Tag Archives: Boeing 737-8AS WL

Ryanair continues its build-up of summer flights from Malta

Ryanair is planning to operate 61 routes from Luqa, Malta next summer. This represents 10 new routes for Malta.

Ryanair has also announced a new route from Cardiff to Malta, with a twice-weekly service commencing in April 2019, which will be a part of Ryanair’s Summer 2019 schedule.

Top Copyright Photo (all others by Ryanair): Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS WL EI-EKW (msn 38506) TLS (Paul Bannwarth). Image: 943421.

Ryanair aircraft slide show:

Ryanair is coming to Exeter, German pilots to strike tomorrow

Ryanair has announced its first ever flights from Exeter, its newest airport, with 3 new routes to Malaga, Malta and Naples commencing in April, as part of its Summer 2019 schedule.

In other news, Vereinigung Cockpit union issued this statement:

Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) announced a 24-hour strike affecting all Ryanair flights from Germany on Wednesday, September 12, 2018 to push for its demands in talks with the Irish carrier on wages and work conditions according to Reuters.

The union has called on all German-based pilots to strike the airline from Wednesday 0101 GMT until Thursday 0059 GMT.

Ryanair reacted this way:

Ryanair on September 11, 2018 condemned the surprise and unnecessary threatened pilot strike in Germany on Wednesday, September 12. The VC Union, which threatened this strike late on Monday evening, has not consulted with Ryanair’s German pilots, and has no reasonable basis for disrupting customers travel plans when Ryanair has already agreed to negotiate local contracts in Germany, agreed to mediation, and has proposed Mr Kieran Mulvey, who successfully mediated the Irish pilots dispute, is therefore familiar with all of these issues, and is available to work immediately.

Ryanair condemned the VC Union and its negotiator Ingolf Schumacher, who has failed to consult with Ryanair’s German pilots, who last Friday evening was unable to explain any difference between mediation and arbitration in Germany (when Ryanair has agreed to mediation), and who has called this strike at short (24 hours) notice, which can only damage Ryanair’s business and some of its bases in Germany, and may lead to aircraft and job cuts in the German market this winter.

Ryanair has written to its passengers this morning confirming that it will try to run its full German schedule tomorrow, September 12. Passengers are being offered a free move to flights on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday if they so wish, and Ryanair has also written to its German based pilots and cabin crew this morning advising them to work as normal tomorrow Wednesday, and to put its customers first rather than blindly following this damaging and unnecessary strike threat.

Meanwhile Ryanair has made this statement concerning ATC staff shortages on social media:

Copyright Photo (all others by Ryanair): Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS WL EI-EBC (msn 37520) BSL (Paul Bannwarth). Image: 943420.

Ryanair aircraft slide show:

Board of Ryanair restores six aircraft to Dublin base for winter 2018

Ryanair made this announcement:

The Board of Ryanair Holdings on Friday September 7, 2018 announced that it has decided to restore six Dublin based aircraft which were due to transfer to Poland in November for the winter 2018 schedule.

The related protective notices issued to 300 Dublin pilots and cabin crew in July have also been withdrawn.

This decision was taken to respond favorably to the mediation agreement overseen by Mr Kieran Mulvey, which brought an end to five days of unsuccessful but damaging strikes by less than 25% of Ryanair’s Irish based pilots during July and August.

Ryanair’s Chief People Office, Eddie Wilson, said:

“The Board of Ryanair thanked independent mediator, Kieran Mulvey for his contribution in finalising an agreement between Ryanair and just 25% of our Irish pilots. We regret that mediation became necessary after five days of unsuccessful strikes which, despite causing minimal damage to Ryanair’s schedules, did damage our forward fares and yields to/from Ireland because of the perception of possible disruptions.

The Board and management of Ryanair are committed to union recognition, and working constructively with our people and their unions to address their reasonable concerns, as long as this does not alter Ryanair’s low cost model or our ability to offer low fares to our customers.

Since December last year, when the Board announced that we would recognise unions, Ryanair’s people have enjoyed significant pay increases, improved terms and conditions, and we have agreed to improved seniority structures, base transfers and annual leave. We have done this in a year when we expect profits to fall by 15% due to a combination of higher fuel prices and higher staff costs.”

Top Copyright Photo (all others by Ryanair): Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS WL EI-DWT (msn 33626) (Vigo – Cies Islands) PMI (Ton Jochems). Image: 943419.

Ryanair aircraft slide show:

Ryanair continues to grow in Poland

Ryanair has launched its biggest ever Summer 2019 schedule, during which it will base 2 new aircraft at Modlin and Krakow, and add 17 new routes, with 210 routes in total, which will deliver 12.5 million customers yearly through Ryanair’s 13 Polish airports next year, as Polish traffic grows 4% in Poland.

Ryanair’s Poland S19 schedule will deliver:

17 new routes including:

– Modlin (4) to Amman, Kiev, Lviv and Marseille

– Bydgoszcz (2) to Glasgow and Kiev

– Gdansk (2) to Barcelona and Kiev

– Krakow (5) to Amman, Bordeaux, Hamburg, Kiev and Lviv

– Poznan (3) to Cork, Kiev and Stockholm

– Wroclaw (1) to Kiev

Ryanair’s charter airline, Ryanair Sun, continues to grow strongly, carrying 700,000 customers in Summer 2018 season while currently negotiating a wider charter program for Summer 2019 with Poland’s leading tour operators.

In other news, Ryanair confirmed it will give a free 10kg checked bag to all 2 million non-priority customers who booked before August 31, 2018, for travel after November 1, 2018, the date when Ryanair introduces its new cheaper 10kg check bag service, and eliminates all free gate bags and related flight delays. All of these 2 million non-priority customers have been advised by email that a free 10kg checked bag has been added to their booking.

In addition, there are approximately 50,000 passengers who booked on/before August 31, 2018 but bought priority boarding (as a separate service) after September 1, 2018 since this new policy was introduced on August 31, 2018. All these passengers have had the €8 cost of their priority boarding refunded but Ryanair will still allow them to travel with priority boarding free of charge.

Top Copyright Photo (all others by Ryanair): Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS WL EI-EXF (msn 40322) (Costa Brava – Pirineau de Girona) PMI (Ton Jochems). Image: 943422.

Ryanair aircraft slide show:

Ryanair adds two Boeing 737-800s and 6 new routes from London Luton

Ryanair has announced an investment of $200 million at London Luton airport with 2 new based aircraft (6 aircraft in total) for its winter 2018 schedule and has also added 6 new routes to Alicante (3 weekly), Athens (3 weekly), Barcelona (daily), Bologna (daily), Cork (6 weekly) and Malaga (6 weekly) and more flights on its existing Vilnius route.

Ryanair’s winter 2018 London Luton schedule will now deliver a total of 21 routes at LTN.

Top Copyright Photo (all others by Ryanair): Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS WL EI-FOZ (msn 44731) HHN (Rainer Bexten). Image: 939090.

Ryanair aircraft slide show:

Ryanair to cut Dublin based fleet by 20% from 30 to 24 aircraft for Winter 2018

Ryanair’s Board on July 25 approved a plan to cut its Dublin based fleet from 30 to (at most) 24 aircraft for the winter 2018 season.

These reductions have been driven by the rapid growth of Ryanair’s Polish charter airline, which is growing profitably in 2018, allied to a down turn in forward bookings and airfares in Ireland partly as a result of recent rolling strikes by Irish pilots, which has had a negative effect on (close-in) high fare bookings and forward air fares as consumer confidence in the reliability of our Irish flight schedules has been disturbed.

Ryanair’s Polish airline, Ryanair Sun, will now offer over 10 aircraft to Polish tour operators, more than double the 5 aircraft offered in Summer 2018. We expect few route closures from Dublin, although some routes may suffer frequency reductions.

In the light of these Dublin base cuts, Ryanair has today issued letters of (90 days) protective notice to over 100 pilots and over 200 cabin crew employees, whose services may not be required from October 28, 2018 onwards, due to this 20% reduction in the Dublin fleet this winter.

Ryanair will now begin the consultations with its people on redundancy, which, if redundancies are necessary, will be determined by Ryanair’s assessment of flight performance, productivity, attendances, and base transfer requests. Ryanair will be offering transfers to Poland (and possibly some other bases) to these Dublin based pilots and cabin crew employees for Winter 2018 in order to minimise any redundancies.

Ryanair’s COO Peter Bellew said:

“We regret these base aircraft reductions at Dublin for Winter 2018, but the Board has decided to allocate more aircraft to those markets where we are enjoying strong growth (such as Poland), and this will result in some aircraft reductions and job cuts in country markets where business has weakened, or forward bookings are being damaged by rolling strikes by Irish pilots. Ryanair operates a fleet of over 450 aircraft from 87 bases across Europe. We can only do so if we continue to offer low fares, reliable flight services to our customers, and if our reputation for reliability or forward bookings is affected, then base and potential job cuts such as these at Dublin are a deeply regretted consequence”.

Top Copyright Photo (all others by Ryanair): Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS WL EI-FRL (msn 44741) TLS (Paul Bannwarth). Image: 940739.

Ryanair aircraft slide show:

Ryanair cancels 30 Irish flights due to a strike by some of its pilots

Ryanair today, July 12, 2018, was forced to cancel 30 of its 290 Irish flights due to a strike by its pilots.

The airline issued this statement:

We regret to advise some Irish customers of a strike by just 94 (27%) of our 350+ Irish pilots on Thursday, July 12, 2018.

We have tried to avert this disruption, which is unnecessary given Ryanair pilots’ and their union FORSA has received written proposals on seniority, annual leave and base transfers, which are what FORSA claims are the reasons for this strike, yet FORSA has rejected 21 separate invitations to meet Ryanair to negotiate these documents.

Ryanair pilots have already secured a 20% pay increase, earn up to €200,000 p.a., work 5 days-on, followed by 4 days-off (a double bank holiday weekend at the end of every week), enjoy rapid promotions and unmatched job security. In a final effort to avert this strike, we have agreed to meet our pilots and FORSA at a neutral venue kindly provided by Dublin Airport, but we believe this small group of pilots and FORSA are determined to disrupt the travel of Irish customers on July 12.

We cannot rule out further disruptions in July and August, especially when some Aer Lingus pilots wrote officially to the DAA on June 25 – some 10 days before the results of the Ryanair pilot ballot were known – to advise that they were “contemplating a series of 1 and 2 days strikes in July and August”. It is unacceptable that competitor airline pilots are actively organising strikes by Ryanair’s pilots when these airlines will be the direct beneficiaries of any such disruption.

Ryanair has for 30 years pioneered low fare air travel, both in Ireland and Europe. In December 2017, we agreed to recognise unions for our pilots and cabin crew, and we have already signed recognition agreements with UK and Italian pilot and cabin crew unions, which shows how serious we are about dealing with unions. We have not made similar progress in Ireland (or Germany), where we see competitor airline pilots actively interfering by promoting strikes and flight disruptions during the peak period of July and August. These coordinated strike threats are designed to cause unnecessary disruption to customers and damage Ryanair’s low fare model, for the benefit of high fare competitor airlines in Ireland and Germany.

1. Despite offering to meet our pilots and the FORSA union at a neutral venue on Wed at 10am, the union has confirmed again today that they expect Thursdays strike by 27% of our Irish pilots to go ahead. We regrettably must plan for some disruptions on Thurs, and try to minimise their impact, especially upon Irish customers and their families travelling on holidays to Portugal, France, Spain, Italy and Greece. We will do this by cancelling a number of flights on high frequency routes from Ireland to London and other UK Province destinations where customers can transfer readily to other flights on Thurs or switch their travel to earlier flights tomorrow (Wed) or later on Fri, Sat or subsequent days.

2. We have this morning planned to cancel up to 30 of our 290 flights to and from Irish airports on Thurs 12th. All customers on these flights have received text and email notification of these cancellations earlier today and our Customer Service teams are assisting them with refunds, free transfers to alternative flights on Thurs, or Wed, Fri and Sat. For customers travelling to the UK we will also be assisting them with alternative transport on comparable operators (both flights & ferries) where there is some limited space available.

3. Customers who are travelling on a Ryanair flight to/from Ireland on Thursday, July 12 and who have not already received an email or text notification, then we expect their flight to operate and they should check in as normal at their departure airport on Thursday July 12.

4. We apologise to our Irish customers for these regrettable disruptions which we have done our utmost to avoid.

In addition, the company made this announcement on social media:

ATC Update – French, German, Spanish and UK ATC staff shortages have caused delays to 91 (21%) of our 436 first wave of flight departures this morning. We sincerely regret these unjustified delays and are doing our utmost to limit their impact on flights throughout the rest of today. Customers on impacted flights have been notified by SMS text and email.

Top Copyright Photo: Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS WL EI-FZF (msn 44779) DUB (Michael Kelly). Image: 937323.

Ryanair aircraft slide show:

Video:

Ryanair: Air Traffic Control (ATC) strikes are destroying air traffic and economies across Europe

Ryanair has made this dire statement about the on-going ATC strikes in Europe:

An alarming increase in Air Traffic Control (ATC) strikes across Europe has wreaked havoc on airlines, their passengers and business. 2018 is shaping up to be one of the worst years ever for ATC strikes in Europe. Year-to-date, A4E member airlines have been forced to cancel nearly 5,000 flights as a result of the strikes, directly impacting around 784,000 passengers across Europe. In addition, millions of travellers have been affected by flight delays caused by airspace diversions and residual backups.

According to Eurocontrol, 39,000 flights – around 30 per cent of the total en-route delays in May- were delayed due to ATC strikes. In addition, Eurocontrol projects total delay minutes for 2018 will be up by 53 per cent compared to 2017 as a result of strikes and capacity shortages (14.3 million in 2018 versus 9.3 million minutes in 2017).

ATC strikes have a costly impact on customers, European economies and the environment. They breach the principle of allowing people and goods to move freely across Europe, because:

Customers’ journeys and supply chains are severely disrupted.
Diversions to avoid closed air space result in much longer flights and burn more fuel, resulting in higher CO2 emissions.
Tourism is most affected due to cancelled flights to prime holiday destinations, putting small and medium size businesses at risk.
Airlines have to pay passengers compensation for the delays and rebook them on other flights, significantly disrupting customers’ travel plans and the airlines’ operations. Airlines don’t have the right to recover these costs from the ATC providers who have caused them.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed that the economic cost of ATC strikes in the EU between 2010-2017 was €13.4 billion*. Last summer, the European Commission said that since 2005 there have been around 357 air traffic control strikes in the EU, 254 of which have occurred in France (*).

Willie Walsh, IAG’s chief executive, said: “IAG and Ryanair are planning to submit a complaint to the European Commission as ATC strikes represent the biggest challenge for our industry. They are destroying European air traffic and having a huge impact on consumers. It’s a really frustrating cause of disruption that affects all airlines but in particular has a significant negative impact on Spain’s tourism and economy. Continuous strikes by ATC staff in Marseille have a disproportionate impact on those airlines flying from Barcelona because they control flights over most of the Mediterranean airspace. For Vueling this means that 50 per cent of its flights are affected. The EU must act now to protect the rights of the consumers and prevent long term damage to European economies”.

Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s chief executive, said: “These disruptions are unacceptable, and we call on the Governments, and the EU Commission to take urgent and decisive action to ensure that ATC providers are fully staffed and that overflights are not affected when national strikes take place, as they repeatedly do in France.

“Europe’s ATC providers are approaching the point of meltdown with hundreds of flights being cancelled daily either because of ATC strikes or because Europe’s ATC don’t have enough staff. The situation is particularly acute at weekends where British and German ATC providers are hiding behind adverse weather and euphemisms such as “capacity restrictions” when the truth is they are not rostering enough ATC staff to cater for the number of flights that are scheduled to operate.

“Urgent action must now be taken by the UK and German Governments, and the EU Commission, otherwise thousands more flights and millions of passengers will be disrupted, particularly in the peak months of July and August, unless this ATC staffing crisis is addressed”.

In response to the continued ATC strike disruptions, A4E has proposed a mandatory 72-hour individual notification period for employees wishing to strike, protection of overflights while ensuring it does not come to the detriment of local services, and a guarantee on minimum services to be provided.

IAG and Ryanair’s complaint will argue that by not adequately protecting flights over France, EU law is infringed.

“We have been working constructively and quite intensively over the last several months with French government officials and Parliamentarians to establish a stable and long-term solution to these disruptions. In this context, we urge the French government to take decisive action to resolve this issue on behalf of all our passengers, ahead of this summer’s busy travel season”, said Thomas Reynaert, Managing Director, A4E.

Consumers can also demand swifter action by EU politicians by signing A4E’s online petition: www.keepeuropesskiesopen.com. The petition will be presented to the relevant authorities in Brussels and EU capitals by the end of 2018.

Link to PriceWaterhouseCoopers Study on the Economic Impact of ATC Strikes in the EU: https://a4e.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/A4E-Economic-Impact-ATC-Strikes-Final-Report_160929-vf.pdf

Link to commission des finances du Sénat’s report.

ATC Update for today:

ATC Update – German ATC staff shortages have caused delays to 48 (11%) of our 435 first wave of flight departures this morning. Thunderstorms have also caused delays in Portugal. We sincerely regret these delays and are doing our utmost to limit their impact on flights throughout the rest of today. Customers on impacted flights have been notified by SMS text and email.

Copyright Photo: Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS WL EI-FIT (msn 44703) (Lanzarote – A Unique Island) LIS (Ton Jochems). Image: 940738.

Ryanair aircraft slide show:

Ryanair to open a new Southend base in the summer of 2019

Ryanair on June 13 announced it will open a new base at London Southend Airport, from April 2019, with three based Boeing 737-800 aircraft and 13 new routes to 8 countries, including Alicante (5 weekly), Barcelona Reus (twice-weekly), Bilbao (4 weekly), Brest (twice-weekly), Corfu (twice-weekly), Cluj (3 weekly), Dublin (twice-daily), Faro (5 weekly), Kosice (3 weekly), Malaga (5 weekly), Milan Bergamo (4 weekly), Palma de Mallorca (4 weekly) and Venice (4 weekly), which will deliver 1 million guests annually at London Southend Airport.

Top Copyright Photo: Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS WL EI-FIM (msn 61576) BUD (Tony Storck). Image: 940737.

Ryanair aircraft slide show:

Ryanair, ANPAC and ANPAV sign first recognition agreement for Italian Based Cabin Crew

Ryanair on June 6 confirmed that it has signed its first cabin crew union recognition agreement with ANPAC and ANPAV, who will be the representative body for Ryanair directly employed cabin crew in Italy. This agreement follows extensive negotiations with ANPAC and ANPAV since Ryanair’s December 2017 announcement that it was willing to recognise Unions for collective bargaining purposes.

Ryanair welcomed the constructive engagement of ANPAC and ANPAV which led to the signing of this first cabin crew recognition agreement, in Italy, which currently accounts for over 80 of Ryanair’s 400+ aircraft fleet and approx. 20% of Ryanair’s cabin crew. Ryanair looks forward to working with ANPAC and ANPAV and its newly elected Ryanair (Cabin Crew) Company Council to conclude an early CLA for our directly employed cabin crew based in Italy.

Ryanair’s Chief People Officer Eddie Wilson said:

“We are pleased to announce this recognition agreement with ANPAC and ANPAV on behalf of our directly employed cabin crew in Italy. This is our first cabin crew union recognition agreement (which follows recognition agreements with pilot unions in the UK and Italy earlier this year) and further demonstrates Ryanair’s progress on recognising and negotiating with unions across Europe for our people. We are making good progress with other cabin crew unions across Europe and we hope to sign more recognition agreements with both pilot and cabin crew unions in the coming weeks.”

Ryanair aircraft slide show: