French investigators have recommended tougher medical checks for pilots after uncovering fresh evidence of unreported concerns over the mental state of Germanwings pilot Andreas Lubitz who crashed his jet into the Alps last year. France's BEA air accident investigation agency said a doctor consulted by Lubitz had recommended 2 weeks before the disaster that he should be treated in a psychiatric hospital. The unidentified private physician was one of a number of doctors seen by the 27-year-old as he wrestled with symptoms of a "psychotic depressive episode" that started in Dec 2014. The BEA said in its final report Sunday that neither Lubitz nor any of his doctors had alerted aviation authorities or his airline about his illness, for which he was being treated with anti-depressants. <br/>
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Emirates put its plan to establish a hub in Panama connecting cities across Latin America with Asia on hold because govt accords permitting cooperation with a key local carrier took too long to put in place. Emirates has secured approvals from only 3 or 4 of the 13 countries from which it needs backing for a wide-ranging code-share deal with Copa Airlines, its president, Tim Clark, said. Emirates initially aimed to commence flights to Panama in February, before slipping the date to March and then saying last week that services won’t commence until late 2016 or early 2017. “Panama was a sort of entry point for South and Central America for us and has huge potential, but we needed to get the aero-political structures in place,” Clark said. <br/>
Ryanair is capturing market share quicker than expected in Germany, an executive said Friday. Ryanair, which is expanding routes out of Cologne and Berlin in particular, ended 2015 with a 5% share of the German air travel market and expects that to rise to 8-10% this year, said Kenny Jacobs, chief marketing officer. “Michael has said we’ll get to 20% within a 5 year period but so far we’re ahead of that projection,” he said, referring to CE Michael O’Leary. Ryanair is also not ruling out flying out of Frankfurt in the future, if it could get the right deal, Jacobs said. O’Leary has often said Frankfurt was one of the few airports Ryanair could not fly out of due to high fees and lengthy turnaround times. “It’s a possibility,” Jacobs said, although he added that Ryanair did not need to fly from Frankfurt or Munich to reach the 20% market share target. <br/>
Ryanair has pulled out of what was starting to look like a tailspin. CE Michael O’Leary’s unorthodox strategy for the recovery? Being nice to passengers. O’Leary and Ryanair helped pioneer the rock-bottom budget airline, taking a page from Southwest Airlines in the US, but going much further. It offers some of the lowest airfares in Europe. The no-frills model, once novel but now widely mimicked, has turned the 32-year-old Ryanair into Europe’s second-biggest airline by passengers flown, behind Lufthansa. In 2013, a price war with full-service carriers and upstart budget airlines alike threatened that success. A pair of rapid-fire profit warnings spooked investors, who worried Ryanair might struggle to keep costs low amid all the new competition. <br/>
Estonia’s new national carrier, Nordic Aviation Group (NAG), has rebranded, taking the name Nordica. Unveiled March 11, the company uses a dragonfly as its logo. NAG was set up by the nation’s govt as a fall-back in advance of the demise of Estonia Air last autumn. The EC had found Estonian Air had breached state subsidy rules and was ordered to pay back some E85m (US$95mn) in aid. Unable to do so, it filed for bankruptcy. Nordic Aviation Group is a virtual airline, a not uncommon practice in the Nordic nations, whereby an entity is set up to operate the sales and marketing functions of an airline, but subcontracts the actual flying to a third party. Nordica plans to make a transition to its own aircraft in the coming months. <br/>
Juneyao Airlines aims to double its fleet by 2020, expecting the mid-year opening of Disney’s Shanghai park and more tourist travel to further drive flight demand as the privately run carrier considers joining a global alliance. “The potential for growth is huge,” company chairman Wang Junjin said Sunday. The carrier, which Wang says has been China’s most punctual since November, expects to grow its fleet to 100 from the current 50. The airline” has been in talks with alliances without a presence in Shanghai and will make a decision whether to join one by the end of this year, he added. As China rebalances its economy toward consumer spending after annual expansion slowed, the govt is building scores of airports to facilitate growing air travel demand as the middle class expands. <br/>
Airbus has delivered its second A320neo to IndiGo, 2 months after the updated model first went into service with Lufthansa. Deliveries of the re-engined jet have been delayed as engine maker Pratt & Whitney addresses technical problems with its Geared Turbofan engines. IndiGo has ordered a total of 430 A320neo aircraft, making it one of Airbus's largest customers. The delivery is 3 months later than originally planned. Pratt & Whitney has encountered problems with slow engine start-up times and erroneous engine software messages in the new engine, but says the problems will be fixed by June. Lufthansa and IndiGo stepped up as the first operators for the upgraded jet after launch customer Qatar Airways rejected delivery in December due to engine teething problems. <br/>