Belgium’s labour laws can apply to Ryanair employees based in the country, a local court ruled on Friday, in a case that could set a precedent elsewhere in Europe and upholds a 2018 agreement reached between the airline and Belgian unions. A series of strikes in 2018 prompted the Irish airline to agree to apply Belgian law to cabin crew and pilots based in the country. The union and airline finished negotiations, including on salary increases, last month. The ruling at the Mons labour court, under which employees can decide whether to be covered by Belgian or Irish labour laws, reinforces the agreement and will prevent the airline from taking disputes to court in Ireland, said Yves Lambot, a representative of the CNE union. “This is a great union victory for all of Europe,” he said after the ruling. “It will allow all workers, be they Belgian or from other European countries, to be able to consult the court they consider the best.” Ryanair said the ruling only recognised the agreement it had made with Belgian unions to apply Belgian labour laws for those on Belgian contracts. “This decision by the Mons Court will have no effect, and set no precedent since it only recognizes the contractual arrangements already agreed last year by Ryanair with its crews in Belgium,” the statement said.<br/>
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Federal safety regulators have proposed a fine of more than $715,000 against Allegiant Air, saying the discount airline failed to properly fix an engine that put out hotter-than-normal exhaust fumes. Allegiant said Friday that it followed a procedure approved by the manufacturer and the government. The incident happened in April 2018 with one of the McDonnell-Douglas MD-88 planes that Allegiant has since retired. The FAA said after a takeoff in Virginia, Allegiant properly turned off the automatic reverse thrust system on the engine, as recommended by the manufacturer. But rather than taking the next step of finding the reason that the exhaust gas was too hot, Allegiant deactivated the jet's reverse thrust system and operated 28 flights over the next eight days, the FAA said. Allegiant said it followed a procedure developed by McDonnell-Douglas — now part of Boeing — and later approved by the FAA. The airline's handling of the incident "never jeopardized the safety of our aircraft or our operations," said Allegiant spokeswoman Sonya Padgett. "We believe the proposed fine is inappropriate and inconsistent with existing FAA policy." The FAA countered that it told Allegiant in 2017 not to deactivate an MD-80's functioning automatic reverse thrust system unless the system itself was causing overly hot exhaust, because something else could be causing the high temperatures.<br/>