Southwest Airlines has confirmed that it plans to fly to Hawaii, probably beginning next year – a decision that could bring sharply lower fares for all travel to the islands. Since the airline started to take delivery of new Boeing 737MAX 8 aircraft, there has been widespread speculation that it would use the planes – which can fly 500 nautical miles farther than its 737-800s – to begin service. And now the company has announced its intention to do just that. Southwest said it will seek FAA approval to gain ETOPS certification for its new 737s – a regulatory requirement for flying them to Hawaii. Assuming it gains that approval, Southwest said it “plans to begin selling tickets in 2018 for service to Hawaii”. However, the company hasn’t yet said which airports will get the new flights – only that “service details are to be announced at a later date.” <br/>
unaligned
Norwegian Air Shuttle is interested in slots made available by the collapse of Monarch its CE said, but said the process is unclear. Monarch collapsed earlier this month, stranding thousands of people, and sparking speculation about what will happen to the take-off and landing slots it occupied at airports such as London Gatwick and Luton. "We could very well use the slots, but it's not that easy to actually transfer slots," Norwegian Air CE Bjorn Kjos said. Monarch administrators KPMG are hoping they can raise funds from the sale of the slots and have said they believe they have the right to sell them. "It depends on the price. It's always depending on the price. But normally, it's not that easy to sell slots," Kjos said. <br/>
Ryanair is looking to poach pilots from Norwegian Air Shuttle as the Irish airline hits back after aircrew defections contributed to its flight-cancellation fiasco. Ryanair has been seeking to bolster pilot ranks after Norwegian Air and Jet2, which operate Boeing 737 planes similar to Ryanair’s, successfully lured away employees. The effort includes sending recruiters to Brazil and the UAE as well as retaliating against rivals with its own poaching. The carrier has added about 830 pilots to its ranks this year, including 210 over the last 3 months. With promises of “at least E25,000” (US$29,600) in higher annual pay, “we are now targeting direct-entry 737 pilots from both these competitor airlines this winter,” Ryanair’s chief people officer Eddie Wilson said in a letter to pilots Thursday. <br/>
Ryanair resisted moves by pilots to unionise Thursday, after one demanded the airline adopts a new approach to industrial relations. The European Cockpit Association, which represents pilot unions, said the demand by Imelda Comer represented the view of pilots in the majority of Ryanair's 86 bases, who are in the process of setting up a pan-European representative body. After the airline said it would not respond to anonymous letters, Comer became the first Ryanair captain to speak publicly in a letter to Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary. Ryanair, which does not recognise trade unions, dismissed Comer's letter as "disingenuous" and said it would not correspond with any newly formed pilot group. It said Comer had already resigned and was due to leave Ryanair Oct 31. <br/>
Ryanair is set to challenge a Lufthansa deal to buy parts of Air Berlin. Ryanair said it would take the E210m deal to European competition authorities. Lufthansa plans to use Air Berlin planes to expand its Eurowings budget airline business. Air Berlin filed for bankruptcy in August and has since been negotiating with potential buyers for parts of its business. Ryanair previously described the negotiations as a "stitch-up" intended to strengthen Lufthansa. "We will be referring the matter to the EU competition authority in due course," a Ryanair spokesman said. Andreas Mundt, head of Germany's cartel office, said the European Commission would take a close look at the deal and that German authorities would follow the process closely. <br/>
The disruption to flights from recent hurricanes has set back a recovery at airline Virgin Atlantic, its CE Craig Kreeger said Thursday. The airline warned in March it expected to fall into a loss this year after 3 years of profits, but last month Kreeger said demand for summer travel by Britons had held up better than expected, despite a weaker pound. Some of that improvement, however, has been eroded since Hurricane Irma ripped through resorts in the Caribbean and hit the east coast of the US, with other storms, such as Hurricane Maria, causing further disruption. "Hurricanes, beside from the very personal and real devastation in many places we fly, have certainly had an impact on our business, which will make the end of the year a little weaker than we'd (recently) anticipated," Kreeger said. <br/>
Emirates boss Tim Clark is searching for new ways for the airline to thrive - including more add-on charges - as the aviation industry becomes harder to forecast. He's been there since the start of Emirates in 1985, and while it was shaking up the airline industry before the word "disruption" entered the business lexicon, the new disrupters are now causing it headaches. Emirates has recently ended its all-inclusive ticket pricing policy by offering passengers seat choice at a cost, as other airlines have been doing for years. Clark says the airline is also looking at baggage charges. Passengers to the US don't necessarily want 46kg of luggage, he says; they may rather have a cheaper fare for 20kg, and if they want more luggage allowance, should pay for it. <br/>
Jazeera Airways has suspended plans to seek a long-haul partner, and will instead pursue more opportunities in the Indian subcontinent, according to Jazeera chairman Marwan Boodai as he unveiled a rebranding exercise for the airline. The airline has been searching for a joint-venture partner, and has held talks with several potential allies as recently as early summer. However, it has now decided to put those plans on the back burner as it instead turns to potentially more lucrative returns from the subcontinent. Jazeera will start services to Hyderabad in India and Lahore in Pakistan this month, and will add Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai services to the network before the end of this year. Boodai said that Jazeera would acquire 2 more A320s to cope with the expansion of its route network. All of its current fleet is leased. <br/>