Ryanair could speed up share buybacks to comply with EU ownership laws as a result of Britain leaving the EU, the Irish carrier's CE said Tuesday. To qualify as an EU airline carriers have to be majority owned by EU investors. Ryanair was 53.6% owned by EU nationals, including UK investors in 2016, according to the airline. And Michael O'Leary said around 20% of Ryanair's shareholders are UK-based. The carrier has already been carrying out share buybacks to return cash to shareholders. "Ownership post Brexit is a real issue," O'Leary told a hearing in the European Parliament. "It might help me to accelerate the share buyback if UK shareholders are forced to sell." Like other European airlines, Ryanair has clauses in its articles of association that mean it can force non-EU shareholders to sell their shares in order to ensure that EU investors retain the majority. He reiterated concerns that unless a deal is agreed for Brexit then flights between Britain and the remaining EU 27 countries could be grounded. "There is not a legal mechanism on which airlines can operate in a 'hard Brexit, no deal' outcome. There will simply be no flights," he said, adding that Ryanair would start cancelling flights six months before the March 2019 date when Britain is due to leave the EU with or without a deal.<br/>
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Air Zimbabwe is firing more than a third of its workforce to prevent the state-owned airline from going bankrupt. The airline has debts of about $330m, Transport Minister Joram Gumbo said in June. The carrier was also banned from operating in the European Union in May on safety concerns even though it doesn’t currently fly there. As many as 2OO jobs, or more than a third of its workforce, will be cut, a person familiar with the situation said, asking not to be named as the information hasn’t been made public. “In light of the huge financial challenges which the company is faced with, a decision to compulsorily retrench employees with immediate effect has been made,” the airline said in a letter sent to affected employees and seen by Bloomberg. The job cuts are necessary to “contain operational costs and save the national airline’s viability as a going concern.” The fortunes of the airline, founded as Central African Airways in 1946, have declined with the country’s economy halving in size since 2000 as unemployment and a shortage of cash cut consumer demand for products ranging from plane tickets to beer over the past few years. In addition to domestic flights, the airline, which used to operate routes to Europe and China, flies to South Africa and Zambia.<br/>
Ukraine’s PM Tuesday appealed to Ryanair to resume talks over flights to the country as a domestic political row escalated over the airline’s decision to cancel its plans. Volodymyr Groysman said the country had “decided to renew the negotiation process with Ryanair”, a day after the airline accused Kiev’s airport of failing to honour a deal. Ukraine was “not yet a sufficiently mature or reliable business location to invest”, Ryanair said. The collapse of talks with Europe’s largest budget airline has sparked anger on Ukrainian social media. It comes a month after the implementation of an agreement to allow visa-free travel to the EU promised Ukrainians closer, cheaper and easier access to the west. Volodymyr Omelyan, Ukraine’s transport minister, on Tuesday accused Pavlo Riabikin, Boryspil airport’s CE, of sabotaging negotiations and trying to protect Ukraine International Airlines, which is co-owned by Igor Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine’s most influential oligarchs.<br/>
Budget carrier flydubai announced on Tuesday the resignation of its CFO Mukesh Sodani, who is leaving to take up a position with a Dubai-based holding company. Sodani, who joined the government-owned airline six and a half years ago, will leave in the summer, flydubai said in a bourse statement. Flydubai said it has started the recruitment process for Sodani's replacement.<br/>
Alaska Air Group reported its June and H1 2017 traffic results on Monday, including its Alaska Airlines and Virgin America units. Group airlines flew 3.9m revenue passengers in June, a 5.2% lift from June 2016. Of the total, Alaska Air added 6.9% more passengers to 2.3m, while Virgin America increased its total to 744,000, a 2.9% increase. Group passenger traffic in RPM terms rose 8.3%, with Alaska up 8.7%, and Virgin up 5.6%. ASM capacity increased by 6.9% group-wide, 7.5% at Alaska, and 4.2% at Virgin. Group load factor was up one percentage point at 87.3%. For the six months to end June, group passenger traffic rose 6.4 percent on an ASM capacity increase of 5.4%. Load factor edged up 0.8 of a percentage point to 84.2%.<br/>
Southwest flew 11.6m revenue passengers during June, up from the 11.1m it reported in the same month last year, a 4.6% increase. For Q2 to end June, the airline carried 5.1% more revenue passengers than 2Q16, at a shade under 34m. For H1, 63.5m flew on Southwest, an increase of 4.2%. RPM traffic for June, rose 3.7%, on an ASM capacity increase of 3.8%. Resulting load factor was 87.4%, no change from the prior year period. Passenger traffic for Q2 was up 5.1%, as was ASM capacity. Again, no change in load factor for the quarter. Southwest increased capacity by 4.6% in 1H17, but RPM traffic rose by 4.3%, leading to a 0.3 percentage point drop in load factor to 82.9%. The Dallas-based low cost carrier said that, based on these results, it continues to estimate Q2 2017 operating revenue per ASM (RASM) will increase in the 1-2% range, compared to the second quarter of 2016.<br/>