Ryanair has become the first big European airline to sell a bond since the start of the pandemic, as investors shrugged off concerns about tightening travel restrictions in Europe. The carrier sold E850m of five-year bonds on Tuesday at a yield of 3%, after investors put in E4.4b worth of orders. Mark Lynagh, co-head of Emea debt markets at BNP Paribas, who worked on the deal, said the bond sale was an “opportunistic refinancing exercise”, as Ryanair has an E850m bond due to be paid back next summer. The deal underlined the hunger for yield from investors after drastic action from central banks this year cut interest rates to record lows. Ryanair’s is the first straight bond sale by a European carrier in that environment — but follows an issuance by Finnair, the Finnish airline, which last month raised E200m of hybrid debt with a 10.25% coupon in late August. One UK-based fund manager and investor in Ryanair said the Irish airline has “the best quality balance sheet” compared with its European peers, with E3.9b of cash at the end of June. The investor added that a long-term decline in business travel does not present a threat to the group. The budget carrier has maintained its triple-B, investment-grade credit rating during the pandemic, unlike rival airlines such as BA which sank further into “junk” territory yesterday after Moody's downgraded its owner IAG to Ba2. The rating agency cited IAG’s high exposure to long-haul and corporate travel. Tuesday’s bond sale by Ryanair followed a E400m raising of equity last week. “In an environment where it’s all about liquidity, they are in a very solid position,” said a banker working on the bond deal.<br/>
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EasyJet fell as much as 8.2% after the latest UK curbs on international travel forced the discount carrier to slow the build-up of its summer flight schedule. Britain’s biggest discount airline, which had been been planning to fly at 40% of normal capacity in its current Q4, now expects to operate at slightly less than that, it said Tuesday. EasyJet also dropped a forecast for a smaller loss this period than in the third quarter through June, when it had a shortfall of GBP324m. It will provide no financial guidance for the fiscal year starting next month. “Demand is now likely to be further impacted and therefore lower than previously anticipated,” CEO Johan Lundgren said. “It is difficult to overstate the impact that the pandemic and associated government policies has had on the whole industry.” Lundgren repeated calls for sector-specific support for aviation, including the removal of the air passenger duty tax for 12 months, alleviation of air traffic control charges and the extension of a waiver of use-them-or-lose-them airport slot rules.<br/>
Allegiant Air removed a passenger from a Labor Day flight preparing for takeoff from Punta Gorda, Fla., for “making threatening statements to the flight attendant,” according to the airline. But in a video of the incident shared online, the man can be heard explaining that he had only asked the flight attendant to wear a face mask. “I need you to come off or I get law enforcement,” says an employee a in a video shared anonymously to social media news wire Storyful. The passenger says, “I just asked somebody to put on their face mask, that’s all I did." Others on the flight can be heard voicing their support for the passenger as he’s escorted off. “That’s not right, this is ridiculous,” one passenger says, while comments such as “this is not okay,” “you’re not right,” and “just let him be” are heard as well. Allegiant said that the “passenger became disruptive during the pre-flight safety briefing … Following the announcement, the passenger persisted in making threatening statements to the flight attendant, to the point of harassment.” The airline said the man was accommodated on another departing flight. Allegiant said that the flight attendant had lowered their face covering “for speaking into the PA so the briefing could be understood.” There has been little talk of flight attendants not following the recommended guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Allegiant has faced backlash on social media in recent days for flight attendants who have been photographed with face masks pulled below their nostrils. In one image, a flight attendant appears to have her mask completely pulled below her mouth.<br/>
Wizz Air CE Jozsef Varadi believes the airline’s network diversification in recent months will help the low-cost carrier better ride out the coming months of the coronavirus crisis. The central European budget carrier has established a number of new small operating bases across Europe since the pandemic, making it one of the most active players since travel restrictions began being lifted within Europe. Wizz had caught the eye with its bullish outlook, and it had hoped to be operating up to 80% of its planned capacity in the last quarter of this calendar year. But it has been forced to scale that back amid a series of fresh travel restrictions across Europe. Notably, that includes its home country, Hungary. “We are not immune from the situation and we are similarly impacted by – not the pandemic itself – but the economic impact and the political agendas,” said Varadi. ”I think this whole pandemic management has become a very complex animal because it is much more than managing the… virus itself. We have been trying to stay as agile as we could have been. We looked at demand and continued to adjust capacity depending on demand. We were trying to be rational and align capacity to the new customer realities... I think we are benefiting from the level of diversification we have achieved. We are operating from 45 countries, with more than 30 operating bases in 20 countries.” Story has more quotes.<br/>
A “disruptive” passenger on a Ryanair flight from Dublin to Tenerife has been arrested after attacking four police officers upon landing. The man, who is believed to be Irish, arrived in the Canary Island and immediately clashed with officials after refusing to wear a mask and wanting to smoke in the airport compound, both expressly prohibited under new coronavirus regulations. All four officers were reported to have been injured, with two required to take medical leave. The incident, which is understood to have occurred at Tenerife’s south airport last Thursday, escalated after four Civil Guards confronted the man on the runway. According to Spanish newspaper Diario de Avisos, the man had clearly been drinking alcohol. “The events were triggered when the man disembarked with obvious symptoms of intoxication, being interviewed by four Civil Guards on the platform of the runway,” reported The Mirror. Upon transferring him for identification, the man then began to punch and kick the agents. A spokesman for Ryanair confirmed: “This disruptive passenger was removed from a Ryanair aircraft in Tenerife on Thursday, September 3rd.<br/>
South Korean budget carrier Eastar Jet is letting go of more than half of its employees after its sale flopped, setting the stage of massive restructuring in the airline industry grappling with global virus crisis. The airliner on Monday sent out redundancy notices to 605 out of its total 1,100 employees, according to industry sources. The employees will be dismissed by Oct. 14. Another 90 had already left by opting for early retirement last month. It will be left with less than 500, or the essential crew for flight and maintenance of six aircrafts. It hopes the streamlining will help entice new investors to keep afloat until the virus storm dies down. Those let go had been promised of being invited back when conditions improve, according to the company. This would the first massive downsizing by a Korean airline after the virus outbreak. <br/>