Thirty-three Ryanair passengers were treated in hospital, some bleeding from their ears, after their Croatia-bound plane lost cabin pressure and made an emergency landing in Frankfurt on Friday, German police said on Saturday. Oxygen masks were released on the Ryanair flight FR7312 from Dublin to Zadar in Croatia when it lost cabin pressure and diverted to Frankfurt Hahn airport, Ryanair said. “In line with standard procedure, the crew deployed oxygen masks and initiated a controlled descent,” the airline said. A log on flightradar24.com showed the flight descending from 37,000 to 10,000 feet over a seven-minute period 80 minutes into the flight. Ryanair said the plane “landed normally and customers disembarked, where a small number received medical attention as a precaution.” A spokesman for German police said 33 of 189 passengers were hospitalized, some bleeding from their ears. The spokesman said some were still receiving treatment on Saturday. German air accident investigator BFU, responsible for investigating the incident, said its team was heading to Hahn airport to secure the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder and to interview crew and passengers.<br/>
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Airbus is closing in on $29b worth of deals with Asian carriers that are expanding their fleet because of surging travel demand in the region, according to people familiar with the matter. The European manufacturer is working on a blockbuster agreement to sell $23b worth of aircraft to AirAsia Group, said the people, who asked not to be identified. Taiwanese startup StarLux Airlines confirmed a plan to buy wide-body A350 jetliners valued at about $6b. The deals are based on list prices and discounts are customary for bulk orders. The AirAsia orders are still subject to final negotiations, said the people. While no deal has been reached, the sides are close enough that at least part of the sale could be announced during the Farnborough Air Show outside London, the industry’s largest trade expo this year, the people said. The Malaysian airline, already the second-biggest customer for Airbus’s re-engined A320 narrowbody, is weighing an order for as many as 100 A321neo aircraft. AirAsia is simultaneously close to agreeing to order an additional 34 A330neo widebodies, which would bring its total backlog for that aircraft to 100. The purchase of the A321neos would catapult AirAsia ahead of India’s Interglobe Aviation as the biggest customer for Airbus’s marquee narrowbody jet, extending the Malaysian carrier’s existing orders to 504 planes.<br/>
Europe’s Airbus is in talks with Viva Aerobus for a repeat order of up to 40 of its A320neo-family jets, industry sources said Sunday. The Mexican budget carrier has ordered 55 Airbus single-aisle aircraft of which 17 have so far been delivered. An order for 40 aircraft would be worth some $4.4b at list prices, depending on the exact variant chosen.<br/>
Flydubai has halted flights to the Iraqi city of Najaf “due to the disruption on the ground” at the airport until July 22, the airline said Sunday. Najaf airport was closed Friday after protests there halted air traffic. Najaf is among the cities in southern Iraq that have witnessed days of protests over poor services and against alleged official corruption. Flydubai, which operates a daily return flight from Dubai to Najaf, is monitoring the situation, an airline spokeswoman said.<br/>
Virgin Australia is boosting its flight schedule on short-haul international routes to New Zealand and the Pacific Islands over the southern summer peak season. The scale of the seasonal flights is similar to what the carrier has operated in previous years. However, it also provides more evidence that the airline will compete strongly in the Australia-New Zealand market following the breakup of its partnership with Air NZ at the end of October. The airline is adding a total of about 65 extra return services that will operate in various periods between Oct. 28 and March 24. Most of the seasonal flights will be on weekends, supplementing existing scheduled flights. On some routes, the added flights will only be during the Christmas/New Year's period.<br/>
A passenger jet operated by Air Busan has made an emergency landing at a Tokyo airport due to a problem with its engine, company officials said Sunday. Air Busan's BX184 bound for Sapporo from South Korea's Daegu Airport with 174 passengers on board landed at Narita International Airport around 5:02 p.m. on Saturday, sources confirmed. No one was injured in the emergency landing, they said. Air Busan is one of South Korea's six low-cost carriers and is affiliated with Asiana Airlines. <br/>