Ryanair is finalising deals with 2 long-haul carriers to create a “seamless” transfer experience, the airline has announced. The partnerships will allow passengers taking Ryanair flights which connect with Aer Lingus and Norwegian services to book their whole trip with the long-haul airlines and have their baggage automatically moved between planes. David O’Brien, Ryanair’s COO, gave an example of passengers travelling from Belfast to Gatwick with Ryanair and then continuing their journey with Norwegian, which serves a number of destinations in the US. He said holidaymakers would have a much lower chance of luggage going missing when they change planes. O’Brien said Ryanair was “working on the technical elements” of the deals with Aer Lingus and Norwegian, and is also having “tentative” discussions with other carriers. <br/>
unaligned
Ryanair’s pessimism about the impact of last year’s Brexit vote on the UK economy appears to have eased, with the company planning to add 9 new routes from London Stansted this summer and deploy a dozen more aircraft across the country. The airline will serve Copenhagen 3 times daily and Naples daily, while also adding Beziers, Clermont, Grenoble, Nice, Nimes and Strasbourg in France and Cagliari on the island of Sardinia. Frequencies will be increased on 13 other routes, with the French cities of Bergerac, Bordeaux, Dinard, La Rochelle and Toulouse all getting daily services. Following the victory for the ‘Leave’ campaign, the carrier said it would focus growth away from the UK and that no remaining planes from 50 originally due for delivery in the year would be based at British airports. <br/>
Eurowings Europe opened a base in Salzburg, Austria Jan 11, the LCC’s second base after Vienna. The Salzburg network will include 30 weekly flights to Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Brussels, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Palma de Mallorca, Olbia, Spilt, Dubrovnik and Saloniki. “We will offer a total of 480,000 seats in the first year from Salzburg,” MD Michael Knitter said, adding, “The one based [Airbus] A320 will create 35 new jobs.” Knitter said Eurowings will double its Vienna-based fleet to 6 aircraft by adding 3 wet-leased A320s from Airberlin in 2017. In the first year, the Vienna operation transported 400,000 passengers on more than 3,000 flights. The company received its AOC in Austria in June and launched its first flight from Vienna to Alicante June 23, 2016. <br/>
SpiceJet is set to seal an order for at least 90 new 737 jets from Boeing, 2 sources said Thursday, as the carrier targets an expansion to tap into the South Asian nation's booming air travel market. The announcement for the 737 MAX aircraft - which includes at least 42 of the narrowbody jets SpiceJet had previously agreed to buy from Boeing in 2014 - is expected as early as Friday when SpiceJet's chairman holds a press event, the sources, who were familiar with the matter, said. One of the sources said the SpiceJet order could be for as many as 100 new planes. Boeing last week posted an order for 100 737 MAX jets from an unidentified customer. SpiceJet has been in talks with Boeing and Airbus since 2015, and it is expected to have secured a discount from the roughly US$10b cost of 90 737 MAX jets based on list prices. <br/>
Flynas has concluded an US$8.6b purchase deal with Airbus, a major shareholder said Thursday. Kingdom Holding Co, which owns a 34% stake in the airline, said Flynas has finalised the "deal with Airbus for the purchase of new aircraft." No details of the number or type of planes that flynas will acquire were provided, but a source close to the negotiations said they are from the A320 family of single-aisle aircraft. Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that a Flynas order for A320 short to medium haul jets was imminent and said the airline had been considering a deal for 60 planes plus an option for 40. The 10-year-old airline exclusively operates the A320, with a fleet of 29 as of last February <br/>
Tigerair Australia has been given a 4-day reprieve to get stranded passengers out of Bali after Indonesian authorities imposed what critics say is a "totally unreasonable" flight ban on the carrier. Tigerair Wednesday cancelled flights between Bali and Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne when the Indonesian govt imposed what the airline called "new administrative requirements". Late Thursday, the Indonesian govt agreed to let Tiger operate scheduled flights out of Denpasar Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday to get about 2000 stranded passengers back to Australia. Flights from Australia to Indonesia from Friday to Jan 20 have been cancelled and all other services are under a cloud as the airline continues to negotiate with authorities. <br/>