EasyJet and the union representing former pilots and cabin crew at Air Berlin have reached an agreement on employment terms. The ver.di union said the negotiated agreement includes “fair employment conditions” for ex-Air Berlin flight crews recruited by EasyJet. Work experience at Air Berlin will be taken into account in individual’s terms at EasyJet. EasyJet agreed to terms with Air Berlin last week to acquire part of that carrier’s operations at Berlin’s Tegel. Under the deal, EasyJet is expected to lease up to 25 Airbus A320s and employ about 1,000 ex-Air Berlin pilots and cabin crew to be based at Tegel. All new hires will be employed under existing collective bargaining agreements with the German union. <br/>
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A majority of Aer Lingus ground staff voted Friday to accept a Labour Court recommendation that the airline’s workers get an 8.5% pay rise over 39 months. Trade union Siptu, which represents 1,500 non-craft workers at Aer Lingus, confirmed Friday that they had voted by 53% to 47% to accept the recommendation in a ballot. The group includes staff such as baggage handlers, cleaners, boarding and checking staff, and office workers, in Cork, Dublin and Shannon airports. Siptu official Neil McGowan said the vote concluded a 12-month process involving local negotiations, the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court. “The result of this ballot is only a first step towards improving our members’ terms and conditions of employment at the airline,” he said. <br/>
The chair of the Work and Pensions Committee has written to the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) raising further concerns over the circumstances surrounding the offloading of collapsed airline Monarch's pension fund back in 2014. The Mantegazza family carved out Monarch's retirement scheme as part of a GBP1 sale to Greybull Capital. Frank Field said Sunday that he had written to the PPF's boss Alan Rubenstein raising concerns that the PPF and the Pensions Regulator "experienced some difficulty in negotiating a minimally acceptable dowry for the scheme - due to the Mantegazzas being insufficiently daunted by the prospect of TPR's moral hazard powers being deployed in the event of no deal". Last week, the PPF's restructuring head said that the former owners of Monarch tried to offload the pension scheme for under GBP10m. <br/>
Airbus is working with Emirates, the biggest buyer of its A380 double-decker airliner, on a follow-up deal, which would bring much-needed relief to a program that’s running out of orders as carriers pick smaller more fuel-efficient aircraft. The two sides aim to come to terms in time for the Dubai Air Show, which starts Nov 12, Emirates chairman Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum said Friday, before taking delivery of its 100th A380. Airbus CE Tom Enders sought to bolster the troubled program at the event, saying the A380 would remain in production for another decade, and that there are other sales prospects to customers in the Middle East and Asia. The Airbus A380, has become a tough sell for the company. Emirates represents the only major customer for the double-decker, with 142 of the jet’s 317 net orders. <br/>
AirAsia is issuing at least half a million dollars in refunds, having wrongly charged a departure tax for child passengers on some flights since 2010. The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission Friday alerted affected customers that they could be entitled to a refund if they were incorrectly charged a fee of up to A$60 on children's tickets. AirAsia had been applying the Passenger Movement Charge, usually added to the price of an overseas fare, to young passengers on some flights from Darwin to Bali, even though children under 12 are exempt under Australian law. A passenger noticed the charge on a ticket last month, and AirAsia admitted its mistake. An estimated 9,700 customers were affected by the overcharging. <br/>
Air Arabia announced strong financial results for Q3 of this year ending Sep 30, 2017 as the carrier continued to deliver solid and sustained operational and financial performance. Air Arabia’s financial results for Q3 exceeded analysts’ expectations and registered a net profit of AED 376m, an increase of 27% compared to the AED297m (US$102m) reported for the same period last year. The company’s turnover for Q3 increased by 4% to AED 1.16b, compared to AED1.12b in the corresponding period last year. Air Arabia served over 2.33m passengers in Q3, an increase of 3% compared to the same period of last year while the average seat load factor for the same quarter stood at 81%. Air Arabia’s net profit for the first 9 months of 2017 stood at AED637m, up 18% compared to the corresponding period of 2016. <br/>