Ryanair is ramping up a new subsidiary, Ryanair Sun, with weaker labour rights to better compete in eastern Europe, infuriating staff and unions by bypassing concessions granted during a year of industrial strife. But a key element of the plan, forcing staff to move to self-employment contracts, is being probed by Polish authorities and a law to allow contractors to join unions -- and potentially push for concessions granted in Western Europe -- is due to enter force there in January. While hailing progress in securing deals on improved conditions with unions across Europe, management is planning the rapid expansion of Polish-registered Ryanair Sun, where staff are self-employed contractors, a model Ryanair has largely phased out at its main airline under union pressure. <br/>
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Ryanair has reached an agreement on wages and benefits with the main German pilot union that will ensure there is no repeat of strikes that disrupted flights in the country before last Christmas. The VC union, which was responsible for Ryanair's first ever pilot strike a year ago, said the two sides planned to sign a full collective labour agreement by next March and no industrial action would be taken before then. Ryanair, which has faced a series of strikes across Europe this year, has made significant progress in union talks in recent weeks and has said it hopes to come to agreements with unions in all its main markets before the end of March. Germany was the last major market where Ryanair did not have an agreement with pilots. <br/>
Alaska Air Group—parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air—plans to grow capacity 2% next year and accelerate its expansion rate soon after, but will carefully monitor the competitive environment before making firm commitments, the company’s top executive said. “Next year is 2%, [and] current thinking about 2020 is 4%,” Alaska president and CE Brad Tilden told analysts. “We just need to a get few good quarters under our belt and we will see what late 2020, 2021 look like.” The carrier is projecting a 5.3% change in ASMs in 2018, including a 1.1% increase in Q4. Its long-term target is a 4%-6% annual increase. Alaska also reported encouraging RASM trends, raising its Q4 guidance to a 3%-5% increase, up 1.5 points from earlier guidance. <br/>
WestJet Airlines built its business on a simplified offer of low fares and no business class, but 2 decades later it’s betting on a more traditional structure of premium prices and segmented seating to help it recover from a year in which its profits nosedived. Executives from the airline presented their turnaround plan at an investor conference Tuesday after missing 2018 financial targets, blaming WestJet’s troubles on high fuel costs, aggressive competition, labour strife with its pilots and higher-than-expected start-up costs for the new Boeing 787 aircraft. These factors led to WestJet’s first quarterly loss in 13 years in Q2. Despite the challenges and the admission that it went “off track” this year, WestJet expects its tiered strategy will take off in 2019 and beyond. <br/>