Plans by Norwegian Air Shuttle to introduce transatlantic flights to secondary airports will help to slash costs at the airline, one of the most expensive European budget operators, its CE, Bjørn Kjoshas, said. The airline is preparing to launch innovative services between regional European airports and minor eastern US hubs over the course of 2017. The introduction of the new services between cities such as Edinburgh, Cork and Stewart International Airport, approximately 70 miles upstate of New York City, would bring down Norwegian’s costs, which are currently around 4.3 euro cents per available seat kilometre. That could bring it closer to the roughly 3.6 euro cents that analysts calculate as the cost for Ryanair, the industry cost leader, which does not release its own comparable figures. <br/>
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For the second week running, troubled Nigeria airline Arik Air has failed to pay salaries arrears to workers as agreed with the industry unions and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) before it re-opened operations. One source said the management has set a meeting with the frustrated workers for later this week, probably to discuss the salaries arrears issue. The staff further said that contrary to the information that was given out to the public, the airline was owing the workers more than the 2 months wages it claimed. “As it is, no one knows when the salaries arrears would be paid to workers because they have refused to communicate to us. We are just working without pay," the source said. Under the agreement, Arik Air was supposed to pay the first batch of salaries arrears Dec 31. <br/>
Even after a German court ordered El Al Israel Airlines to compensate Israeli passengers for delays in flights taking off from airports in Europe, El Al is still insisting that the European directive does not apply to it with respect to compensation for the delayed passengers. Instead of receiving compensation for a delay of 3 hours or more, El Al's policy is to grant compensation only for a delay of at least 8 hours in a flight, as stipulated in the Aviation Services Law. This discriminates against Israeli passengers, because travellers of European origin demanding compensation for a delay in flights taking off from Europe will apparently receive it. The German court's ruling was issued 2 months ago, following a lawsuit filed by a Belgium-based website which sues for compensation in the name of passengers whose flights took off late. <br/>
A baggage handler was unharmed after being locked inside an airplane's cargo area during a 90-minute flight from North Carolina to Northern Virginia Sunday. United Express flight 6060, operated by Mesa Airlines, took off from Charlotte Douglas Airport just before 3 pm Sunday and landed at Dulles on schedule about 1½ hours later. The plane, a 50-seat Embraer 170, rose to 27,000 feet, according to flight records. A United spokeswoman could not say Monday whether the plane's cargo hold was temperature-controlled or pressurised. At some point, workers in Charlotte, N.C., realised there was a possibility that someone was locked in the belly of the airplane and contacted the FAA. The FAA, in turn, alerted officials at Dulles, and emergency responders at Dulles were waiting at the gate. <br/>