Ryanair has announced a major expansion of its Israel operations as it seeks to exploit the Middle East market. In a massive boost to Israel’s Open Skies policy, the airline is adding 15 new routes to its operations, from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel’s main international airport, and from Ovda airport, north of the popular Red Sea resort of Eilat. Ryanair will operate 7 new Tel Aviv routes to Baden Baden, Gdansk, Krakow, Milan Bergamo, Paphos, Poznan and Wroclaw. In addition, there will be 8 new Eilat Ovda routes to Baden Baden, Berlin, Brussels Charleroi, Frankfurt Hahn, Gdansk, Milan Bergamo, Poznan and Warsaw. The move adds to the airline’s existing routes from Israel, and will make Ryanair the most active foreign carrier operating from the country. <br/>
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Passengers on Spirit Airlines, who already forgo both large hand luggage and hold bags for its bargain-basement "Bare Fares", are having the size of their tiny "personal item" allowance cut by a quarter. Until April 4, travellers opting for the lowest price tariff can only bring a modestly-sized handbag on board: up to 42,000cm³ (40 x 35 x 30 cm). But after that date, those "personal items" will have to be 25% smaller - no more than 31,500cm³ (45 x 35 x 20 cm). To put that in perspective, Ryanair's hand baggage allowance is 44,000cm³ (55 x 40 x 20 cm), plus a personal item such as a handbag sized 14,000cm³ (35 x 20 x 20 cm). "A ticket with us gets you and a personal item from A to B," says Spirit--no luggage, in-flight entertainment, complimentary refreshments or seat reservations. <br/>
FlyDubai says its profit tumbled by 69% last year despite a rise in sales fuelled by its growing operations. The airline said Wednesday that it earned AED31.6m (US$8.6m ) last year, compared with AED100.7m in 2015. Revenue increased just over 2%, to $5b. FlyDubai is still recovering from its worst accident in March 2016, when a 737-800 crashed in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, killing all 62 people on board. The carrier says passenger numbers rose more than 14%, to 10.4m last year as it expanded its fleet to 57 planes. But CE Ghaith al-Ghaith says the airline continues to face a "difficult pricing and operating environment." <br/>
Bombardier and CityJet finalised a conditional purchase agreement for 6 CRJ900s plus 4 options, which was previously announced Jan 24. According to Bombardier, the firm order is valued at US$280m based on list prices, and could increase to $467m if all options are exercised. Upon delivery, the aircraft will operate under wet lease in the SAS network. CityJet acquired SAS Danish regional subsidiary Cimber Jan 31. “The CRJ900 aircraft has proven to be cost efficient and operationally flexible in supporting our contract flying with Scandinavian Airlines,” CityJet executive chairman Pat Byrne said. CityJet currently owns a fleet of 8 CRJ900s, which are on wet lease service with SAS. The airline will also take delivery of 4 new CRJ900s in early 2017 , bringing CityJet’s owned fleet of CRJ900s to 12. <br/>
Wizz Air cut its full-year profit estimate Wednesday, citing pressure on fares in the industry, and said it would press ahead with plans to expand aggressively to build market share. Wizz Air's London-listed shares fell more than 8%, their steepest decline since the aftermath of Britain's vote to leave the EU last June, having been more resilient than rivals over the last year. The group has felt the effects of pricing pressures after EasyJet and Ryanair put more seats on to the market to take advantage of previously low oil prices and to try to capture market share. Both Lufthansa and Ryanair have said they expect fares to fall again this year. Wizz Air lowered its underlying net profit guidance to a range of between E225m and E235m for the year to the end of March, from a previous forecast of E245m to E255m. <br/>