A Russian plane carrying 71 people crashed near Moscow shortly after take-off Sunday afternoon, killing all on board. Flight 703, operated by the Russian regional carrier Saratov Airlines, was carrying 65 passengers and 6 crew members. The plane went down near the village of Stepanovskoe, about 50 miles southeast of Moscow in the Ramenskoye District, according to the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry. There were no survivors, Moscow’s regional transportation prosecutor-general confirmed. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. The Russian aviation authority said the flight departed at 2:21pm from Domodedovo. The Antonov AN-148, a small regional jet, was headed to the city of Orsk in the Orenburg region, about 1,000 miles southeast of Moscow, near the border with Kazakhstan. <br/>
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Emirates has firmed the MOU agreed with Airbus in mid-January for 20 more A380s plus 16 further options. Including all 36 aircraft, the total value of the deal is US$16b at list prices. Deliveries will start as early as 2020, Airbus said. The order is highly significant for the A380 program because it secures production of the aircraft for another 10 years. Together with Emirates’ 101-strong A380 fleet and its current order backlog for 41 aircraft, the new order brings Emirates’ commitment to the A380 program to 178 aircraft and makes it by far the largest customer and operator. To date, 222 A380s have been delivered to 13 airlines. Emirates’ A380 fleet operates both GE and Rolls-Royce engines; the carrier is evaluating engine options for the latest order. <br/>
Three Italian unions confirmed Friday their call to Ryanair workers to strike for 4 hours Feb 10, while Italy's main pilots union, ANPAC, said it would not participate. Ryanair confirmed in December it will recognise unions for all staff but has said it wants to formalise relations with pilot unions first, something it is struggling with in some countries. It has agreed a recognition deal with British pilot union BALPA, but Spanish union SEPLA this week said management was not negotiating in good faith. The Cgil, Cisl and Uil unions in Italy, representing mainly cabin and ground crew, said they would walk out because they have not been included in contract negotiations with the airline. Italian pilot union ANPAC said it would not participate because it is currently in talks with Ryanair, including for a pay increase. <br/>
Ryanair is starting a recruitment drive for pilots in South Africa as the airline seeks crew to helm its expanding fleet of jets. The carrier will host roadshows in Johannesburg and Cape Town later this month and is looking to hire captains for Boeing 737s. Successful candidates will relocate to Europe and help staff a fleet that’s expected to increase to 580 planes from about 425 over the next six years. Air Line Pilots’ Association South Africa is “well aware” of the hiring effort and will hold off on commenting until Ryanair discloses the terms and conditions of any job offers, William Rooken-Smith, president of the Johannesburg-based labour group, said. “Despite recent labour issues, Ryanair is expanding to fill a gap left by failed airlines in Europe, so they would need to recruit in any event,” he said. <br/>
Complaints staff at Aer Lingus who face having their jobs moved to America have voted to reject a compromise plan drawn up by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). The airline informed its guest relations department before Christmas that it planned to move the entire function to a new US-based Aer Lingus guest relations hub by the end of this month. About 20 staff are affected by the decision but staff and unions had expressed concern that the plan was a move towards outsourcing small sections of the airline's ground-handling operation - something that the airline has rejected. After the announcement, trade union officials told management that the manner in which the Dublin-based jobs were to be eliminated was "unprecedented" in the airline's history. <br/>
Norwegian has signed a comprehensive collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with Spanish pilots’ union SEPLA, covering the next 2 years. Norwegian Group chief human resources officer Helga Bollmann Leknes described the deal, which will be put to a vote among SEPLA’s members, as “crucial to the group’s future growth.” Spain is Norwegian’s second-largest market by passenger volumes and its largest in terms of staff numbers, employing more than 2,190 people. This summer, Norwegian will have a fleet of 33 aircraft stationed across its 8 Spanish bases. This is more bases than Norwegian has across all the Nordic countries, combined. This closes the Spanish labour negotiations, as Norwegian reached a deal with its cabin crew there in June. <br/>
The list of most active airlines in Israel has undergone a revolution. After El Al in first place with 370,000 passengers, 28% of all passengers (down slightly, compared with January 2017), comes Wizz Air, which flew 74,500 passengers, 90% more than in January last year, making it the leading foreign airline in Israel, the Israel Airports Authority reports. In third place was British airline EasyJet which flew 73,000 passengers, 29% more than in January 2017. Regardless of relations between the countries, Turkish Airlines increased the number of its passengers in January by 37% to 69,000, putting it in fourth place. Passenger traffic at Ben Gurion Airport continued to climb in January, with 1.3m passengers, 15% more than in Jan 2017. <br/>
IndiGo, the world’s biggest buyer of the Airbus A320neo, was forced to replace faulty Pratt & Whitney engines that power the jetliners in 69 cases over the last 18 months. The airline said there have been 3 incidents when engines shutdown during flight, and 3 other cases when a flight was scrubbed after engine issues were identified. The problems were dealt with in a “timely and safe manner” based on instructions from the manufacturer, an IndiGo spokesman said. IndiGo said Saturday that it had withdrawn 3 affected planes from service and canceled some flights after the EASA warned of a new issue with the Pratt engines that may be connected to several in-flight shut downs. Airbus has halted all deliveries of the Pratt-powered A320neo till further notice, the airline said. <br/>
Air Arabia Sunday reported Dh662m (US$180m) in net profit for 2017, marking a 30% jump year-on-year as the airline grew its network and cut costs. The figure puts profit in Q4 at Dh26m, a turnaround from the Dh33m in losses in the last quarter of 2016. Turnover for the year was in line with that of 2016, at Dh3.74b, Air Arabia said, with turnover in Q4 at Dh858m, up 5.4% year-on-year. Operationally, the airline flew over 8.5m passengers in 2017, with a seat load factor of 79%. Air Arabia’s board of directors proposed a dividend distribution of 10% of share capital, equivalent to 10 fils per share. Abdullah Bin Mohammad Al Thani, chairman of Air Arabia, said that while political and economic challenges continued to impact the performance of the aviation industry in 2017, Air Arabia focused on operational efficiency and product offering. <br/>
WestJet Airlines‘ first-ever round of union negotiations hit some turbulence after the association that represents pilots applied for govt intervention in contract talks — and even filed a complaint against the company. The Air Line Pilots Association says contract talks with WestJet began in September, but both sides remain far apart on many important issues, such as job protections and working conditions for pilots. “Negotiations are going quite poorly,” said a member of the pilot association‘s executive council. The union has applied for federal govt conciliators to help both sides reach an agreement. The association has also filed a complaint with the Canada Industrial Relations Board over WestJet‘s alleged tactics of hiring pilots for Swoop, its new ULCC expected to launch in June. <br/>