Ryanair Holdings said demand for air travel within Europe could receive an unlikely boost if the Chinese coronavirus epidemic persists, prompting people to holiday closer to home. Trends from 2003, when travellers shunned Asia after the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak, suggest consumers may begin to alter their travel habits, Ryanair CFO Neil Sorahan said. “People tended to stay close to home,” Sorahan said Monday. “They holidayed in Europe as opposed to heading as far afield as Asia and elsewhere.” Dozens of nations and airlines are restricting travel, with almost 10,000 flights cancelled through Jan. 31, even though the WHO has so far said that such limits aren’t needed to control the advance. SARS affected 26 countries, resulting in close to 800 deaths from about 8,000 cases, according to the WHO. Fitch Group said in a note that a prolonged outbreak of the coronavirus would weigh on the tourist economy in Thailand, affecting not only Chinese demand but travel from elsewhere. For Ryanair, a surge in European travel would bolster margins as it grapples with the grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max jet. <br/>
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Ryanair has put on hold its ambitions of flying 200m passengers annually because of extended delays to the delivery of a fleet of Boeing’s 737 Max planes, which may now arrive up to two years late. The airline said it would press the US manufacturer to revise its huge order of 737 Max 200 models to include an even larger variant, the 230-seat 737 Max 10, once the troubled plane is approved and back in production. Ryanair is one of the biggest customers for Boeing’s grounded plane, with a total of 210 on order. The Irish airline said it hopes to have its first 55 737 Max jets flying by the summer of 2021, a year later than originally planned, with 50 more planes to follow each year ready for the summer schedules. However, Ryanair CE Michael O’Leary said Boeing’s problems could ultimately delay the planes’ entry into service for the airline by two years. O’Leary said: “What is likely is they will push out that delivery profile with Boeing by at least 12 months. At best that means we will have to roll forward our plans to fly 200 million passengers per year ... by at least 12 months, possibly 24.” That would result in Ryanair reaching its 200m passenger target by March 2026 rather than March 2024. Its CFO, Neil Sorahan, when asked if there was any risk to its plans to take delivery of 55 planes by next summer, said: “I don’t believe so – but we have been disappointed before.”<br/>
Prepare for a long wait at the airport if you’re flying on Emirates from Beijing. The airline said passengers should report to Beijing Capital International Airport eight hours before their scheduled departure time from Wednesday onward because they’ll be subject to additional medical tests because of the coronavirus. Emirates will continue operations to and from Beijing as scheduled, but flights to Guangzhou and Shanghai will be halted from Wednesday until further notice, as directed by United Arab Emirates authorities, the airline said in a statement on its website. Travel to and within China has been severely restricted as the coronavirus spreads from its epicenter in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province. There are more than 20,000 reported cases of infections and the death toll in China alone has reached 425. Two people have died outside the mainland, in the Philippines and Hong Kong. The UAE has reported five cases of infection.<br/>
Airbus and AirAsia, the discount airline built by Tony Fernandes, were inseparable for years, with the boisterous aviation executive gorging on ever-larger aircraft orders to become the manufacturer’s single biggest customer for single-aisle jets. That happy marriage ended in acrimony last week after Airbus admitted to illegally trying to sway decision makers in aircraft sales and agreed to a record $4b bribery settlement. By Monday, Fernandes stepped away from the Malaysian airline he had acquired in 2001 and turned into one of the best-known brands in Asian aviation. Fernandes, 55, was one of Airbus’s most loyal customers, a fixture at air shows where he would make a splash with massive orders. He was also a poster-boy entrepreneur who bucked the stodgy formalities of traditional business. Among his most memorable moments was in 2014, when he signed Airbus’s biggest deal at that year’s Farnborough expo and proceeded to exchange kisses and man-hugs with the European company’s legendary, since departed sales chief, John Leahy. Now the corruption probe which has ricocheted through Airbus for almost four years, and already claimed the scalps of many of its senior staff, is coming for its airline counterparts. Fernandes will leave his role as CEO of AirAsia for two months while the government probes corruption allegations, according to a statement Monday. Chairman Kamarudin Meranun also stepped down, in a growing sign of further repercussions from the long-running bribery case. Fernandes, who is already facing corruption charges in India, and Meranun on Monday denied allegations of wrongdoing but made the move to ensure a full and independent investigation.<br/>
Moments after an Iranian Revolutionary Guards unit mistakenly launched a missile at a Ukrainian passenger jet, the pilot of a nearby airliner radioed air traffic controllers to report an alarming streak of light in the sky and then a midair explosion. “Flares on route, as if from a missile,” the pilot reported to the control tower in Tehran as he brought his plane in for a landing, a leaked audiotape of the exchange shows. “Should anything like this be happening there?” “We were not informed of this,” the controller said. “What does this light look like?” The reply: “That surely is the light from a missile.” When the controller tried to raise the crew of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, which had just taken off, there was no response. The Iranian pilot then reported an explosion — and sought reassurance: “Is our course O.K.?” “Yes,” the controller said. “I don’t think there will be any problem for you.” “God forbid!” the pilot responded. After a transcript of the recording was leaked to a Ukrainian news site Sunday, Iran halted its cooperation — already described as reluctant — with Ukraine’s inquiry into the downing of the Ukrainian plane. The Iranians said they had expected such evidence to be kept confidential. The missile attack killed all 176 people on the Ukrainian plane at a time of already high tensions as the United States and Iran traded attacks in the region, raising fears of further violence. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, verified the audio recording’s authenticity and said it had been obtained by Ukrainian crash investigators. The Iranians did not dispute its authenticity.<br/>
Wizz Air’s largest shareholder private equity firm Indigo Partners plans to sell shares worth GBP500m via an accelerated bookbuilding process, the bookrunner on the sale said Monday. The Indigo shareholders own 20.6% of Wizz Air, which is worth about GBP624m based on Monday’s closing share price. Veteran low-cost airline investor Bill Franke is Indigo’s managing partner and founder and is chairman of Wizz Air. The shares will be offered to institutional investors. The share sale comes just days after the European low-cost airline upgraded its annual profit forecast after a strong Q# performance when it carried more passengers. The sale of Indigo shares could also help Wizz Air’s compliance with EU shareholder rules following Britain’s exit from the EU.<br/>