The pilot of a Lion Air flight from Indonesia’s Bali island Sunday made a radio alert minutes after take-off due to technical problems, but they were overcome and he pushed on to Jakarta. The same jet crashed on another flight hours later, killing all 189 people on board. The chief of the airport authority for the Bali-Nusa Tenggara area said that after the alert the pilot updated the control tower to say that the plane was flying normally and he would not return to the airport as requested. Another pilot in the area who heard the radio request said: “The Lion plane requested to return back to Bali 5 minutes after take-off, but then the pilot said the problem had been resolved and he was going to go ahead to Jakarta.” <br/>
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Search teams in Indonesia retrieved the flight data recorder of the Lion Air plane that plunged into the Java Sea this week, as the carrier suspended some executives following the nation’s worst air disaster in 2 decades. Data on the ill-fated plane gathered by the committee prior to the recovery of what was called a crash survivable memory unit indicated that there were technical issues. Indonesia’s transport ministry Thursday ordered Lion Air to immediately relieve its director of maintenance, managers in charge of quality control and fleet maintenance, and an engineer to facilitate a smooth investigation. It is too early to determine what led to the disaster, the carrier’s owner has said. The govt has vowed “strict sanctions” on Lion Air if a probe by the safety board proves negligence on the part of the airline. <br/>
Ryanair will not appeal a Dutch court ruling blocking the closure next week of the airline's base in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, saying the legal decision would not change its plans to shut the base down. The airline initially said it had instructed its lawyers to appeal the ruling handed down earlier Thursday but a spokesman later said that, having read the court judgement in full, it would not appeal. "All pilots and cabin crew have already been offered base transfers, which protects their seniority and earnings, but if any crew members wish to choose redundancies over base transfers then we will respect that choice," the airline said, adding that the ruling would not have an impact on Ryanair's decision to close the base. <br/>
Michael O’Leary’s commitment to union representation has looked less convincing of late. The Ryanair boss, who said last year he had reluctantly come to accept unionisation despite previously saying “hell would freeze over” before he did so, appears not to have entirely abandoned his old position, judging by the airline’s actions in Poland. The carrier is refusing to recognise the new Polish union for cabin crew and is asking them and pilots to sign up to the company’s local subsidiary as contractors, in effect turning them into precarious workers without permanent employee rights. Even though Poland is only a small part of the Ryanair operation, some industry figures fear the airline could try and extend the strategy elsewhere to circumvent the unions. <br/>
The latest changes to Ryanair's baggage policies take effect Thursday. Only those paying E6 for priority boarding will be able to take a small suitcase of up to 10kg in the cabin. That option is cheaper than the E8 charge to check in a 10kg bag. Ryanair says the changes - the second this year - are intended to reduce flight delays. One aviation expert says Ryanair planes have room for about 90 "wheelie" suitcases, considerably fewer than the 189 passengers it can hold. As the airline's flights are on average 95% full, there clearly isn't enough space for everyone's luggage. Since January, Ryanair passengers have been allowed to take 1 small bag on board and 1 wheelie bag free of charge. However, that often required up to 120 larger bags to be tagged at the gate and put in the hold, delaying departures. <br/>
Norwegian has begun nonstop service to Tampa Bay, Florida from London, adding the west coast Florida city as its 15th US gateway. The service will run twice-weekly from London Gatwick to Tampa International. Tampa Bay will join Fort-Lauderdale and Orlando as the carrier’s third major gateway in the state. Norwegian offers daily service to Fort Lauderdale, and recently increased its offerings to Orlando from 3X- to 5X-weekly. In addition to expanding its footprint in Florida, Norwegian has recently increased winter frequencies from London to other parts of the world. This includes daily service to Buenos Aires, Argentina, up from 4 flights per week; 4 weekly flights to Las Vegas, up from 2; and daily service to Boston, Massachusetts, up from 5 flights a week. <br/>
French boutique airline La Compagnie will upgrade its inflight product next spring when it debuts a new aircraft type, the Airbus A321 Neo, outfitted with 76 fully flat beds in a 2-by-2 configuration. The jet will also come equipped with high-speed Wi-Fi on its daily New York-Paris flights, in partnership with Viasat, said VP Jean Charles Perino. Currently, the all-business-class airline operates a fleet of two 757 aircraft with 74 angled lie flat seats. With the new aircraft and seating, La Compagnie’s inflight product will be even closer to the business class product on mainstream airlines such as Air France, where fares in that service class can be as high as US$9,000 roundtrip on the same route. The company will phase out its 757s in favour of the new plane type, with the first of the 2 A321s scheduled to arrive in April 2019. <br/>