unaligned

Ryanair reported a full year net profit of E1.32b, up 6% on the previous year’s E1.24b. The full year profit to end March came on the back of a 13% average cut in fares, Ryanair said, as unit costs fell 11% during the period. Revenue edged up 2% to E6.65b. Ryanair CE Michael O’Leary said the increased profit came “despite difficult trading conditions in FY17 caused by a series of security events at European cities, a switch of charter capacity from North Africa, Turkey and Egypt to mainland Europe, and a sharp decline in sterling following the June 2016 Brexit vote. “We reacted to these challenges by improving our customer experience, and stimulating growth with lower fares,” he added. The 13% drop in air fares led to a 2% fall in scheduled revenues to E4.87b, but a 13% lift in ancillary revenues to E1.78b pushed total revenue up 2%. The increase in ancillary revenue to 27% of the total was driven by a solid performance in reserved seating, priority boarding, car hire and on-board sales, the airline said. Expenses edged up 1% to E5.1b, with fuel costs falling 8% to E1.91b due to lower euro denominated fuel prices. Unit costs fell 11%, ex-fuel they were down 5%. Operating profit came in at E1.53b, a 5% increase on the previous year. The low cost carrier flew 120m people during the year, a 13% increase, with load factor rising one percentage point to 94%.<br/>

Emirates ordered its Taiwanese cabin crew to remove the island’s flag from their uniforms Tuesday, as the Middle East airline signalled it was willing to support Beijing’s one-China policy, sparking backlash from Taiwanese staff and citizens. In an emailed instruction to staff, the Dubai-based airline ordered cabin crew from Taiwan to replace the island’s flag pin with the Chinese national flag, but soon after performed a partial u-turn, granting Taiwanese crew members permission to not wear a flag pin. The Chinese government “instructed” Emirates to conform to the policy, according to an email sent by one of the airline’s managers. The one-China policy recognises that Taiwan is part of China, and Beijing has indicated it regards Taiwan as a renegade province. The request by the airline to remove a flag pin echoes similar demands made by the same airline last year, when it made Hong Kong cabin crew wear the Chinese national flag alongside the Bauhinia flag. For a global airline with a vast network of destinations and a mix of passengers from all over the world, the flag pin is used traditionally to highlight the cabin crew’s origin and language capabilities to the travelling public.<br/>

Emirates is overhauling its first-class offering, reducing the number of available berths, as it seeks to cater to the world’s wealthiest travellers amid slowing growth. The airline’s new premium section, to be featured on its Boeing 777-300ERs, will have six private suites instead of eight, Emirates said in an e-mailed statement. The cabins will be presented in November sporting “a totally fresh new look,” said Tim Clark, Emirates president. Emirates, which has been developing new first-class cabins for several years, has been hit by falling demand from premium Gulf passengers and industry-wide concerns about terrorism. To cope with some of the toughest operating conditions in its 30-year history, Emirates is revamping the bars on its Airbus SE A380s, mulling a premium-economy class for the first time and considering introducing narrow-bodies to its all-widebody fleet in cooperation with low-cost sister carrier FlyDubai. The smaller cabins come just after Qatar Airways announced its Qsuite, a new business-class section with double-beds that morph into meeting rooms. The market for the most expensive seats on an aircraft is at a crossroads, with many carriers either scaling back first-class offerings, while others such as Etihad Airways are taking the opposite approach by adding three-room cabins.<br/>

Sky Airline is on track to reach its target of 5m domestic passengers in Chile before 2020 as the low-cost airline seeks to take market share from Latam Airlines, according to Luis Felipe Ross, the carrier’s chairman. While a price war in the local market has driven down costs for consumers and boosted demand for flights, there’s still room to grow. Local authorities could help the trend by lowering boarding fees charged by airports that can account for a significant part of ticket prices. "It would be ideal to set up a dialogue with authorities about boarding fees," Ross said. "Chile has relatively high fees and lowering them could get even more people to fly." Created 14 years ago, Sky’s tactic of cutting prices is working as it muscles Latam and other rivals out of an ever larger share of the market. Passenger traffic at Sky rose 12% last year and continued to rise in 2017, boosting its market share to almost 27% in the first four months from just 18.8% seven years earlier. Latam saw its share shrink to 71.9% from 77.4% over the same period. Sky transported 3.2m passengers last year, of which 2.8m were in the domestic market.<br/>

An autopsy has confirmed that a Spirit Airlines pilot and his wife died of overdoses of cocaine and carfentanil. The Montgomery County Coroner's Office on Tuesday confirmed the autopsy results in the deaths of 36-year-old Brian Halye and 34-year-old Courtney Halye. Police say the couple's four children found their bodies March 16 at their home in Centerville. The deaths came about a week after Brian Halye's last flight. The Dayton Daily News reports the autopsy report doesn't indicate if the Halyes knew the cocaine contained carfentanil — a synthetic opioid 100 times stronger than fentanyl and 1,000 times more powerful than morphine. But the autopsy report does show that both Halyes took the drug by injection.<br/>