Ryanair is pressing the EC to make available take-off and landing slots in Germany after the failure of Air Berlin, with a view to opening new bases there, the company’s CCO said Thursday. The Commission has extended a deadline for examining Lufthansa’s planned acquisition of Air Berlin units Niki and LGW to Dec. 21. It is concerned about Lufthansa’s potential dominance in Germany and is seeking feedback on concessions put forward by the airline. “We believe that the regulatory authorities should ensure that sufficient slots from the Air Berlin failure should be made available to Ryanair,” said the carrier’s chief commercial officer, David O‘Brien. A source familiar with the process said Wednesday that Lufthansa’s current concessions included divesting some Niki slots in Germany but keeping those in congested Munich and Berlin Tegel. While the German carrier plans to give up some Niki slots in Duesseldorf, LGW’s portfolio also includes peak-time slots there. “Ryanair is interested in access to slots -- not slots contrived to deliver an inefficient operation, but sufficient slots to run a modern, efficient low-cost operation out of, for example, Munich, Frankfurt, Duesseldorf and Berlin Tegel,” O‘Brien said. Ryanair did not enter the bidding for Air Berlin assets, but rival easyJet is starting new German domestic routes after buying Air Berlin operations at Berlin Tegel. O‘Brien said that Ryanair, which is currently taking delivery of 40 to 50 planes a year, could station 10 aircraft at those four German airports within a year and would look at domestic routes, though international destinations are more likely.<br/>
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Frontier Airlines pilots picketed in downtown Denver Thursday in a bid for public support in their long running fight with the Denver-based discount carrier to replace their bankruptcy contract. About 350 uniformed pilots, including a handful from other airlines, and flight attendants silently walked up and down the sidewalk in frigid weather across the street from Denver's city hall near the state Capitol. Union rules bar them from chanting but they held signs showing wild animals like the ones displayed on the tails of the airline's aircraft including one with a bear that said "Frontier Pilots: Flying Under an Unbearable Contract." The demonstration drew some honks and shouts of support from passing cars and pedestrians while others just looked as they walked by. The pilots are working under a 10-year-old contract that they agreed to change in 2011 to keep the airline out of bankruptcy. Talks began in March 2016 and the pilots and Frontier have been in mediation for the last year. The pilots say their pay is 40% below the average pay of other pilots flying Airbus planes. Frontier said it is still actively involved with the negotiations taking place under the guidance of the National Mediation Board and has exchanged several proposals with the pilots.<br/>
Qatar Airways is replacing a previous order for Airbus A320neos with a revised agreement for 50 A321neos configured with a new fuselage door arrangement. The agreement for the Airbus Cabin Flex version of the A321neo appears to settle a dispute over the Middle Eastern carrier's previous A320neo deal. Qatar had ordered 50 A320neo-family jets in 2011 but it began cancelling individual A320neo deliveries in July last year. The Doha-based carrier had originally intended to be the first airline to take delivery of an A320neo, but it dropped out as technical issues emerged with the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G powerplant. Qatar cancelled four A320neo deliveries leaving it with 30 A320neos and 16 A321neos in Airbus's backlog, none of which has been delivered. Airbus had signalled at the beginning of this year that it was working on an agreement to "upsize" the order to include more A321neos. The airframer says Qatar has "reaffirmed" its previous order by restoring it to 50 aircraft and converting upwards to the A321neo with the Airbus Cabin Flex layout. This layout features the overwing exits enabling the type to accommodate additional passengers. The variant can seat up to 240 depending on the interior arrangement.<br/>
Brazilian airline Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes is considering a share offering in the early months of 2018, three sources with knowledge of the matter said Thursday. The airline will discuss details of a possible transaction in coming weeks, aiming to improve its capital structure after a successful sale of $500m in seven-year dollar bonds this week, the sources added, requesting anonymity because details of the plan have not been finalized. In October, Gol shares hit their highest levels in six years, as Brazil’s gradual economic recovery allowed the airline to boost ticket prices and cut debt faster than expected in the third quarter.<br/>
Jet Airways, the country’s second-largest airline, reported a 91% slump in quarterly profit on Thursday, hurt by higher fuel expenses. Net profit for the quarter ended Sept. 30 came in at 496.3m rupees (US$7.69m), compared with a profit of 5.49b rupees in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly total expenses rose 9.2% to 57.09b rupees, with aircraft fuel expenses rising about 17%.<br/>
A late transition from autopilot to manual flying caused a Jet Airways Boeing 737-800 to over-pitch and lose airspeed as it came in to land at Kolkata airport, resulting in a tailstrike. The aircraft was operating a Mumbai-Kolkata service with eight crew and 144 passengers on board when the incident happened at 09:10 local time on 14 January 2015. In its final investigation report, India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau found that visibility at the time of landing was 800 metres and that the pilot flying decided to carry out a dual autopilot approach with the intention of carrying out a manual landing. Flight data shows that the pilot flying disengaged the autopilot at 161ft - well below the flight crew training manual's recommendation to disengage betweeen 300-600ft if a manual landing is planned. "This allows the pilot to establish airplane control before beginning the flare. During dual mode autopilot approach, stabilizer trim automatically added nose up and this needs to be compensated for if the crew takes over manually," says the AAIB. The landing procedure took about 14 seconds to complete, during which time its pitch reached 9.14 degrees, while its airspeed at touchdown was 10kts below the reference speed. That caused the lower fuselage to come into contact with the runway, resulting in minor damage to the tail skid and scraping to the its aft lower fuselage. There were no injuries, however. The Bureau recommended that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation review the awareness among pilots of tailstrikes, and to emphasise that they should adhere to the procedures set down in operations manuals.<br/>
Czech airline Travel Service said Thursday it had signed an order for nine additional Boeing 737 MAX planes for its fleet in November, increasing its total order book for the model to 39 planes. It said eight new Boeing 737 MAX planes would be supplied in 2018 and 15 in 2019 as part of fleet renewal planned until 2023. Travel Service is in the process of acquiring majority in national airline Czech Airlines and operates charter flights and low-cost airline Smartwings. It said eight of the total order of 39 planes would be bought and the rest leased. The planes will have 189 seats and on-board WiFi entertainment systems, it said.<br/>
A Chinese flight attendant has been suspended after a video went viral online of her eating one of the meals left by passengers. The woman was defended by some internet users, who asked what was wrong with her eating leftover food. The video of the woman tucking into the meal was posted online several days ago. The footage shows about 15 boxes of airline meals stacked up, with the flight attendant eating one of them. Urumqi Air posted a statement on Thursday saying the attendant was one of its staff and that she had been suspended. The statement said the food was leftovers, but the attendant had not dealt with the meals properly. The airline added that it would ensure all staff kept to procedures for handling leftover food to avoid similar incidents in the future.<br/>
Be prepared for a lot of ugly holiday sweaters if you’re flying Alaska Airlines on Dec. 15. The carrier will celebrate what it's calling “National Ugly Holiday Sweater Day” by offering early boarding to customers wearing “festive holiday sweaters.” Alaska says the one-day promotion will be offered across its 115-city network, including flights operated by Virgin America and Horizon Air. "Travel during the holidays can be stressful for guests, especially those who do not travel often,” said Natalie Bowman, Alaska’s managing director of marketing and advertisingt. “This fun promotion not only allows guests to board early on that day, but gives people another opportunity to dust off that ugly holiday sweater hanging in the back of their closet.” National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day is “celebrated” on the third Friday of December. Early boarding or not, Alaska Airlines also is reminding customers that they still should arrive early to the airport “given anticipated congestion at the airport due to the holidays.”<br/>