures on arrival in the US. Norwegian said the agreement could lead to additional traffic growth at Arlanda. The agreement is subject to approval by the Swedish parliament.<br/>
EasyJet directors are in early-stage talks about relaxing executive bonus targets in order to hang on to CEO Carolyn McCall and other top managers as a capacity glut and the Brexit vote put the UK carrier’s earnings under pressure, people familiar with the plans said. The EasyJet board wants to make pay goals more achievable amid concerns that McCall and her team may be lured to other companies as aviation bears the brunt of economic and political uncertainty, according to the people, who asked not to be named as the proposals haven’t been made public. Discussions are preliminary and the remuneration committee hasn’t yet been approached, the people said. Any easing of performance targets would risk a backlash from EasyJet founder and shareholder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who has opposed fleet growth and earlier moves to bolster pay. A external spokesman for EasyJet declined to comment. McCall, who was earlier this year linked with a move to retail giant Marks & Spencer Group, received GBP6.2m in the year through September 2015, including 5.4m pounds from a bonus and long-term incentive plan. The reward was based on a 236% investor return for the three previous years and a higher than expected capital return. While the CEO’s base salary for the year just ended has already been determined, her bonus -- set to be revealed in EasyJet’s annual report due next month -- is likely to shrink following the first fall in full-year profit since 2009 and a 43% share-price decline since Jan. 1.<br/>