Ryanair wants the High Court to quash the aviation regulator’s decision to order the airline to compensate a number of people affected by last year’s strike action. Ryanair claims the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) was wrong in law to make the airline liable for payments under an EU regulation 261 which provides compensation as a result of delayed or cancelled flights. The airline says strikes qualify as an “extraordinary circumstance” which means compensation is not payable. Last year the carrier experienced a number of days of industrial action including 1-day strikes by Ireland-based pilots. The CAR received a number of claims for compensation under EU 261, 5 for which the CAR determined Ryanair is liable. These 5 form effective test cases for Ryanair’s legal challenge. <br/>
unaligned
Southwest Airlines, which is cancelling 150 flights a day as the Boeing 737 Max remains grounded, says it won’t bring back used 737 models to help cover the flying void. Southwest, the largest operator of the Max, is assessing its options and taking a “hard look” at Q4 in case the plane remains grounded through the end of the year, CE Gary Kelly said in a regular weekly message to employees. The FAA has said it won’t allow the Max to resume flying until it’s sure the plane is safe. “I think we have a line of sight to getting the Max into service here,” Kelly said, rejecting some worker suggestions that the carrier take on used 737-800s or an older version known as the Classic. “Our focus, if anything, would be on maybe slowing down some of the retirements of the -700s we currently operate.” <br/>
The holding company behind China Southern Airlines will receive a cash injection of US$4.36b from 3 fund-management firms, the company said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The money is intended to boost its war chest for overseas expansion. In its filing, the airline said its parent, China Southern Air Holding (CSAH), had entered into a capital increase agreement with 3 investors “to implement the relevant requirements of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on deepening the [equity diversification] reform of state-owned enterprises.” The proceeds will be used primarily to boost China Southern’s core air transport business. The move does not change CSAH’s status as one of the 96 state-owned enterprises supervised by the central govt. <br/>
The Malaysian High Court in Kuala Lumpur has ordered AirAsia and AirAsia X to pay operator Malaysian Airport Sepang MYR40.73m (US$9.9m) in unpaid passenger service charges after ruling in favour of the national airport operator. The LCC was also ordered to pay MYR972,381 and MYR24,000 for late payment and lawsuit fees, respectively. In retaliation, AirAsia Group CE Tony Fernandes took to Twitter and posted photos of beehives at the airport, as well as uneven parking aprons at KLIA2. Since moving to KLIA2 in 2014, AirAsia has been very unsatisfied with terminal design and facilities. The High Court also dismissed AirAsia’s appeal against the Malaysian Aviation Commission for failing to mediate the issue between the two parties, as regulations stipulate. <br/>
Fiji Airways has announced it will begin serving its business class passengers and others with lounge access their meals before they get on the plane. The meal service, called Dine of the Ground, promises a pre-flight gourmet meal "to maximise rest while travelling". The airline said the move comes after research found 31% of Australian passengers skipped in-flight meals in favour of getting more sleep. As a result, up to 38% of food on board was being discarded. Passengers taking morning or evening flights out of Nadi, Fiji will be offered breakfast or dinner, respectively, in the Fiji Airways Premier Lounge shortly before boarding. The move won't do any harm to Fiji Airways' bottom line either – particularly given that every gram of additional weight an airline can shave off their flights can result in huge savings on fuel costs. <br/>
Everyone is starting to get paired off in the airline-hotel loyalty square dance. American Airlines and Hyatt announced a new partnership in March. Then, in June, Accor and Air France-KLM announced their own promotion. Now Marriott and Emirates are getting into the game. The Your World Rewards partnership, announced last week, awards Marriott Rewards elite members bonus points when making bookings on Emirates. Emirates elites, in turn, can earn extra frequent flyer miles in the Skywards program when booking nights in a Marriott hotel. In addition to the mileage benefits, Marriott elites will also earn priority boarding and check-in at Emirates counters around the world while Skywards elites get late checkout and free Wi-Fi when staying in partner hotels. <br/>
IndiGo is once again looking at opportunities to pay cash outright for some of its future aircraft deliveries. The airline has long relied on sale-and-leaseback financing for its fleet, but in May 2018 signalled that it would seek to place more aircraft on its balance sheet. It reversed course on that by October that year, as tougher market conditions saw it focus on maintaining cash. However, in its latest earnings call, CFO Rohit Philip noted that the carrier's "optimum cash balance" was around 15% of revenue, equating to roughly INR45b (US$652m). At June 30, IndiGo had INR173b in cash, of which around INR76b was unrestricted. "Based on that we do have some excess cash we are looking at all the options…as to what is the optimal way to utilise them to buy some of the aircraft with cash," Philip adds. <br/>