Jeju Air, South Korea’s biggest low-cost carrier, purchased 40 Boeing 737 Max 8 planes worth $4.4b, the airline said Tuesday. The deal marks the biggest contract by a South Korean carrier in numbers of a single aircraft type model, the company said. Reuters exclusively reported earlier this month that Jeju Air was in talks with Boeing and Airbus to buy 50 jets as the airline planned to expand its network that includes one of the world’s busiest routes. The purchase contract includes an option to buy an additional 10 aircraft, Jeju Air said. The airline operator said it planned to take delivery of the planes between 2022 and 2026. Six South Korean budget carriers saw the number of passengers using international routes quadruple to 20.3m in 2017 from 4.9m in 2013, according to South Korea’s transport ministry. “The order of Boeing 737 Max planes will help the company maintain its cost competitiveness, fuelling us to grow as a leading carrier,” Jeju Air said.<br/>
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Uncertainty about Brexit negotiations are not hurting sales at easyJet, CEO Johan Lundgren said Tuesday, adding the British budget airline is well-prepared should the UK leave the European Union without a deal next March. Bookings for around that time have not seen any drop-off and those for next summer are slightly ahead of summer sales a year ago, Lundgren said. “There doesn’t seem to be any concern for people to book their holidays and go away for next summer,” easyJet CEO Johan Lundgren said. “We’ve been preparing ourselves for the past two years for any scenario, a deal or a no deal." Larger rival Ryanair has warned that depending on the deal reached, Brexit could force carriers to ground flights. As well as setting up a new airline in Austria, Lundgren said that by the time the UK leaves the EU next year, easyJet aims to have over 50% of its shareholders from outside the UK and from other EU countries, up from 47% currently, to enable it to comply with EU rules. The airline reported a 41% jump in annual profit Tuesday, helped in part by the collapse of smaller rival Monarch and cancellations and strikes at Ryanair, which last month issued a profit warning. <br/>
The boss of easyJet said he did not have “any interest in this particular topic on Flybe at the moment” when he was asked if he would be interested in buying the struggling airline. Regional airline Flybe said last week it was in talks with potential buyers after it struggled to cope with higher fuel costs, lower demand and a weak British pound. easyJet CEO Johan Lundgren said Tuesday that his airline was always on the look-out but there was nothing to report at this time. “We are always looking for strategic opportunities if they arise and we can also take advantage of that given our strength in our balance sheet and our financial strength,” Lundgren said. “But there is nothing to talk about at this moment in time, we don’t have any interest in this particular topic on Flybe at the moment.”<br/>
Eurowings says 14 flights were canceled at Duesseldorf airport in western Germany after flight attendants started a temporary strike over working conditions. German news agency dpa reported that flights were cancelled Tuesday for eight hours until 12:30 p.m. local time (1130 GMT). Flight attendants are demanding, among other things, more reliable work schedules. The ver.di union says the strike is a reaction to Eurowings' refusal to further negotiate working conditions. Eurowings, which belongs to Lufthansa, has condemned the strike and rejected the union's allegations.<br/>
Bamboo Airways aims to make its first domestic flight on Dec. 29 should it receive its license to fly, beginning a journey which could see Vietnam’s fifth carrier rival the market leader in size within a year, its chairman said. The maiden flight will connect the capital Hanoi with the coastal resort city of Quy Nhon, where parent FLC Group JSC FLC.HM has one of its around 30 hotels and 20 golf courses, said Trinh Van Quyet, who is also chairman of FLC. “As well as main cities, we’ll fly to domestic destinations existing airlines don’t reach,” Quyet said Monday. “Our first international flights will connect Vietnam with South Korea and Japan, early in the second quarter.” “There has been a surge in the number of golfers coming from South Korea to play in Vietnam recently,” he added, saying that direct flights to the US is also a Bamboo goal. The launch comes as Vietnam clocks double-digit expansion in both domestic and inbound passenger numbers, at a time of rising incomes in one of Asia’s quickest-growing economies. Bamboo hopes to begin ticket sales at the end of November. It plans to operate initial routes with leased aircraft.<br/>
Central and Eastern European LCC Wizz Air—which launched Airbus A320 operations at its Vienna, Austria base in June—said expansion plans are on track. On Monday, Wizz Air based a second A320-family aircraft, an A321, in Vienna and added new routes to Nis (Serbia), Ohrid (Macedonia), Thessaloniki (Greece), Billund (Denmark) and Eilat (Israel). By the end of November, Wizz Air plans to add a third aircraft, another A321, to the base; two more of the type are expected by the end of February. Wizz Air, which operated its first flight from Vienna in April, has transported 300,000 passengers to and from Austria so far this year, operating 32 routes to 22 countries. Separately, Vienna International Airport (VIE) said passenger and traffic development this year have exceeded expectations. <br/>
Philip See has been appointed as CE of Malaysia Airlines subsidiary Firefly, effective 1 January 2019. He will take on the role now held by Ignatius Ong, who has also been serving as Malaysia Airlines' group chief revenue officer since June. See previously worked at the national carrier between 2004 and 2010 before joining McKinsey & Company. He then returned to the carrier in 2015 as a network planner. Malaysia Airlines Group also disclosed that Ibrahim Mohamed Salleh was appointed as chief executive of cargo unit MABKargo on 1 September, while Hazman Hilmi Sallahuddin was appointed chief executive of its pilgrimage charter unit "Project Amal" on 1 October. "I am confident that the new leadership will bring new energy and purpose to the business. The diversity of our new leaders, their backgrounds and experience will help us reach our goals as a Group," said Izham Ismail, MAG's group CE.<br/>