unaligned

Southwest runs its planes hard. They make many short hops and more trips per day than other US airliners, which adds to wear and tear on parts, including the engines. As the investigation into last week's deadly engine failure continues, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly could face questions about whether the company's low-cost business model — which puts its planes through frequent takeoffs and landings — is putting passengers at risk. Some aviation safety experts said they see no reason for alarm. And, in fact, Southwest's safety record is enviable: Until last week, no passenger had died in an accident during its 47-year history. Still, the airline has paid millions over the past decade to settle safety violations, including fines for flying planes that didn't have required repairs. Twice in the past nine years, holes have torn open in the roofs of Southwest planes in flight. In another episode in 2016, an engine on a Southwest jet blew apart over Florida because of metal fatigue, or wear and tear, hurling debris that struck the fuselage and tail. No one was hurt. Then, last week, one of the engines on Southwest Flight 1380 blew apart at 32,000 feet over Pennsylvania, spraying the Boeing 737 with shrapnel and killing 43-year-old Jennifer Riordan, a mother of two who was blown partway out a broken window. The NTSB said a fan blade that had snapped off the engine was showing signs of metal fatigue. The leader of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, Bret Oestreich, said Southwest had created a culture of hostility and retaliation. Nevertheless, aviation safety experts and longtime industry watchers said they do not consider Southwest unsafe. <br/>

European unions representing Ryanair cabin crew on Tuesday gave the airline until June 30 to adopt national employment laws for all their workers or face industrial action during the summer, the unions said after meeting in Lisbon. The SNPVAC union, which represents Ryanair Portuguese cabin crew staff, staged a strike early in April over what it says is the airline’s failure to recognise Portuguese labour rights, including doctor-approved sick days. Five unions representing Ryanair European cabin crew met on Tuesday and agreed on the deadline. Their demands include respecting national legislation where cabin crew are based and applying the same work conditions for all workers. “If Ryanair fails to comply with these terms, the undersigned unions will initiate all the statutory and legal procedures to call a coordinated industrial action, including the use of strike action, during the summer of 2018,” they said. The unions present included Belgium’s CNE/LBC, two Spanish unions and Italy’s UILTASPORTI. Ryanair’s contracts in Portugal have prompted the Socialist government to look into the terms of employment. Labour Minister Jose Vieira da Silva has said that while most Portuguese crews’ contracts were signed under Irish jurisdiction, the EU Treaty of Rome still guarantees worker rights under local laws.<br/>

Ryanair has agreed to buy a further 25 Boeing 737 MAX planes, worth $3b at list prices, lifting its order of the planemaker’s flagship short-haul plane model to 135, the two companies said Tuesday. The carrier, which is the largest operator of Boeing planes in Europe, purchased 100 737 MAX planes in 2014 and took out options on 100 more. Ryanair said the order leaves it with 75 more options. It purchased 10 additional MAX planes in June last year, which were on top of the 2014 order. CE Michael O’Leary in March said he expected to exercise “pretty much all” of its options. Ryanair has dubbed the MAX a “game changer” for its business, due to a fuel consumption improvement it says could be up to 16% and a greater number of seats. The configuration Ryanair has ordered has 197 seats compared to 189 in its current fleet of 737s. <br/>

Come Wednesday morning, customers arriving at 29 airports in the US and Mexico will find something missing: all check-in counters, kiosks, signs and gate areas branded as Virgin America. These 29 airports are where Virgin America and Alaska Airlines are both still operating flights, but on Tuesday night, two years after Alaska Airlines acquired Virgin America for $2.6b, the final Virgin-branded revenue flights will be flown. The final flights will be Virgin America Flight 1182, which is scheduled to depart San Francisco at 9:30 p.m. and, two minutes later, Virgin America Flight 1948, which is scheduled to fly to Los Angeles at 9:32 p.m. “We’re planning to delight our guests flying on these last two flights with a few surprises,” Alaska Airlines said. Aviation geeks and frequent fliers with both Virgin America and Alaska Airlines who have booked seats on the Virgin America flight between SFO and LAX have planned a few celebratory events and surprises of their own. “We’ll be having a get-together in the gate area before the flight,” said Nate Vallier, a frequent flier who owns an airline IT company. “We’ll have posters, memorabilia and other swag to hand out and, after the flight, we’ll be gathering in the Alaska Airlines lounge in LAX to toast to the sunset of the Virgin America brand.” <br/>

JetBlue Airways said Tuesday that quarterly net income increased by 7% as higher fares and a lower US tax rate helped offset higher fuel and other costs. Net income rose to $88m from $82m in the year-ago period, boosted by a 6.8% increase in average fares and a 43.4% decrease in income tax expense. The airline said pretax income fell to $110m from $126m in Q1 2017, and its pretax margin declined 1.3% to 6.3%. “Since the end of 2017 demand has strengthened across our network, and we saw further close-in strength to end the quarter,” JetBlue Executive VP Marty St. George said. Close-in refers to the typically more expensive tickets purchased near the date of scheduled departure. Excluding fuel, JetBlue’s quarterly unit costs rose 3.1%, in line with its earlier forecast, and will grow between 2.0 and 4.0% in Q2, the airline said.<br/>

Eurowings will end its cooperation agreement with Austrian startup LaudaMotion by the end of May, LaudaMotion confirmed. The move follows the April 11 announcement that German leisure carrier Condor is also ending its cooperation with the startup carrier by the end of the month. Both announcements come after LaudaMotion founder Niki Lauda agreed to sell a 24.9% stake to Ryanair March 28, with the option of taking the share up to 75% following regulatory approvals. Ryanair is investing close to E100m into the equity as well as startup support. LaudaMotion was created using assets acquired from Austrian carrier NIKI, which Lauda also founded. NIKI became a 100% subsidiary of airberlin in 2011, but ceased operations in December after airberlin went into bankruptcy in October. Lufthansa had wanted to acquire NIKI, but was blocked by European competition authorities. <br/>