Ryanair may decline to accept delivery of its first Boeing 737 MAX jet until after the summer following a delay in the certification of a version of the jet designed for the airline, a senior executive said Thursday. The Irish airline, the largest European customer for the MAX, is still waiting for Boeing to provide a date for the delivery of its first jet, a 197-seat MAX200, and will decide then if it can take it during its busy summer season, the executive said. "We need a definitive date as to when we're going to get the airplane and then we've got to decide ... whether that suits us to take them or not because in the normal course of events we don't take aircraft in the summer months," said Eddie Wilson, CE of Ryanair DAC, the main airline in the Ryanair Group. Wilson said the delay was related to the certification of the MAX200 model, which has an extra door to allow more passengers than the standard model, and appeared to hinge on the relationship between Boeing and the FAA. "The release of that aircraft ... has to do with a fairly straightforward issue. And it's how the interface between Boeing and the FAA is going to work in matters like that and they have to iron that out once and for all," Wilson said. "It's really up to Boeing at Seattle to bed in that relationship with the FAA in dealing with issues of certification and how they have to do things differently. That's what it looks like," he said.<br/>
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Aer Lingus wants to freeze workers’ pay for five years and is proposing sharp cuts in rates paid to new cabin and ground crew. Unions and management began talks on further cuts at Aer Lingus last week as the airline continued grappling with tough Government travel curbs due to the pandemic. The company has told trade unions Siptu and Fórsa that it wants to freeze pay until 2026, cut sick pay and introduce reduced rates for new cabin- and ground-crew staff. Union sources say one of their main fears is that the company’s proposals appear to focus on staff on pre-2009 pay and conditions, who amount to around one third of the airline’s workforce. They also argue that the proposals include changes sought by Aer Lingus “when times were good” but which unions refused. A management document outlining the proposed changes to union officials calls for a pay freeze with “no cost-increasing claims” for the next five years.<br/>
Low-cost airline Jet2 has delayed the restart of flights and holidays from June 24 to July 1, following the Government changes to travel lists. The firm’s boss called for “openness and transparency” on coronavirus data so that the industry could better understand decisions affecting airlines and their customers. It comes after several changes to the travel lists – including moving Portugal from “green” to “amber” – were made by the Government on Thursday. Jet2 said: “Following today’s update, we have taken the decision to restart flights and holidays on July 1 2021. For any destinations currently on the Amber List, we are also allowing customers to amend their booking free of charge if they are due to travel between July 1 and July 21 2021.” Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays said: “We know how disappointed our customers and independent travel agency partners will be following today’s announcement, and we share their concerns and frustrations. We are now calling for complete openness and transparency when it comes to the data, so that customers and the industry can really understand what is driving these decisions.”<br/>
All-Boeing operator T’way Air is adding three Airbus A330-300s to its fleet in February 2022. Cirium fleets data shows the South Korean low-cost carrier has 27 Boeing 737-800 jets in its current in-service and stored fleet, each configured with 189 seats in a single-class layout and of 2003 to 2017 vintage. The narrowbodies are owned and managed by various lessors. The airline is now preparing for the A330’s operational debut, it said in a 2 June statement, by establishing maintenance support and training flight and cabin crew. It adds that it has completed construction of a training centre at the cargo terminal of Seoul Gimpo International airport and will continue to expand training facilities for the A330s. T’way Air will deploy the A330s on short- and medium-haul routes initially, and depending on pandemic developments, operate the widebodies to mid- and long-haul destinations such as Sydney, Croatia, Honolulu, and Singapore. The carrier says it signed the letter of intent for the aircraft in December and completed the lease contract on 16 April. This move will allow it to add business-class seats to its service offerings, while helping it prepare for the post-Covid-19 environment.<br/>