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Ryanair is close to placing an order for dozens of additional Boeing 737 Max jets in a commercial boost to the US planemaker after regulators lifted a 20-month safety grounding, industry sources said. Europe’s largest low-fare carrier, which has an option to expand its current order by 75 jets to 210 aircraft, declined to comment. Ryanair has been negotiating for months to expand its order for 135 aircraft as part of discussions with Boeing over compensation for delays caused by the grounding, but no decision had been expected until the plane was cleared to resume flights. US and European regulators lifted the almost two-year flight ban last month following changes to cockpit software and training. Ryanair is one of Boeing’s largest worldwide customers and an order from the Irish carrier is seen as a pivotal moment in efforts by Boeing to rehabilitate the troubled 737 Max, once its fastest-selling model. Each Max is worth about $125m at list prices but jets typically sell for closer to half their catalogue value and Ryanair is expected to win even steeper discounts for placing a key order amid cancellations by some buyers, the sources said.<br/>

Ryanair and Wizz Air passenger numbers in November slipped to their lowest level since the peak of the pandemic earlier this year, as the pair cut capacity amid a swathe of fresh lockdowns and travel restrictions. The Irish low-cost carrier handled just 2m passengers in November, figures reported this morning show. This is down 82% on the same month in 2019. It marks the airline’s lowest monthly passenger numbers and biggest year-on-year decline since June, when its flights were at a virtual standstill. Ryanair capacity and traffic has been sliding since August, when it carried 7m passengers - almost half previous year levels. Wizz’s traffic numbers tumbled 85% compared with November 2019, as the airline transported just 456,000 passengers. This is the budget carrier’s lowest passenger level since May. The traffic was based on airline capacity at a fifth of November 2019 levels. Ryanair and Wizz are the first two European carriers to release traffic data for November.<br/>

One of two Libyan men who hijacked a plane and diverted it to Malta four years ago was jailed for 25 years by a Maltese judge on Wednesday. The Afriqiyah Airlines Airbus 320 was on an internal flight to Tripoli when it was hijacked on Dec. 23, 2016 by the men, supporters of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. They threatened to blow up the plane unless their demands were met, but the Maltese government refused to negotiate before the 109 passengers on board were released. The hijackers, one of them flying the all-green former Libyan flag, surrendered after four hours without ever making their demands clear. Their weapons turned out to be fake. One of the men, Soko Moussa Shaha Ali pleaded guilty on Wednesday and was jailed for 25 years. Another suspect, Ali Ahmed Saleh, is denying involvement.<br/>

TUI is set to receive a E1.8b financial support package from German government fund WSF, largest shareholder Unifirm and a consortium of banks, aimed at securing the tourist group’s operation amid the coronavirus crisis. The package is TUI’s third since the crisis began. In April, the Hannover-headquartered group received E1.8b from state-owned development government bank KfW. This was followed by another E1.2b package from KfW in August. TUI says the latest package became “necessary due to the increasing travel restrictions caused by the rising number of infections and the associated more short-term booking behaviour of some customers”. The group adds: “The financial package is intended to ensure that the company can bridge the gap if the pandemic persists in 2021.” CE Fritz Joussen states: “With these measures, the group is securing liquidity for a continuing pandemic in 2021, while at the same time improving our balance sheet structures in the long term.”<br/>

The aviation industry is expected to play a crucial role in the distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine, using cargo capabilities on board passenger flights – and it's already preparing for the task, says the boss of Virgin Atlantic Cargo. “Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been working hard to transport essential items all over the world,” said Dominic Kennedy, MD. “At the start of the year, we used our passenger planes to import essential PPE to Britain from Asia, and then the focus shifted to transporting testing kits. “Now, we will be using our aircraft to carry vaccine drugs – the next chapter of this unprecedented year.” The Pfizer vaccine, which has now been approved for use in Britain, is of course no ordinary cargo item: it must be kept at -80 degrees. “The temperature control is a challenge not just for us, but for every airline,” says Kennedy. “It’s not the act of keeping it cold that’s the challenge, but the sheer quantity of dry ice that’s required: by weight, you need five times as much dry ice than vaccine – so for every 200kg of vaccine, that’s 1,000kg of dry ice.” Until this year, cargo accounted for just 10 per cent of Virgin Atlantic’s turnover, but while passengers have stayed grounded it has fulfilled a vital role in the transportation of goods. <br/>

AirAsia India will be the group’s only unit to see fleet growth by the end of 2021, amid an ongoing investment review conducted by the low-cost group. In slides presented at an analyst briefing following the release of its Q3 results, AirAsia Group states in its outlook that it has “planned for reduction in our fleet count to match our expected recovery” post-pandemic. The group, comprising units in Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and India, anticipates a reduction of 23 aircraft by the end of 2021 to 221 aircraft. By the end of 2020, the group will have one less aircraft than the end of 2019. This is led by a decrease in fleet size from Thai AirAsia, as well as the now-shuttered AirAsia Japan. Malaysia-based AirAsia Berhad, as well as Indonesia AirAsia, will have zero aircraft growth for the year, while Philippines AirAsia and AirAsia India will expand their fleet by one and four aircraft respectively. By 2021, all of the group’s carriers, except AirAsia India, will reduce their fleet size by between one to eight aircraft. AirAsia India, meanwhile, will add one aircraft to its fleet. AirAsia India’s five aircraft addition between 2020 and 2021 is reported to be Airbus A320neos, of which it currently has two examples in its fleet.<br/>