Ryanair has asked pilots in its home base in Dublin to bypass their trade union and directly accept a pay rise - even as it holds talks with unions across Europe to formalise its shock decision to recognise them. The airline was forced last year to recognise unions for the first time in its 32-year history in order to avoid a Christmas strike, after it had to cancel 20,000 flights earlier in the year due to a shortage of standby pilots. It made a breakthrough earlier this week when it secured a formal recognition agreement with British union BALPA, but unions in other countries, including Ireland, have said they are not happy with how the negotiations are proceeding. Now, in the latest sign of discord, the airline has accused Irish union FORSA/IALPA of misleading pilots. <br/>
unaligned
Ryanair is to begin flying from Jordan for the first time next month as it expands its operations in the Middle East. The airline, which already flies to Israel and Morocco, will begin with a route from Amman to Paphos in Cyprus in March, it said. Next winter it will fly 14 routes from Amman and Aqaba. The airline, which carried almost 130m passengers last year, expects to fly 430,000 passengers per year to and from Jordan, it said. "Enhancing air connectivity is one of the key areas Jordan is focussing on given its impact on unlocking economic growth through attracting business investment as well as spurring tourism," Jordan's minister of Tourism Lina Annab said, welcoming Ryanair's announcement. <br/>
CE Farzaneh Sharafbafi said Sunday that based on contracts, 14 new planes will join Iran Air, adding that Italy and France have already opened special credit lines for Iran to this effect. She hoped that a part of the credit lines will be allocated to contracts between Iran Air and ATR and Airbus aviation companies. In December, Sharafbafi said that Airbus has agreed to finance Iran's purchase from the European firm. "The US Congress' tightened supervision over these contracts might delay the issuance of license by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the US Treasury Department a little, but it would not call off the permissions to buy Boeing aircraft," she added. Sharafbafi added that 3 Airbus 321 and 330 as well as 6 ATR passenger planes have so far been delivered to Iran. <br/>
Labour tensions have been a recurring problem at Spirit Airlines in recent years. In 2010, pilots walked off the job for several days. That's the only strike experienced by the entire US airline industry in the past decade. More recently, Spirit Airlines pilots have become vocal in criticising the company's management, as contract talks dragged on for years with little progress being made. These frustrations boiled over last May, with most of its pilots refusing to pick up overtime work. This forced Spirit Airlines to cancel hundreds of flights, angering many of its customers. However, a tentative agreement has finally been reached with its pilot union for a 5-year contract. Under the recently completed tentative agreement, Spirit Airlines has offered its pilots an immediate wage increase averaging 43%, according to the pilot union. <br/>
AirAsia is looking at buying Boeing 787s to expand the fleet of its long-haul arm AirAsia X, CE Tony Fernandes said Friday. "We are now looking at (Airbus) 330 (and) 350s, (Boeing) 787," Fernandes said. The AirAsia group, which has already ordered A330s and A350s, has been exclusively linked to Airbus planes but industry experts say Boeing 787s could fit into its long-haul operations. Fernandes said the group was also keen on buying more of Airbus A321neo long-range jets after purchasing 100 of them. "We will certainly need more going forward," he said. AirAsia, which flies close to 200 airplanes and is the largest operator of the Airbus A320, has airlines in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Japan and plans to expand into China and Vietnam. <br/>
AirAsia says its flights to Indonesia's conservative Aceh province will have only male cabin crew after Acehnese authorities insisted female flight attendants wear head coverings. Other airlines have said they will comply and require female flight attendants to cover their heads on flights to the Shariah-law practicing province. AirAsia Indonesia's corporate secretary Baskoro Adiwiyono said Friday that the airline was ensuring its flights adhere to regulations. He says, "For the time being, all AirAsia flights from and to Aceh will be operated by male cabin crew." Authorities in Aceh Wednesday circulated a letter with its demand to several airlines. Garuda Indonesia and its budget arm Citilink say they "support the suggestions." <br/>
Emirates Airline is launching services to Santiago de Chile, the carrier’s fourth South American passenger route, starting July 8. The 5X-weekly service will use a 2-class Boeing 777-200LR, which offers 38 business-class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration and 264 seats in economy class. The new service is routed via Sao Paulo-Guarulhos airport (Brazil) and complements an existing daily Airbus A380 flight between Dubai and Sao Paulo. In total, Emirates will operate 12X-weekly services to Sao Paulo. Emirates president Tim Clark said the start of the Chile operations “underlines our commitment to South America”. Emirates is also adjusting its North American network and will introduce a new nonstop service between Newark Liberty International and Dubai from June 1. <br/>
Hundreds of travellers were stranded in the Dominican Republic's main international airport Friday after authorities suspended the country's principal airline for not paying debts. Officials announced Jan 27 that they were suspending Pawa Dominicana's operations at the Santo Domingo airport for at least 90 days because the company owes US$3m in taxes and airport fees to the govt and $5m to private contractors. Some 1,300 passengers arriving in Santo Domingo on other airlines for connections with Pawa over the last week have found themselves without a way to reach their final destinations and many are sleeping in the airport due to the high prices of lodging. The company declined to comment, but has told passengers to wait 2 to 3 weeks for refunds. It has not offered to help with food or lodging. <br/>