A German court ruled Tuesday that Kuwait Airways could not be forced to carry an Israeli passenger who had bought a ticket from Germany to Thailand, upholding a lower court decision that had angered German officials and Jewish groups. The higher court in Frankfurt said a Kuwaiti ban on Israeli citizens was “unacceptable and irrelevant” in Germany. But it was impossible in practice for the airline to carry the man, because Kuwaiti law would have prevented him from changing planes in Kuwait. “As Israelis in practice are not allowed to enter the transit areas of Kuwait’s airport, the plaintiff cannot demand transportation by the Kuwaiti airline from Frankfurt to Bangkok with a stopover in Kuwait.” The plaintiff in the case, an Israeli man who was denied boarding on a flight from Frankfurt to Bangkok via Kuwait, had argued that the lower court’s decision accepted a racist Kuwaiti law and allowed the airline to override German laws. Anti-Semitism remains a sensitive issue in Germany, one of Israel’s closest allies, more than 70 years after the Nazi Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed. Kuwait Airways said it believed the lawsuit was a politically motivated campaign against it and that it had great respect for Germany’s laws.<br/>
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Ryanair will consider cutting its growth plans for this winter and next summer if staff strikes continue, a senior executive said on Tuesday after announcing that 30,000 passengers will be grounded by a cabin crew strike on Friday. The Irish airline said in July it planned annual passenger growth of 7% to 139m in the year to March 2019 and another 9% growth to 152m in the year to March 2020. But it has said that a string of strikes by pilots and cabin crew since it recognised trade unions for the first time last December has damaged bookings just as strong increases in oil prices threaten to push up costs. “These repeated unnecessary strikes are damaging Ryanair’s business and our customer confidence at a time when oil prices are rising strongly,” CMO Kenny Jacobs said. “If they continue, it is inevitable that we will have to look again at our capacity growth this winter and in summer 2019.” Jacobs said that 30,000 people would be grounded on Friday by cabin crew strikes in Spain, Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Italy and Germany, which had forced it to cancel 190 of 2,400 flights. All affected customers have been given three day’s notice of the cancellations, it said. Ryanair said it had made significant progress in recent weeks with union negotiations and said it had offered talks to staff from the five countries offering them improved conditions.<br/>
A Belgian trade union warned Tuesday that Ryanair is “playing with fire” in its handling of a planned cabin crew strike across five countries on Sept. 28, by not warning passengers about possible disruptions to flight schedules. The company is continuing to sell tickets for flights on Friday and is not responding to queries from customers about the status of their flights on that day, the Belgian cabin crew union CNE said. “This situation is totally irresponsible,” the union said. Ryanair did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Belgian cabin crew union predicted that the strike would be the biggest ever seen in Europe and cause the cancellation of about 80% of flights from Charleroi Airport and probably all of the airline’s flights from Brussels Airport. Customers on Twitter have asked the Irish airline about the status of their flights on Sept. 28. Ryanair has responded to some that it expects “the vast majority of cabin crew to work as normal on Sept. 28, as they have during previous strikes” and that “all fights are scheduled to operate.”<br/>
Air Arabia has announced the introduction of its new flight to Kabul direct from Sharjah, UAE. Air Arabia’s introductory flight to the city will commence on October 4. The two-hour 30-minute flight will operate four times per week, on Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Air Arabia currently operates flights to more than 150 routes across the globe from four hubs located in the Middle East and North Africa.<br/>