Ryanair pilots in the UK have taken a first step toward a possible strike, adding to pressure from crews in other European markets trying to wrest concessions from the discount giant at the height of the summer travel season. The British Airline Pilots Association triggered a so-called failure-to-agree mechanism, indicating that contract talks have reached an impasse, according to people familiar with the matter. While the sides plan to continue talks, the move places a cap on negotiations and could ultimately lead to a strike ballot. The UK is home to Ryanair’s biggest base, magnifying the impact of any potential job action. Strikes elsewhere in Europe have already led to the cancellation of more than 600 flights at the height of summer, led by pilots and cabin crew in Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium. <br/>
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Ryanair’s Swedish pilots have voted to strike Aug 10 and a Belgian pilots’ union advised its members to do the same, as long-running tensions between the carrier and its workforce lead to more industrial action. The Swedish Air Line Pilots’ Association notified Ryanair that its members would strike Aug 10, saying it had “over the past 8 months tried to initiate negotiations with Ryanair without success.” In Belgium, where cabin crew went on strike July 25 and 26, alongside their counterparts in Spain and Portugal, leading to the cancellation of 600 flights overall, pilots’ union the Belgian Cockpit Association encouraged its members to also strike Aug 10, saying Ryanair had broken its promises to apply local labour laws and adding: “Ryanair’s model must change.” <br/>
Thousands of passengers who had their travel plans thrown into chaos by flight cancellations at Stansted will not receive compensation. Ryanair grounded more than 150 flights Tuesday citing thunderstorms. Passengers have been left to count the cost as the airline has said it will not be paying out for the disruption. Ryanair said this was because the cancellations were due to "extraordinary circumstances". Under EU regulations if a flight is delayed by more than 3 hours passengers are entitled to a refund or alternative travel arrangements being made. The carrier said service had returned to normal Wednesday after 6 days of issues, but several flights were still delayed. Ryanair said air traffic controller shortages in countries such as Croatia, France and Germany had also contributed to the problems. <br/>
Virgin Australia is taking steps to ramp up its product offering on Australia-New Zealand routes, in preparation for increased competition when its partnership with Air NZ ends. The airline has announced it will start including meals and checked baggage in its base fares in the Australia-New Zealand market, and will introduce on-board Wi-Fi on these flights. It will also start codesharing on a SIA service between the two countries. These changes will take effect from Oct 28. Virgin has had a joint venture partnership with Air NZ on these routes since 2010. However, the pair are not renewing their arrangement when it expires at the end of October. This has prompted the airlines to position themselves to compete separately, including launching or retiming flights. <br/>
Wizz Air and EasyJet said they were launching new routes from UK airports as their expansion plans continue. Wizz Air said it would allocate a ninth Airbus A321 to its London Luton base, as well as launch 2 new routes to Lisbon, Portugal and Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv. It will also increase the flight frequency of 3 existing London Luton routes: Pristina, Kosovo, will increase from 3X- to 5X-weekly; Tirana, Albania will increase from 3X- to 4X-weekly; and Satu Mare in Romania from 2X- to 3X-weekly. Separately, EasyJet said its first flights to Palermo, Sicily and Pula in Croatia from Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport took off over the weekend, while a new route to Dalaman, Turkey took off July 30 and the inaugural flight to Toulouse departs in October. <br/>
IndiGo is looking to further expand its network into Asia and the Middle East with the entry of its new Airbus A321neos. During the carrier's latest investors call following the Q1 results, interim CE Rahul Bhatia said that the carrier expects to receive the first A321neos at the end of the year, which will give it "the capability to reach cities in China, Middle East and Southeast Asia". "We have also secured traffic rights to fly to cities like Abu Dhabi, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Male, Jeddah and Hong Kong. We are evaluating all such opportunities to expand our network and provide many more choices to our customers," he adds. Schedules shows that the carrier's Southeast Asian routes are Kolkata to Bangkok, and Chennai and Bengaluru to Singapore. It also operates flights to Doha, Dubai, Sharjah and Muscat. <br/>