Aer Lingus said it had resolved an IT problem that led it to cancel 51 flights between Dublin airport and other European destinations on Saturday as check-in and boarding was disrupted. The Irish carrier, owned by London-listed IAG, said “a major incident with a network provider” meant it could not access its cloud-based systems, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded outside the country’s main airport. “Aer Lingus sincerely apologises to customers for the severe disruption caused today,” it said in a statement, adding its operations for Sunday were planned to run as normal. The airline said it operated all of its transatlantic services from Dublin with delays and reduced passenger numbers in some instances due to security restrictions as a result of the systems outage. Dublin airport earlier flagged the IT issues facing Aer Lingus, saying other airlines were not impacted.<br/>
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Ryanair’s investors have been urged to vote down “excessive” bonus payouts and block eight senior bosses from re-election in the run-up to the airline’s annual shareholder meeting this week. Calling for a shareholder revolt at Europe’s biggest airline, the London-based Pirc advisory group highlighted concerns over the independence of the board and potential undue financial rewards for its top executives. However, it did not recommend opposing the re-election of the CE, Michael O’Leary – a significant change from previous years. Pirc, which advises institutional investors controlling more than GBP1.5t in assets, including unions and pension funds, has advised voting against the re-election of Stan McCarthy and seven other Ryanair non-executive directors, querying their independence. It said that share options awarded by the company to most of the directors in previous years, which can be cashed out in 2024, were “considered to be a reason for non-independence”. Pirc warned that the independence of other non-executives was compromised because they had been senior bosses at the airline before elevation to the board, including two of O’Leary’s former deputies, Howard Millar and Michael Cawley. Overall, Pirc said, there was “insufficient independent representation on the board” of Ryanair. It also called for votes against Ryanair’s controversial pay policy, which it said could lead to “excessive variable remuneration”, while failing to disclose “quantified performance targets”.<br/>
Romanian low-cost carrier Blue Air has pushed back its resumption of flights until 10 October, having initially cancelled flights until 11 September. Blue Air suspended flights from Romanian airports on 6 September after the country’s government blocked its bank accounts after beginning enforcement action over a 28.7m lei ($5.9m) debt owed as part of a state environment fund. The carrier had initially hoped to resume flights on 12 September, but has now pushed a restart back a month saying it does not have the funds to pay the required operating costs to resume flights. ”In the last 48 hours, the executive management, the board of directors and the shareholders of Blue Air found that the level of ticket sales was significantly affected and the amounts that were collected by the payment processors have been blocked by those, so that the company does not have at this time all the necessary funds to pay for the fuel and other operational expenses,” the airline says. It now aims to resume flights on 10 October. ”The decision to resume flights decisively takes into account the possibility of the company to reimburse all affected passengers the amounts owed and to pay all commercial partners the costs of the services provided in favour of the company,” it says. Blue Air had been seeking to secure fresh investment prior to suspending flights. ”During this period [until 10 October], we are firmly convinced that the two investors, with whom the company’s shareholders are in extremely advanced discussions at the time when this ’force majeure’ situation occurred, will have the necessary time to analyze absolutely all the implications of this event and decide…. if they want to invest the sums necessary to position Blue Air to the results before the Covid-19 pandemic.”<br/>
Aeroflot Group carrier Rossiya has named Yan Burg as its general director, formalising a position in which he has acted since early March. He joined the airline as technical director in October 2018, having previously worked for Russian Helicopters as well as Aeroflot. Burg has an educational background in aircraft and engine maintenance. Rossiya credits Burg with having implemented the programme to introduce Irkut Superjet 100s transferred to the airline from Aeroflot as part of a fleet restructuring. It has 71 Superjets among its total of 128 aircraft, and is the largest operator of Russian-built types in the country. The carrier – which has bases in St Petersburg and Moscow – has also opened a series of routes from hubs in Krasnoyarsk and Sochi over the first half of the year. Rossiya has also received an extended authorisation from federal air transport regulator Rosaviatsia to service foreign-built aircraft re-registered in Russia after sanctions were imposed over the Ukrainian conflict. Former Rossiya chief Sergei Aleksandrovsky was appointed as the head of Aeroflot earlier this year, taking over from Mikhail Poluboyarinov.<br/>
El Al plans to repay a $45m loan that it took from the government during the COVID-19 pandemic by the end of the year, under a deal reached between the airline and Finance Ministry, they said on Sunday. The loan was part of a government package to help the airline weather the crisis, in which Israel's borders were closed to foreign tourists for nearly two years, sending revenue and profit at Israel's flag carrier tumbling. The ministry and El Al said the loan repayment would be two years ahead of schedule, but as part of the deal, El Al's planned $62m share offering would be delayed until April 2023, while the state will advance El Al security payments of $20m by Dec. 20. El Al, which has reported losses for four years and racked up debt to renew its fleet, laid off 1,900 employees - nearly one-third of its staff - as part of a recovery plan mandated by the government to receive a $210 million aid package at the height of the pandemic.<br/>The loan repayment will eliminate or ease a host of spending restrictions on El Al and will allow it to update its route network, add staff, lease new aircraft, invest in working capital and developing new income channels, it said. El Al will still not be allowed to pay dividends or buy back its own shares until 2028.<br/>
Jeju Air, South Korea’s leading budget carrier, said Monday it has raised a combined 320b won ($232m) as part of a new fleet modernization plan. The airliner said it secured the funds by selling 273m new common shares starting Aug. 26. This paid-in capital increase will be used to boost the company's facility budget, it added. AK Holdings, Jeju Air’s largest stakeholder, issued 130b won-worth of exchangeable bonds to partake in the paid-in capital increase. The stakeholder had initially planned on issuing only 100 billion won-worth of EBs. However, it expanded its scale when 26 additional institutional investors decided to participate. The stakeholder attributed this increased investment to positive market prospects for the aviation industry. Ministry of Transport data showed that international travelers on flag carrier aircrafts recorded 1.35m in August, a 708% increase from January 2022. Jeju Air’s own data showed it had transported 37 times more travelers when comparing the same two months. Under the new road map, the airline plans to add 40 new Boeing B737-8 aircrafts to its fleet starting next year by expanding its facilities budget. The B737-8 is Boeing’s next-generation aircraft which can fly a maximum of 2,993 kilometers and cruise at a speed of 836 kilometers per hour. Compared to Jeju Air's current B737-800 model, the new aircraft can fly 1,000 kilometers longer and save more than 15% of fuel. It can also decrease flight costs by 12% per seat. Jeju Air said it hopes to develop new long-haul routes to Central Asia and Indonesia with the new aircraft’s longer range.<br/>
Vietnam low-cost carrier Vietjet Air swung to an operating loss of D192t ($8m) in the first six months of 2022, compared with an operating profit of D157t a year earlier. According to its Vietnamese language financial results, the company posted consolidated revenue of D15.9t, more than double from the first half a year earlier. The carrier’s after tax profit was D145 trillion, 18.8% higher than a year earlier. Costs also rose sharply from a year earlier, rising 40% to D14.6t. In a results presentation, Vietjet revealed that it had 43% of Vietnam’s domestic market share by capacity in the first half, compared with 35% for Vietnam Airlines and 16% for Bamboo Airways. Amid Vietnam’s recovery from the pandemic, the carrier’s aircraft utilisation reached 11.8 block hours per aircraft in the first half, compared with 11.3h in the first half of 2019. As of 30 June, the carrier’s fleet stood at 77 aircraft comprising 18 Airbus A320s, 38 A321s, 19 A321neos, and two A330s. Cash and cash equivalents as of 30 Juned stood at $132m, up from $81m at the end of 2021.<br/>
Low-cost airline Bonza’s plans to take to the Australian skies remain uncertain, with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) yet to sign off on the carrier’s operations. Bonza burst into the local aviation scene in October last year, becoming the first airline to launch in Australia in the last 15 years. It’s planning to offer low-cost flights to regional holiday destinations across the east coast, but its fate lies with CASA, and it’s still unclear how much longer Bonza will have to wait for regulatory approval. ASX-listed Regional Express, which already held the coveted Air Operators Certificate for regional flights, waited four months to get the tick from CASA to expand into city services last year. So far, Bonza has waited since April. Bonza recently hired Virgin Australia’s former general manager of operations planning Michael Young to lead its negotiations with the safety authority, following the exit of former chief operations officer and co-founder Peter McNally. The budget airline’s CCO Carly Povey said it hasn’t been deterred by the drawn out regulatory process. “When the regulator is happy, we’re happy. It’s the single most important piece to running an airline,” the former Jetstar executive said, adding her team has been focussing on what they can control including finalising airport partnerships, training and recruitment. Bonza’s first fleet of cabin crew completed training on the Sunshine Coast last week.<br/>