Ryanair CE, Michael O’Leary, has issued an unprecedented apology to his pilots in an attempt to stem the crisis at the airline, which has cancelled thousands of flights and faced the threat of an employee revolt. The airline had to scrap the bookings of more than 700,000 passengers last month due to an apparent shortage of pilots, having failed to plan for enough leave for staff. Ryanair hoped a bonus payment could entice some pilots to change their holiday plans, but O’Leary then further inflamed the situation with disparaging comments about pilots at the airline’s annual meeting in Dublin. Thursday, the outspoken boss sent an extraordinarily contrite letter to pilots at the airline “to apologise personally to each of you for the disruptions you have experienced”. <br/>
unaligned
Last-minute flight prices have rocketed nearly a quarter on average in the wake of the collapse of Monarch Airlines and the swathe of Ryanair cancellations. Data from Skyscanner has shown European average flight prices for October have risen 23% as passengers scramble to find alternative flights for their getaways in the coming weeks and months. A growth manager at Skyscanner said the company had seen a “spike in traffic” which she attributed to people trying to make new travel arrangements. Prices on flights to Dublin, Milan, Malaga, Alicante and Barcelona have all spiked in October although rises are less pronounced in the coming months for the time being. <br/>
Monarch’s creditors risk being stripped of the airline’s most valuable assets — its take-off and landing slots — which could be worth as much as GBP60m. The airline entered administration in the early hours of Monday. All of its 750,000 future bookings have been cancelled. Questions are being raised over whether administrators KPMG have the right to sell the airline’s airport slots, with people briefed on the process suggesting the issue is subject to fierce debate and legal interpretation. Monarch’s take-off and landing slots at London Gatwick are subject to a bidding war between EasyJet and British Airways, said people close to the discussions. While Monarch has slots at London Luton, Birmingham and Manchester, the airline’s slots at Gatwick have generated the most interest because the lack of capacity at peak times. <br/>
CityJet lost E30m last year as the airline expanded and invested in new aircraft to meet the demands of new business. The carrier has switched its focus from scheduled services to wet leasing, providing craft and crew to fly services on behalf of other airlines. The company has said that it lost E30.2m before tax in 2016, driven by a once-off cost of E8.4m, mostly from buying new aircraft, and a foreign exchange loss on financing of E13.1m. Revenues rose 20% to E198.2m last year from E165.1m the previous year. CityJet’s operations – its day-to-day business – lost E1.8m. Executive chairman Pat Byrne said that CityJet expected cash flows to strengthen next year. “We should have profits worth writing home about in 2019,” he added. <br/>
Emirates airline needs “even more” Airbus A380 aircraft in the future, according to Emirates president Tim Clark. Clark said the “the potential market remains huge” for the superjumbo aircraft, despite the emergence of smaller, more energy-efficient aircraft capable of flying to medium-sized cities. Clark added, however, that the recent partnership between Emirates and flydubai that was announced in July will mean that the composition of Emirates’ fleet will be re-evaluated. “There is room for the A350s and the [Being 787] Dreamliner,” he said. “We’re definitely considering that.” Clark also said he was unconcerned about the potential competition from Joon, an Air France-KLM subsidiary that begins operations in December . <br/>
Alaska Airlines will operate all Virgin America flights as its own from April 25, 2018, with users of Virgin's website directed to Alaska's site from that day, the carrier confirms. "Alaska Airlines has posted the new Airbus schedule for flights after April 24," Alaska said in an internal memo to employees. "The flights will be Alaska flights and will only be available through Alaska channels… or through travel agencies and booking sites." Virgin America, which Alaska acquired in late 2016, operates Airbus A320 family narrowbodies, while Alaska Airlines operates an all-Boeing 737 fleet. "Today, we took an important step closer to completed our merger with Virgin America by combining our flight inventories into one," Alaska managing director of process engineering Sandy Stelling said. <br/>
Eurowings is linking up passenger engagement with its route development strategy by asking customers to vote for the route they want the airline to fly. The airline launched the “You vote, we fly” campaign Oct 4, giving passengers a choice of 10 European short-haul routes. “No other airline has ever done this,” Eurowings CE and CCO Oliver Wagner said. The potential destinations are Belfast in Northern Ireland, Bergen in Norway, Biarritz in France, Brac in Croatia, Castellón in Spain, Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Podgorica in Montenegro, Shannon in Ireland, and Trapani and Trieste in Italy. After an initial round of voting, 3 destinations will be shortlisted. The winning route will be selected during a live finale on Facebook and will be added to the Eurowings’ network for summer 2018. <br/>