VLM Airlines has confirmed it has filed for bankruptcy. “All flights are cancelled with immediate effect,” VLM said June 22. The carrier had filed a formal application in May asking for creditor protection for 6 months to avoid bankruptcy. However, the company said it did not have enough time in those 6 months to compensate for the number of pilots who left the carrier and bring in additional financial resources. Also, a planned sale-leaseback deal for several aircraft in its fleet had failed because VLM would have needed at least 2 or 3 additional months for a successful re-capitalisation. “We realized that all restructuring measures we had implemented from January onward had been come too late for a sustainable restructuring,” CE Hamish Davidson said. <br/>
unaligned
Dozens of EasyJet pilots based in the Netherlands will hold a second strike Friday lasting 24 hours after failing to secure better working hours, pensions and sick pay from the airline. The pilots are unhappy about their working hours, do not receive sick pay and want the company to make larger pension contributions. An 8-hour strike last week had a limited effect on flights out of Amsterdam Schiphol since the airline was able to bring in replacement crews from other airports. The Dutch Airline Pilots Association was unable to say if this strike would have more impact. "There's still an impasse with EasyJet about the collective employment contract," said a strike coordinator whose union is acting for around 60 pilots. <br/>
As Cyprus emerges from a deep financial crisis, a new low-cost airline will launch next month to tap into the Mediterranean island's resurgent tourism market. The country has been without a national carrier since the collapse of Cyprus Airways, the victim of a credit crunch that brought the country close to bankruptcy in 2013. But numbers of visitors to the island's popular beach resorts soared in 2015, prompting optimism for the vital sector's prospects. Andrew Pyne, CE of new airline Cobalt, wants to turn the island's main airport, Larnaca, into a regional hub serving Europe and the Middle East. Cobalt, a collaboration between local and Chinese investors, plans to run a modest fleet of 5 planes by the end of summer, and double that by 2017. <br/>
Allegiant Air and its pilots, represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, have reached a tentative contract agreement, after more than 3 years of negotiations. The tentative agreement includes significant compensation, retirement and medical benefit increases, improved scheduling rules and procedures, strong job protections, and other important work rule enhancements. A ratification vote is expected in late July. Allegiant pilot’s negotiating committee chairman Scott Whitman said he is confident the contract improvements will be well received by pilots. In April 2015, pilots threatened to go on a strike, but were blocked by a US court after Allegiant sued the pilot union saying it had violated the Railway Labour Act by moving to strike before the parties had exerted every effort to settle their disputes. <br/>
The US airline industry is growing faster than the gross domestic product, and that has created “some real pockets of aggressiveness throughout the country,” Southwest Airlines CE Gary Kelly said Wednesday. Lower fuel prices, rapidly expanding discount carriers and the improved financial health of the major airlines has led to more flights and lower fares, he said. Southwest itself is growing by a relatively fast clip, with a capacity increase of nearly 5% in the current quarter. But that expansion is the continuation of a trend begun in 2014 when it boosted its number of flights at Dallas Love Field by 50% after federal flight limits on that field were lifted. Moreover, Southwest is adding international routes, something it never did until it acquired AirTran Airways in 2011. <br/>