The union representing Ryanair cabin crew in Belgium has rejected an offer from the Irish airline ahead of a planned one-day strike across five countries on Sept. 28, the union said Wednesday. Separately, European pilots threatened new strikes against Ryanair if talks with unions did not progress more quickly. Europe’s biggest budget airline offered to follow Belgian employment law from March 2020 for Ryanair contracted employees, seeking to address one of the major complaints over the company’s policy toward staff under Irish contracts. However, the Belgian union, CNE, said that would only help about half of its workers, as Ryanair had also been hiring using recruiter Crewlink, which issues its own contracts. The union said the offer was an “unacceptable” attempt to divide workers in order to buy time ahead of the planned strike. “It’s a deception on the part of Ryanair,” a CNE spokesman said. The threatened strike by cabin crew in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain is aimed at pressuring shareholders set to meet on Thursday to address Ryanair’s labor agreements, union officials announced last week.<br/>
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The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) said on Wednesday that it expected industrial unrest at Ryanair across Europe to continue for the foreseeable future. “The industrial unrest in Ryanair across Europe and among pilots and cabin crew is, in my opinion, likely to continue for the foreseeable future,” BALPA General Secretary Brian Strutton said. The union also urged Ryanair shareholders to replace CEO Michael O’Leary and Chairman David Bonderman at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Thursday.<br/>
A former Ryanair pilot should have been considered an employee and not an independent contractor, a Spanish judge has said in the latest setback for the airline in its fight to avoid Europe-wide strikes over workers’ conditions. The airline faces a 24-hour strike by cabin crews in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain on Sept. 28, over labour agreements. Unions aim to repeat the strikes once a month. The Sept. 7 ruling by the Spanish judge in Tenerife can be appealed. “We have asked our lawyers to appeal this sentence immediately,” Ryanair said. The pilot’s lawyer said he is preparing new lawsuits for other Ryanair pilots for allegedly violating Spanish labour and tax laws. The Spanish pilots’ union Sepla filed a collective lawsuit in the High Court against the company over contracts in early August. Under Spanish law, a contractor does not enjoy the same workers’ rights as an employee and the airline does not have to contribute to the worker’s social security payments. <br/>
Nigeria has suspended its plan to relaunch its national airline, a junior aviation minister said Wednesday. The government had planned to launch the prestige project in December to make good on a promise by Muhammadu Buhari when he ran for president in 2015. He will seek re-election in February. “I regret to announce that the Federal Executive Council has taken the tough decision to suspend the national carrier project in the interim,” Hadi Sirika, junior aviation minister, said on Twitter after the weekly cabinet meeting. “All commitments due will be honoured,” he said. No reason was given for the decision. In a separate statement, he said: “The suspension was strategic and had nothing to do with politics.” The airline was part of a plan to improve infrastructure that has suffered due to decades of neglect and underinvestment. The government says improvement will require private investment.<br/>
Pressure for a Lion Air Boeing 737-800 crew to beat an airport curfew in Manado led to a misjudgement in maintaining distance separation with a an Airbus A330-300, leading to a ground collision with the widebody while taxiing at Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International airport on 1 May 2016. In its final report, Indonesia's National Transport Safety Committee (NTSC) found that crew of the 737 were under pressure to operate flight JT770 on the Jakarta-Manado route, having landed in Jakarta late after operating two previous sectors. Story has details of the incident in which both aircraft were damaged. The 737 lost part of its left winglet; dents were found on the lower surface of the A330's right wing. The NTSC noted that there was no ground assistance provided to the 737 during taxiing, and that the wings of both aircraft had overlapped by 2m. This indicates a misjudgement by the 737 crew. While the dusk lighting condition at Soekarno-Hatta airport at that time may have increased difficulty for the 737's PIC to judge the distance, NTSB believes the pressure to arrive in Manado before its operating curfew had affected the PIC's ability to "process all available information".<br/>
Airbus sent JetBlue Airways’ latest A321ceo off on its delivery flight Wednesday from Mobile, Alabama, with 15.5% renewable jet fuel onboard, continuing a trend the manufacturer started with its Toulouse delivery flights two years ago. The JetBlue delivery and four others slated for the rest of the year will help Airbus determine what its next steps are for expanding its biofuel-supply options at Mobile. The manufacturer expects to offer the option to more Mobile customers as well as to align itself with Southeastern US biofuel suppliers in other way. “It is an opportunity to work closely with local stakeholders to scale-up production and the commercialization of sustainable aviation fuels in the region,” Airbus New Energies head Frederic Eychenne said. “We are actively seeking ideas to leverage Airbus’ strategy into opportunities for new economic development in Alabama.” Air BP supplies Airbus with the biofuel — a hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) fuel based on used cooking oil — for its Mobile operations. <br/>
Central and Eastern European LCC Wizz Air has announced plans to close its base at Poznan in Poland, although it will grow its other Polish operations by adding a seventh aircraft at Gdansk and upgrading Warsaw to an all-Airbus A321 fleet. “After careful consideration, we decided to adjust our Poznan network plan and take advantage of growth opportunities by reallocating the capacity to other Polish routes,” Wizz Air CMO Johan Eidhagen said. Wizz said “a number” of Poznan flights—including Doncaster Sheffield, Eindhoven, Paris Beauvais, London Luton and Torp Sandefjord—will still operate, using non-based aircraft. The change will take effect March 30, 2019. All affected Poznan employees will be offered opportunities elsewhere.<br/>