Ryanair said Wednesday that it is confident UK courts will back its decision not to pay compensation for flight disruption caused by staff strikes. The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority said earlier it had begun enforcement action against Ryanair after the airline refused to compensate customers for disruption caused by a wave of summer walkouts by pilots and cabin crew. The regulator said Ryanair had rejected compensation claims and terminated an agreement with AviationADR, a CAA-approved body for alternative dispute resolution of passenger complaints. The CAA said that in its view the strikes by Ryanair’s staff weren’t “extraordinary circumstances” that exempt the airline from paying compensation under EU law. <br/>
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An automated flight-control system on Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft, which investigators suspect played a central role in the fatal Oct.29 Lion Air crash in Indonesia, was largely omitted from the plane’s operations manual and was the subject of debate inside Boeing, govt and industry officials said. Debate inside Boeing about what the 737 MAX manuals should say regarding the safety system, and how much training would be required before pilots could safely slide behind the controls, was more intense than usual, the officials recall. The decision to omit the control system from manuals has put a Boeing design principle at the centre of a probe into a fatal airliner crash for the first time in more than 2 decades and threatens to tarnish Boeing’s reputation for safety. <br/>
Southwest Airlines says it is “close” to attaining extended twin-engine operations (ETOPS) certification for planned Hawaii service, even though it remains to be seen if the airline will be able to sell flights by year-end with weeks to go before 2018 wraps. “ETOPS is close,” Southwest executive VP Greg Wells said. The carrier is waiting on the FAA to review manuals, and is anticipating setting dates for table top exercises and validation flights, he adds. It is not immediately clear when the flights will take place, with Wells calling it a “wild card”. “The good news is that all the planning has gone superbly,” he adds. Southwest had committed to selling Hawaii flights by end-2018, and the airline is still holding to that goal, says Wells. But he also acknowledges that this could slip into Q1 of 2019. <br/>
US private equity company Indigo Partners and Wow are progressing toward cinching an agreement under which the former will invest in the financially troubled airline. Indigo emerged as a potential investor after it said it had reached a tentative deal to acquire Wow. That came on the same day that Icelandair's proposed acquisition of its rival collapsed. Firming the deal is dependent on completing due diligence. Representatives Indigo, which is led by long-time industry heavyweight Bill Franke and has invested in several low-cost airlines, spent 2 days with Wow's managers, Indigo says. Wow CE Skuli Mogensen says his company "can learn a lot from Bill Franke and his team on how to build a successful low-cost airline". <br/>
Hawaiian Holdings cut its outlook for a key revenue measure, citing low fares and sluggish demand -- the second US airline to issue a gloomy forecast in as many days. “Year-over-year visitor growth from North America to Hawaii remains positive, but at a slower pace than industry capacity growth,” the parent of Hawaiian Airlines said Wednesday. Revenue for each passenger flown a mile will decline 3% to 5% this quarter, the carrier said. It previously estimated that the figure would drop no more than 2.5%. The update came a day after Delta Air Lines said so-called unit revenue would increase 3.5%, pared from a previous outlook of as much as 5%. The twin warnings stir uncertainty about how the quarter will play out for the industry. <br/>