Michael O’Leary has insisted his employees have the best job security in Europe, as well as a “sophisticated” collective bargaining process. The Ryanair CE claimed “misinformation” was circulated by competitor pilot unions in the wake of September’s pilot rostering failure. He said the misinformation was a “predictable by-product” of the crisis. He said: “Since Ryanair has, for over 30 years, operated a sophisticated collective bargaining process, supported fully by our pilots and cabin crew — confirmed and validated by the Irish Supreme Court — the only way our existing 5-year base agreements can be changed [some of which run to 2020] is by negotiation between the airline and our base ERCs [employee representative councils].” <br/>
unaligned
Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe is a major owner behind a new national airline, which is set to be handed lucrative long-haul licences to London and the Far East. The move has been condemned by opposition leaders who say it would make Mugabe the first head of state in the world to own a national airline. Mugabe and his family have become "beneficial shareholders" in a new carrier called Zimbabwe Airways, reported The Financial Gazette, citing "multiple aviation sources". The airline is registered in the tax haven of Mauritius, and Mugabe's son-in-law, Simba Chikore, who has been instrumental in setting up the new airline, is tipped to become its CE. Chikore is currently the chief operating officer of ailing flag carrier Air Zimbabwe, which is saddled with debt and is barred from flying into the EU after failing to meet safety standards. <br/>
New figures show that WOW air have surpassed Icelandair, as the leading airline for Icelanders. "In our mind this is quite a milestone because few people ever expected us to reach this goal," says WOW air MD Skúli Mogensen. WOW air has made an analysis of Icelandair's investor report and WOW air statistics and data from the Icelandic Tourist Board shows that WOW air have a 38% share in Q3 2017 of Icelanders flying to and from Keflavik International Airport while Icelandair have 34% and other airlines have 28%. Last year over the same period of time those figures were 36%, 37% and 27%. Asked whether he believes that the gap between Icelandair and WOW air will widen Mogensen replies, "Yes, we are just at the beginning." <br/>
When IAG launched Level, its low-cost, long-haul airline in March this year, nobody was quite sure whether it was something the company was genuine about or simply an attempt to outmuscle airlines like Norwegian, which were already active in the segment. The fact that it was launched so quickly — and that it operated under Iberia’s AOC— gave the impression that it might not last long, especially as some previous airlines within airlines had largely been failures. Seven months on and IAG CE Willie Walsh says the brand is “doing extremely well” and will shortly get its own AOC, a dedicated CE, and a second operating base. The company said in its Q3 results released last week that the trading performance for Level was “positive” but did not give a specific revenue figure. <br/>
The administrators of Monarch Airlines—which entered into administration Oct 2—are scheduled in court next week to determine whether the carrier still has allocation powers over its airport slots. There has been confusion over who has the power to allocate, or re-allocate, the airline’s slots, which have considerable value, especially those at London Gatwick. Reports in the UK media have speculated the carrier’s slots at Gatwick alone could be worth as much as US$80m. If administrators KPMG still have control over these, the proceeds from them could be used to pay at least some of Monarch’s creditors—including owners Greybull Capital. The case is expected to revolve around whether an airline still has control over its slots once its AOC has been suspended, as was the case with Monarch when it collapsed early last month. <br/>
Southwest Airlines is accusing the city of Dallas of failing to properly manage gate space at Love Field, suggesting in a court filing this week that Delta Air Lines should be given shared access to gates controlled by Alaska Airlines, rather than on gates controlled by Southwest. Southwest argued in a filing with the US District Court of North Texas that city officials have an obligation “to allocate the [Love Field] gates in an efficient manner,” something Southwest said hasn’t been done since a lawsuit over gate access was filed in June 2015. The filing is the latest in a long-running dispute between Southwest, Delta and the city over access to the limited space at city-owned Love Field, which is capped at 20 gates under the terms of the Wright Amendment Reform Act. <br/>