Ryanair’s Charges Help Lift Profit
By AviationBrief
Published: May 20, 2013
A sharp rise in earnings from add-on charges for items such as baggage and pre-assigned seating helped boost Ryanair’s earnings in the past year. Ryanair, which helped pioneer a business model in which low ticket prices are supplemented with charges for extras, flew 5 percent more passengers last year, but earned 20 percent more on [...]
US Airways Plane Belly Lands At Newark Airport
By AviationBrief
Published: May 20, 2013
A US Airways made an emergency landing on its belly at Newark’s Liberty Airport early on Saturday after the plane’s landing gear failed to deploy, but no one was injured, airline and government officials said. The Piedmont Airlines De Havilland Dash 8, operating for US Airways as flight 4560, was flying from Philadelphia with 34 [...]
Emissions Deal May Not Come Before EU Deadline
By AviationBrief
Published: May 20, 2013
Hope is fading for a global deal to regulate the airline industry’s greenhouse gas emissions ahead of a September deadline, even though failure could push the industry back to the brink of a trade war over the European Union’s emissions trading system. Last November the EU suspended its controversial scheme to force all airlines to [...]
LAN Argentina Halts Operations Until Saturday
By AviationBrief
Published: May 18, 2013
LATAM Airlines said its Argentina unit was halting all of its flights in the country until Saturday after a state company unilaterally decided to stop providing services to the airline. Intercargo provides Latin America’s biggest carrier with ramps at Argentine airports, loads luggage and manages passenger buses to terminals, LATAM said in a statement late [...]
Emirates Renews Paris Soccer Sponsorship
By AviationBrief
Published: May 17, 2013
French league champions Paris St Germain and Dubai airline Emirates extended their shirt sponsorship deal by another five years on Friday. Despite maintaining a relationship between the two parties that dates back to 2006, neither PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi nor Emirates executive vice-president Thierry Antinori were prepared to reveal the official value of the agreement. [...]
US Government Blacklists Syrian Airline
By AviationBrief
Published: May 17, 2013
The US government on Thursday blacklisted four Syrian government ministers, an airline and a television station it said helped the Assad government in its two-year crackdown on opposition forces. The move follows broad US sanctions on any aid to Syria since the beginning of the civil war between President Bashar al-Assad’s government and opposition groups [...]
Brussels Airport Moves To End Baggage Strike
By AviationBrief
Published: May 17, 2013
Brussels airport began to resume baggage operations on Thursday after a four-day strike by baggage-handlers over working conditions left more than 20,000 pieces of luggage stranded in Belgium’s largest hub. Baggage-handling firm Swissport appeared to have reached an agreement with unions late on Wednesday, but some employees remained on strike, airport officials said. A Swissport [...]
Virgin Atlantic Loss Widens
By AviationBrief
Published: May 17, 2013
Virgin Atlantic said tough economic conditions over the last year and lower demand for business travel caused by the London Olympics dragged it to a wider annual loss. The airline, founded by British entrepreneur Richard Branson, on Thursday reported a loss of GBP£93 million (USD$ 141.6 million) for the year to the end of February, [...]
US Airline Group Predicts Strong Summer
By AviationBrief
Published: May 17, 2013
More people will likely fly this summer compared with a year ago as US airlines gain a record level of international passengers, an industry association said on Thursday. Airlines for America, an airline industry lobby group, forecast that close to 209 million people will fly on the nation’s carriers between June and August, up 1 [...]
Kuwait Air Signs 25 Plane Airbus Deal
By AviationBrief
Published: May 17, 2013
Kuwait Airways said it had signed an initial agreement with Airbus to buy 25 new aircraft and take an option on 10 more in the biggest overhaul of its fleet since the 1990 Iraqi invasion. The order for the new planes includes 15 A320neo narrow-body jets and 10 of Airbus’s new A350-900 XWB, chairman Sami [...]