Ryanair flew 9% more passengers in August than a year ago, it said Tuesday, its purchase of Austrian carrier Laudamotion helping offset the impact of strikes and staff shortages. Ryanair came to terms with its Irish pilots late last month after strikes and shortages caused 550 flight cancellations in August compared to just 27 a year ago. The airline endured its worst 1-day strike earlier in August after a walk-out by pilots in 5 European countries disrupted the plans of an estimated 55,000 people at the height of the summer holiday season. Separate figures for traffic at WizzAir, which competes with Ryanair in eastern Europe and flies around a quarter as many passengers, showed numbers up 20% year on year. Ryanair's total traffic grew to 13.8m, including half a million from its purchase of Laudamotion. <br/>
unaligned
Ryanair’s chairman David Bonderman is facing a growing threat of a shareholder protest at the company’s annual meeting as calls mount for investors to vote against his re-election. The International Transport Workers’ Federation and European Transport Workers’ Federation said Tuesday that Bonderman needed to be ousted to change what they called the company’s “virulently anti-union” culture. The federations joined Glass Lewis, an influential shareholder advisory company, which last week recommended shareholders vote against Bonderman, as well as 2 other directors, over governance concerns. Glass Lewis also called on shareholders to vote against executive pay at the company, suggesting the current plan was poorly designed. <br/>
EasyJet said it would open its seventh base in France, at Nantes Atlantique Airport in the west of the country, basing 3 Airbus A320 aircraft there from spring 2019. The carrier said the opening of the Nantes base would bring EasyJet’s total capacity in France to more than 22m seats, including 1.8m in Nantes, representing an extra 400,00 seats locally as well as 100 newly created direct jobs with local contracts, mainly for cabin crew and pilots. The new base will allow it to offer more destinations and greater frequencies on existing ones while it expects to account for a quarter of the airport’s total traffic in 2019. EasyJet, which has flown to and from Nantes since 2008, has been growing rapidly in France in recent years and has previously said it plans further expansion at French regional airports. France is its second-biggest market after the UK. <br/>
Argentina’s peso is slumping and the economy can’t catch a break. Norwegian Air’s mostly shrugging it all off to offer plane tickets starting at US$18. The company is betting that a weaker peso will attract foreigners and a recession at home will boost domestic travel, said Ole Christian Melhus, CE of the Argentine unit. The company, which began selling tickets Tuesday for in-country flights in Argentina to begin Oct 16, is pushing for its low-cost flights to stand out in the middle of a currency rout. It’s a tricky time to be betting on Argentina. The country’s economy is expected to contract at least 1% this year, a far cry from earlier forecasts this year, which saw it growing 3%. Inflation remains stuck in the double digits, and the peso is the world’s worst emerging market currency this year, weakening 53%. <br/>
The CE of Pakistan's loss-making national airline stepped down Tuesday on the order of the Supreme Court, which has ruled his appointment was made in violation of the rules and regulations. The court order was the latest blow to Pakistan International Airlines, which was reported last year to be losing up to US$30m per month, as well as the latest sign of the Supreme Court taking a hands-on approach to govt-run businesses. PIA named Musharraf Rasool Cyan as its CE late last year, entrusting him with turning around the carrier's fortunes. A 3-member panel ruled Monday that Cyan neither met the criteria for the job, nor had any aviation experience. PIA's counsel argued aviation experience wasn't mandatory for the job, which the court rejected. <br/>
AirBaltic, the largest European customer for Airbus’ A220, expects to have 14 of the 130-seat jets by year's end, as production issues and engine woes that once delayed deliveries have eased, the airline's CE said Tuesday. Latvian-based AirBaltic, launch customer for the larger version of the jet formerly called the CSeries, has already received 11 A220-300 planes and is on track to take the remaining 3 by year's end, CE Martin Gauss said. Bombardier said in April it was starting to make progress after wrestling with delivery delays because of an engine hold-up and general challenges as workers learned to make the 110-to-130 seat jet more efficiently. Air Baltic has 50 firm orders for the jet as part of a strategy to move to a harmonised fleet and boost traffic and revenue by 2025. <br/>