At this torrid time for Ryanair, it may surprise hundreds of thousands of inconvenienced ticket holders to know that one of Europe’s biggest countries is still craving its presence. Ukraine hoped to announce an agreement with Ryanair this summer, when the EU granted visa-free travel to its 46m citizens in one of the most tangible results of the nation’s pivot to the West following a 2014 revolution. The deal collapsed when Kiev’s Boryspil airport rejected it as economically unviable. But many Ukrainians blamed a familiar bugbear for depriving them of cheaper flights throughout a newly open Europe – a tycoon determined to protect his interests from competition, regardless of the cost to the general public. But the govt insists that Ryanair’s arrival has only been postponed, not cancelled. <br/>
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Ryanair's sudden cancellation of some 20,000 flights this fall and winter due to an apparent shortage of pilots has exposed deep shortcomings in the airline's labour relations. The poster child for a changing aviation industry, the carrier's rapid expansion has challenged traditional players such as Virgin and British Airways and saw the airline achieve record profits of E1.32b in 2016 against revenues of E6.54b. But amid what some analysts say is an obsessive drive for efficiency, its pilots and cabin crew are increasingly forced to accept weak employment terms and short-term contracts. Many of its air crews are hired on a self-employed basis through agencies, and are often only paid for the hours their planes are in the air. <br/>
Britain's transport minister said Monday the costs of bringing home 110,000 customers of airline Monarch, which collapsed last week, were being discussed with credit and debit card companies. Monarch went bust last week amid intense competition over passengers and a weaker pound following the Brexit vote decimated company profits. "I am also aware of the duty this govt has to the taxpayer and ... we've entered into discussions with several third parties with the aim of recovering costs of the operation," transport minister Chris Grayling told parliament. "We're currently engaged in constructive discussions with the relevant credit and debit card providers so we recoup from them some of the costs to taxpayers of these repatriation flights," he said. <br/>
A union representing 400 former Monarch Airlines pilots has called for an investigation by the UK govt into the collapse earlier this month of the airline. BALPA, the union, said that the “House of Commons Transport Committee should urgently investigate all the circumstances and make its findings public.” In particular, it is seeking answers to whether the group needed to file for insolvency Oct 2, and information into the recent revelation that Boeing had been injecting capital into Monarch from Oct 2016 to March this year. “Monarch pilots made huge pay and pensions sacrifices in 2014 to help Monarch turn itself around only to find that this was all in vain. They feel they did this simply to protect the financiers and they have been sacrificed in the process,” BALPA said. <br/>
Southwest Airlines reported disappointing traffic numbers for September. Revenue Passenger Miles declined 4.5% year over year to 9.5b in the month. Meanwhile Available Seat Miles decreased 1.6% to 11.61b. Load factor decreased 250 basis points (bps) to 81.7% in September. The key metric fell since the contraction in traffic was more than that in capacity leading to empty planes. On a year-to-date basis, Southwest Airlines witnessed a 3.7% rise in RPMs to 96.85b. Also, ASMs grew 4.1% to 115.92b. As a result, the load factor decreased 40 bps to 83.5%. Additionally, passenger count in the first 9 months of 2017 rose 3.8% to 117.25b. The company’s Q3 results, scheduled to be revealed Oct 26, are expected to be hurt due to the recent hurricanes (Harvey, Irma and Maria) and the earthquake in Mexico. <br/>