Members of Ryanair's Irish pilot union are to decide next week whether to join British colleagues in holding a ballot on strike action, according to a memo distributed to members. Ryanair pilots in Britain last week announced a ballot that could lead to strike action in late August, citing disagreements over pay and conditions. Ryanair pilots who are members of IALPA will meet in Dublin Tuesday to decide whether to hold a ballot for "industrial action up to and including strike action", with voting to begin on or before Thursday, July 25, the memo said. It did not say when possible strike action would take place. IALPA said in the memo that management had failed to agree pay, terms and conditions for directly employed pilots. BALPA last week said issues included pensions, maternity benefits and a fair, transparent pay structure. <br/>
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Wizz Air has advised 3.4m customers to change their passwords, amid growing fears the airline may have been the victim of a cyber-attack. Customers were told Friday to switch their old passwords on their accounts immediately and ensure that they were not using them elsewhere, triggering concerns over a potential personal data breach in the airline's systems. Wizz said the advice was due to a technical glitch in its systems and was not linked to a cyber-attack. A spokesperson for Wizz Air said: “At no point was any personal data compromised and resetting the passwords on the WIZZ accounts was a precautionary action. Safety remains a priority for Wizz Air, and that includes the security of our passengers’ data.” The company has not confirmed any further details about the technical irregularity. <br/>
Icelandair will keep the Boeing 737 MAX off its flight schedule through the end of October as uncertainty about when the grounded aircraft will return to service drags on. The carrier has 5 MAX 8s and 1 MAX 9 in its fleet, all of which are grounded. Two of the 737-8s are owned by the airline; the remainder are leased in. Icelandair has an additional 3 -8s and six-9s on order. To minimise passenger impact, Icelandair has been operating 5 leased aircraft during the summer season. The airline has wet-leased 2 Boeing 767s, temporarily acquired a 757, and brought in 2 Bombardier Q400s from domestic carrier Air Iceland Connect to make up for the shortfall in seats during the grounding. The leasing agreements of 2 of the aircraft will expire at the end of August while the other 3 will be in operation until the end of September. <br/>
GoAir plans to add destinations such as Hanoi and Phnom Penh to its international network by year-end. Sources say the airline, which is rapidly expanding its international presence, will also deploy capacity to Bhutan in the coming days. Until recently, the airline flew to just 4 international destinations — Phuket, Malé, Muscat and Abu Dhabi. It has since launched a slew of new international flights — namely Delhi-Abu Dhabi, Mumbai-Abu Dhabi, Mumbai-Muscat, Delhi-Bangkok and Kannur-Kuwait. However, some of these new international flights are being operated on re-allocated slots formerly held by Jet Airways. GoAir has the rights over these until September. A GoAir VP said the airline was considering further expansion in southeast Asia and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries. <br/>
IndiGo posted its highest quarterly profit after tax Friday, as it worked to assuage fears that a founder spat would impact operations. InterGlobe Aviation said profit after tax surged to US$175m, as the company took over passengers and routes following the collapse of Jet Airways in April. The strong results come as IndiGo is working to contain a power struggle between the 2 billionaire founders of the budget carrier. July 8, Rakesh Gangwal wrote a letter to the Securities and Exchange Board of India asking it to intervene over alleged violations of “fundamental governance norms” through a shareholding agreement that gives Rahul Bhatia greater control of the company. He further alleged that Bhatia has built an “ecosystem” of related-party transactions that were signed without audit committee approval. <br/>
Investigators have determined that evacuation of the Air Niugini Boeing 737-800 which undershot into the sea at Chuuk was slowed by occupants trying to retrieve baggage. The aircraft was lightly loaded, with just 35 passengers and 12 crew members on board, when it came down short of the runway Sept 28 last year. Papua New Guinea's Accident Investigation Commission says that it "noted with concern" that there were "many instances of non-compliance" with evacuation directives prohibiting baggage from being taken from the aircraft during evacuation. "A couple of passengers stated in their response to [the commission's] written questionnaire that they were annoyed that a cabin crew member at the overwing exit forced them to leave cabin baggage in the aircraft," it says. <br/>