Pilots in Ryanair’s home country Ireland Thursday announced two more one-day strikes, increasing pressure on Europe’s largest low-cost carrier to improve conditions to stave off a wave of industrial action across Europe. Around 100 of Ryanair’s 350 Irish pilots held their first-ever strike on Thursday to demand a more transparent system of pay, promotions and transfers, aiming to limit what the FORSA/IALPA union says is excessive discretion management have over pilots’ careers. The airline said it cancelled 30 flights from Ireland on Thursday, less than 2% of its 2,300 daily flights. But it is facing a growing number of strike threats from pilot and cabin crew unions across Europe, including cabin crew strikes in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Belgium later in July. Irish union FORSA/IALPA on Thursday said it planned to hold two more one-day strikes on July 20 and July 24.<br/>
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The EC said Thursday that it had approved Ryanair’s planned acquisition of LaudaMotion without conditions. “The Commission concluded that the transaction would raise no competition concerns in the European Economic Area,” it said. LaudaMotion is the company through which former motor racing champion Niki Lauda re-acquired in January 2018 the assets of NIKI, the leisure air carrier he founded in 2003 and which was later integrated into Air Berlin. Ryanair agreed in March to buy a majority stake in the new Austrian leisure airline in a major push on the German and Austrian markets dominated by Lufthansa. The Irish airline had agreed to buy an initial 24.9% stake in Vienna-based LaudaMotion. That would rise to 75% “as soon as possible”, subject to EU regulatory approval, the airlines said.<br/>
Spirit Airlines jumped the most in eight months after reporting that its effort to cut costs, increase fuel efficiency and reduce cancellations is starting to pay off. Improved operations are “a good story” that the ultradiscount carrier has been able to market to customers, Duane Pfennigwerth, an analyst at Evercore ISI, wrote to shareholders after Spirit released an investor update late Wednesday. The firm raised its price target to $58 from $52. A recent agreement with pilots that allows them to be reassigned when a trip is dropped has driven down cancellations and costs, Pfennigwerth said. That is key for a discount carrier that had been among the worst in the industry for customer complaints. The shares climbed 9.3% to $39.48 at 12:42 p.m. in New York after surging as much as 10%, the biggest intraday gain since October. Spirit’s gains come as rising jet-fuel costs pressure earnings throughout the industry. “Spirit is executing their cost strategy, which should benefit the company through the remainder of the year and into 2019,” Cowen & Co. analyst Helane Becker, wrote in a note to investors. <br/>
Norwegian Air Shuttle beat expectations with a second-quarter net profit on Thursday as it controlled costs better than expected at a time when its transatlantic expansion is peaking. Europe's third-largest budget airline by passenger numbers is trying to crack the transatlantic market by undercutting established rivals, but has faced pressures to control costs and shore up its balance sheet in the face of competition. The company posted a net profit of 300m crowns in Q2, compared with a loss of 691m crowns a year earlier. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a loss of 535m crowns. "Revenues came in line with expectations, while costs improved more than anticipated and this was the main reason for the earnings beat," said Pareto Securities analyst Kenneth Sivertsen. The company's unit costs, including depreciation and excluding fuel, fell to 0.29 crowns from 0.35 crowns a year earlier, helped by lower wet lease costs -- hiring spare aircraft and crew when needed -- and lower technical costs, it said.<br/>