Ryanair cannot rule out flight cancellations due to a planned cabin crew strike in Portugal during the Easter holidays but expects any disruptions to be small, its CE said Wednesday. Portuguese union representatives have said the strikes are motivated by below-par labour conditions, including disciplinary processes and threats for not reaching in-flight sales objectives. Asked whether there will be flight cancellations, Michael O’Leary said: “It depends on how many disruptions there are. We can’t rule it out but it will be small scale.” Ryanair had scheduled 90 flights to and from Portugal for Thursday, he said. O’Leary also announced details of Laudamotion’s summer schedule. which will involve a total of 21 aircraft operating from 9 cities in Austria, Switzerland and Germany from June. <br/>
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Ryanair is here to stay. And not just for British and Irish fliers. The airline is taking over Europe. Indeed, the UK isn’t even Ryanair’s biggest market. It operates more flights annually, as it has done since 2014, from Italy. What’s more, Italy’s biggest airline isn’t Alitalia, or even newly founded Air Italy. By a very long way, it’s Ryanair. The airline flew 36.3m people from an Italian airport last year, up from 32.6m in 2016, an increase of 11.2%. Alitalia managed only 21.8m. In Spain, too, it’s number one. In fact, OAG reports that Ryanair is now the biggest airline in 7 European countries: Ireland, Spain, Italy, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Bulgaria. It takes second spot in 5 more (Portugal, Belgium, Hungary, Czech Republic and Latvia) and third spot in a further 6 (UK, France, Denmark, Germany, Greece and Montenegro). <br/>
Thomas Cook Airlines will join the Worldwide by EasyJet connecting platform, which is also being extended to include another seven airports. Worldwide by EasyJet is a booking platform, powered by Icelandic travel technology company Dohop, which allows passengers to buy tickets and connect between EasyJet and its partner airlines, rather than using traditional interlining agreements. The platform was launched in Sept 2017 by EasyJet, Norwegian and WestJet at London Gatwick. Since then, the initiative has expanded to Milan Malpensa (spring 2018) and EasyJet has named further partners, including Guernsey’s airline Aurigny, French leisure airline Corsair, French business-class carrier La Compagnie, Scottish regional carrier Loganair and Italian carrier Neos. <br/>
Kuwait Airways has come under fire in Germany after the carrier stopped an Israeli passenger from boarding its flight in Frankfurt. Critics have called on Berlin to pressure the airline into changing its practices. German Federal Transportation minister Andreas Scheuer called on his country's govt Monday to put political pressure on Kuwait Airways in retaliation for turning away the Israeli passenger. "If the discussions that have begun with the Kuwaiti side lead to no result, there will be negative repercussions for this airline in Germany," Scheuer said. Oliver Luksic, a parliamentarian from the liberal Free Democratic Party, has suggested that if Kuwait Airways refuses to allow Israeli passengers to board its flights on German territory, Frankfurt Airport should be allowed to take away its landing slots for the airline. <br/>
The Israeli govt has hailed Air India’s new nonstop service from New Delhi to Tel Aviv as a historic breakthrough — the carrier is the first commercial airline to take a geopolitical shortcut through Saudi Arabian airspace. But El Al still has to take the long way and fears that it will suffer serious financial damage from what it views as aerial discrimination. So in a first of its own, El Al petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court Wednesday, filing suit against the govt; the Civil Aviation Authority; prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu; the transportation minister, Yisrael Katz; and Air India. Even though Saudi Arabia granted permission for the route, El Al is asking the Israeli court to prevent Air India from taking the shorter path unless the Israeli carrier receives a similar permit. <br/>
A federal judge ordered an airline to pay about US$272,000 in damages to a Connecticut woman injured in a plane crash in South America in 2011. Judge Michael Shea ruled Tuesday that Caribbean Airlines was responsible for the injuries of Indrawatie Shiwbodh. Lawsuits by other passengers were settled, and Shiwbodh's case was the only to go to trial. Shiwbodh was among 157 passengers and 6 crew members on a Boeing 737-800 that overshot the runway and broke in half at Cheddi Jagan International in Guyana. No one died, but dozens of people were injured. The flight originated from JFK in New York. Investigators concluded that coordination between the captain and co-pilot broke down as the plane landed and that the pilots failed to reduce excess power during landing. <br/>