Bjorn Kjos, the 71-year-old CE of Norwegian Air Shuttle is facing a test of his sangfroid. The airline he helped out of bankruptcy a quarter of a century ago to become the pioneer of low-cost long-haul air travel, finds itself fought over by some of the biggest names of the industry in what could be a fractious takeover tussle. Lufthansa and IAG have both talked about buying Norwegian, Europe’s third-largest low-cost airline behind Ryanair and EasyJet. Kjos has said Ryanair has looked at making a bid but Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s combative CE, has denied any interest. “Either Michael O’Leary or I have a bad memory. I know who it is,” said Kjos. O’Leary as well as some analysts and investors have even suggested lossmaking Norwegian could go bust soon. <br/>
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Norwegian plans to enter the Canadian market later this year with 3 initial routes— 2 will replicate its seasonal US services to the French Caribbean and the third will connect Canada with Ireland. Further routes were promised at the launch announcement. The carrier will launch seasonal services from Montréal to Guadeloupe and Martinique for the winter 2018-19 timetable. It will also start a transatlantic service from Hamilton International, near Toronto, in March 2019, serving Dublin daily. The previous seasonal services to the two French islands from New York JFK will return and increase to 6X-weekly. Seasonal services from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to both islands will operate 4X-weekly. The airline also announced new 4X-weekly services from both Guadeloupe and Martinique to Cayenne, French Guiana. <br/>
SIA has revealed that it would transfer some Boeing 737s from its regional arm SilkAir to its low-cost unit Scoot. SIA says that both pilots and cabin crew will be recruited by Scoot to support its future 737 operations. It adds that the transfer of the 737s is part of the group's planned integration, where there will be transfers of routes and aircraft between the different airlines in its portfolio. This is consistent with ongoing efforts "to optimise the SIA Group's network". Last month, the group announced that it would merge SilkAir with the mainline SIA brand. The full merger, which will take place after 2020, will also see the refurbishment of SilkAir's cabin. This will include new lie-flat seats in business class and seat-back-in-flight entertainment systems in both business and economy classes. <br/>
There is growing speculation that the transport ministry is inching toward stripping Jin Air of its operating license after giving it a grace period following an alleged violation of a transport law that prevents a foreign national from being a board member. According to several local media outlets Friday, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport is moving toward cancelling the budget airline's air operator certificate, adding the ministry was reviewing measures to absorb possible fallout. The ministry said it has not made a final decision, but plans to announce the results within the coming days. The biggest problem, among others, is how to deal with employees and minority shareholders of the carrier, owned by the nation's largest airline. Jin Air is the second-largest budget airline. <br/>
Several of the nation’s biggest airlines last week jumped into the fray over children who were being separated from their parents under the Trump administration’s controversial immigration policy. The carriers notified the US govt — and the public — that they wished to have no part in transporting those children to detention centres after they were taken from their parents after crossing the US southern border. Friday, Volaris announced that it was going one step further. The carrier said it would offer free seats on its planes to reunite those children with their families in Mexico and Central America. “Since its founding, Volaris’ mission has been to unite families,” the airline said. <br/>
Ryanair, Aer Lingus and EasyJet have warned of flight disruptions Saturday and Sunday due to a strike by French air traffic controllers. Ryanair said it had been forced to cancel up to 100 flights across Europe over the weekend. Aer Lingus has had no cancellations but warned of 16 "flight disruptions" while EasyJet said 65% of its flights use French air space and may be delayed. Ryanair said German and French Air Traffic Control staff shortages also caused delays to some flight departures Friday morning. Thursday, Willie Walsh of IAG also argued that the EC was not adequately protecting flights over France and that EU law was being infringed. Walsh and Ryanair CE Michael O'Leary were both speaking in Brussels after a meeting with Europe's transport commissioner, Violeta Bulc. <br/>
Eight passengers have sued Southwest Airlines over a catastrophic engine blowout in April that killed a passenger and injured several others. The plaintiffs, 8 passengers from Flight 1380 and 1 passenger’s husband, filed suit Tuesday in the Supreme Court of the State of New York. The passengers and the husband allege that Southwest acted negligently in its responsibilities to maintain and repair its aircraft and aircraft components. “A passenger was sucked into the open window, and the other passengers, including Plaintiffs, were confronted with their greatest fear, the overwhelming horror of being trapped in a plane about to crash,” the suit alleges. Also named in the lawsuit are Boeing, Safran, General Electric Aviation and CFM International. <br/>
A Russian passenger plane carrying Peruvian soccer fans from the World Cup city of Ekaterinburg to Tyumen in Siberia landed safely Friday after an engine fault caused the cabin to fill with smoke, Russia's air transport regulator said Saturday. Safety concerns have plagued Russia's airline industry, which has witnessed multiple fatal crashes in recent years, and the engine of a plane carrying Saudi Arabia's soccer team caught fire earlier this week. Russia's state aviation agency, Rosaviatsiya, said Saturday that a Utair plane which was carrying Peruvian fans back to Moscow via Tyumen suffered "a failure in the second turboprop engine. As a result of the abnormal engine activity, smoke from overheated oil got into the passenger cabin of the aircraft through the air-conditioning system." <br/>