Ryanair Holdings recognised the union representing its UK pilots, reaching its first formal labour agreement in the discount airline’s history. The 600 UK pilots directly employed by the carrier will be represented by the British Airlines’ Pilots Association, Ryanair said Tuesday. All 15 of its bases in the market -- the company’s biggest -- have also voted to accept management’s offer to lift pay by 20%. The deal marks progress in Ryanair’s effort to quell labour unrest and improve relations with pilots who threatened to strike last year to gain union recognition. Under pressure, the company reversed its anti-union stance, but talks with some pilot groups, including in Ireland, have moved slowly. The UK accounts for about a quarter of the airline’s pilots and aircraft. The deal shows “how serious Ryanair is about working constructively with unions that are willing to work constructively with us,” Chief People Officer Eddie Wilson said. Still, he warned unions in other markets to “stop wasting time and act quickly” on its proposals. The airline is meeting with labor groups in markets including Ireland, Italy, Belgium, Germany and Spain. The progress in the UK is somewhat offset by “concerns that Ryanair is heading to a showdown” with its Irish pilots, who appear to want to wrap the pay deal into a wider negotiation of working conditions, Mark Simpson, an analyst with Goodbody Stockbrokers in Dublin, said in a research note.<br/>
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Virgin Atlantic plans to supplement its fleet with four leased-in Airbus A330-200s to cope with unanticipated downtime for its Boeing 787-9 fleet powered by the troubled Rolls-Royce Trent 1000. The A330-200s are ex-airberlin aircraft. The first is undergoing renovations at Virgin Atlantic’s London Gatwick base before entering service at the start of the summer schedule in late March. All four will come into service throughout the spring. “These aircraft will add resilience to our flying program in light of an industry-wide shortage of Trent 1000 engines used on our Boeing 787 aircraft,” Virgin Atlantic EVP operations Phil Maher said. A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson added that the decision had been taken to bring in the A330-200s “so we could carry on operating the full schedule over the summer months.” The Trent 1000 has experienced service issues caused by premature wear and corrosion, most of it in elements of the intermediate pressure compressor and turbine, which has resulted in a parts replacement initiative on up to 500 engines. The A330-200s will be used on Virgin services from Manchester, in northwest England, to New York, Boston, San Francisco and Barbados.<br/>
Hawaiian Airlines executives expect big cost savings from the company's incoming fleet of Airbus A321neos. Speaking during Hawaiian's 2017 earnings call on 29 January, CE Mark Dunkerley says 189-seat A321neos have better trip and seat-mile costs on routes between Hawaii and the US mainland even than Hawaiian's 294-seat A330s. "In terms of cost per seat, the A321neo is more efficient than even our A330s over that particular segment length," says Dunkerley. "It’s not by much, but it’s considerably more efficient than the competing narrowbodies that are currently flying." The A321neo "gives us the same operating cost advantage that we get on the widebodies... It's, in fact, even a little bit better than that." Hawaiian CCO Peter Ingram has long touted the carrier's Pratt & Whitney-powered A321neo as the "perfect" aircraft for the roughly 2,100nm to 2,300nm routes from Hawaii to US West Coast cities. The airline has received two of 18 A321neos that it has on order, with deliveries scheduled to run into 2020, according to Flight Fleets Analyzer.<br/>
A Florida man will spend two months in federal prison after loudly threatening to blow up a Spirit Airlines plane, then calling a flight attendant a racist and sexist slur and a "slave" before threatening to kill her. This behaviour earned 36-year-old Michael Minko plastic handcuffs in addition to his seat belt in 2F. This also counts as interference with flight crew members and attendants, the federal crime for which Minko was sentenced Monday. According to Minko's admission in court documents, the passenger in 2D noticed Minko pounded Alprazolam, the generic name for the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, and about half a bottle of bourbon in the first hour of a July 18 8:25 p.m. flight. Alprazolam prescriptions warn about mixing the drug with alcohol. The 2D passenger told a flight attendant, identified as "R.N." in court documents, about Minko's substantive substance consumption. Outside spirits aren't allowed on Spirit or any other airline. When R.N. told Minko he couldn't drink any more bourbon from the bottle, Minko denied having the bottle. Then he began yelling that he was sick and needed to get off the plane. "(Minko) said he was going to kill R.N. and everyone else by blowing up the plane," the stipulated facts statement says.<br/>