The CE of Ryanair has warned that the UK could face having its flights cut off for months from March 2019 as Britain leaves the EU. Michael O’Leary said he believes the UK govt don’t “have a clue what they’re doing” and claimed that its plan to leave the Open Skies deal could leave it vulnerable to having all flights in and out of the country grounded. He said: “I think the Europeans are looking around and saying: ‘how do we teach the British a lesson?’ Maybe cutting off flights for 3 months after March 2019, they will begin to understand what is going on.'” He said that flights could be used by the EU as a simple way to show the British public the dangers of leaving the single market with all its associated arrangements, claiming “explaining passporting of financial services doesn’t appeal to the guy in Hull or Grimsby” <br/>
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Ryanair will establish a new Warsaw-based charter airline in summer 2018 to serve the Polish leisure market. The carrier says the carrier will be called “Ryanair Sun” and will initially have a fleet of 5 Boeing 737-800s. Ryanair says the new charter airline will “deliver best-in-class charter services, at the lowest cost to Polish tour operators, and offer great value for customers flying to Poland’s favourite holiday destinations”. Senior executives for Ryanair Sun are currently being recruited to “set up and grow this operation”, it adds. A number of recruitment advertisements have been posted on the Ryanair website, including for the positions of CCO, CFO and chief pilot. Ryanair already serves the Polish market through its scheduled services and has a base at Warsaw Modlin airport. <br/>
AirAsia plans to start a Vietnamese carrier in a local partnership, as cheap fares and rising incomes fuel a travel surge in the Southeast Asian nation. The airline will partner Gumin Co., Hai Au Aviation Joint Stock Co. and businessman Tran Trong Kien for the venture, which is expected to start flying early next year, AirAsia said. Gumin will own about 70% of the new venture, with AirAsia holding the rest. Vietnam is the latest country to lure Fernandes, who is seeking to build a pan-Asian budget airline, as the 28% growth in passenger traffic was triple the pace in other Southeast Asian nations. The fifth-biggest market in the region has seen domestic traffic double since 2013, and the middle-class will comprise close to a quarter of its population by 2010, AirAsia said. <br/>
Frontier Airlines is ready to go public. The ULCC filed regulatory paperwork Friday for an initial public offering, validating more than a year of speculation that Frontier and its owner, private-equity firm Indigo Partners, were preparing to seek public investors. Frontier will be the first US airline to go public in 3 years. The last was Virgin America, which held its IPO in 2014 and has since agreed to be acquired by Alaska Airlines for US$2.6b. The timing and expected proceeds of the stock sale were not disclosed, although people close to the matter have said Frontier is shooting for some time in Q2. The airline reported net income of $200m in 2016, up nearly 43% since 2014. Of Frontier’s $1.7b in operating revenues in 2016, $726m came from baggage fees and other non-ticket sources. <br/>
Virgin Australia has chosen Gogo for satellite connectivity service across its fleet. Gogo will first install its dual-antenna 2Ku technology on one of Virgin Australia’s Boeing 737-800s, with customer testing commencing in April. Following the test period, installation of the 2Ku technology will move forward on the rest of Virgin Australia’s 73 737-800s, which make up over half of the airline’s entire fleet of 130 aircraft. Additionally, Gogo will install its 2Ku antennas and accompanying infrastructure on the airline’s 2 777s and 6 Airbus A330-200 aircraft. On Virgin Australia’s domestic and New Zealand flights, the 2Ku technology will interact with Ku satellites provided by Australian telecommunications company Optus. On international flights, the 2Ku antenna will connect with Intelsat and SES satellites, Gogo said. <br/>