Representatives of Spanish pilots working for Ryanair will launch legal action against the airline over contracts they say fail to comply with Spanish law, the SEPLA union said Wednesday. Ryanair decided in December to recognise unions for the first time but is struggling to formalise relations in some countries. It warned its pilots this week that it would face down "laughable demands" for conditions similar to high-cost rivals even if that meant strikes at Easter. In a letter sent to members, SEPLA accused Ryanair management of failing to negotiate in good faith since the airline opened the recognition talks. "After the last few weeks' events and based on the statements of our managers, it has become clear that Ryanair has no intention of negotiating with the pilots' representatives until they are forced to do so," the letter said. <br/>
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Spirit Airlines' website was down for several hours Wednesday, leaving customers unable to book flights online directly with the carrier. The airline's site failed before noon Eastern time but appeared to be functioning normally about 4 hours later. A Spirit spokesman said flights were not affected. He said he did not know the cause of the outage. While its site was down, Spirit tweeted a link to an online travel agency where customers could book flights. Computer outages are not unusual at airlines. Most carriers operate IT systems that are a mix of old and new applications, making them more vulnerable to problems. <br/>
Bangkok Airways has signed for 4 ATR 72-600s, in a deal valued at over US$100m at list prices. The carrier’s CFO Anawat Leelawatwatana says the additional aircraft will be used to boost frequencies on its existing network. The first aircraft will be delivered towards the end of the year. Bangkok Airways has operated ATRs since 1994, and has 5 ATR 72-500s and 9 -600s in service. “ATR has experienced dramatic growth in Asia over the last decade, and Bangkok Airways has strongly contributed to this success not only with the expansion of its fleet of ATRs but also because it sets a benchmark when it comes to developing networks with eco-efficient and versatile aircraft,” says ATR CE Christian Scherer. <br/>