Ryanair on April 2 officially opened its new base at London Southend with three Boeing 737-800 aircraft and kicked off its summer 19 schedule with 14 new routes, including exciting new connections to Alicante, Corfu, Faro and Milan Bergamo.
In other news, Ryanair, on April 1 also celebrated the first flight on its new twice-weekly Liverpool service to Copenhagen. Ryanairโs Liverpool summer schedule includes 34 routes in total, with three new routes to Corfu, Paphos and Copenhagen.
Finally, Ryanair on April 3 celebrated the first flight on its new twice weekly Cardiff service to Malta. Ryanairโs Cardiff summer schedule includes 5 routes in total, with three new routes to Malta, Barcelona and Malaga.
Ryanair on October 19 announced that it has signed an agreement with the Portuguese pilot union SPAC, which will provide for seniority and base transfer agreements, to cover all of Ryanairโs directly employed pilots in Portugal. Negotiations with SPAC on a full CLA under Portuguese Law with local contracts will now commence before the end of October.
Ryanair also this week signed similar agreements with BALPA in the UK and ANPAC in Italy covering all of Ryanairโs directly employed UK and Italian Pilots. Following negotiations in Madrid this week,ย Ryanair also expects to sign a recognition agreement with Spanish pilot union SEPLA shortly, which will pave the way for rapid negotiations on a CLA, and under Spanish law.
Ryanairโs Chief People Officer, Eddie Wilson said:
โThese signed agreements with our pilot unions in Portugal, the UK, Italyย and shortly in Spain, demonstrate the considerable progress weโre making in concluding union agreements with our people in our major EU markets.
The recent wave of airline failures in Europe including Primera Air, Cobalt, Air Azur, and Small Planet (GER), as well as base closures/cuts announced by many of Europeโs major airlines in response to higher oil prices and lower air fares, have given a significant stimulus to these union negotiations over recent weeks. Ryanairโs pilots and cabin crew recognise that they enjoy better pay, better rosters, and significantly better job security than their counterparts at many other EU airlines, and we for our part, are recognising and working with unions to conclude agreements which address the major issues of concern to our pilots and cabin crew in all our major EU markets.
I expect that these agreements in Spain, and Portugal in particular, will encourage the cabin crew unions in both those countries to remove competitor airline employees (who have been blocking progress) and to quickly conclude cabin crew agreements in those countries, as thatโs what our Portuguese and Spanish cabin crew are now demanding.โ
In other news, Ryanairย launched its Cardiff Summer 2019 schedule with 2 new routes to Barcelona and Malta and 4 routes in total, as it doubles its Cardiff traffic.
The first Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, touched down on May 1 at Cardiff Airport, where it was welcomed with a celebratory water cannon salute (below) and greeted by the Mayor of the Vale of Glamorgan, Ms. Janice Charles. The new service will connect Cardiff to more than 150 business and leisure destinations worldwide.
On board the inaugural flight to Cardiff, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, was joined by Secretary of State for Wales, Mr. Alun Cairns, The First Minister of Wales, Mr. Carwyn Jones, the United Kingdom Ambassador to the State of Qatar, Mr. Ajay Sharma and Chairman of Cardiff Airport, Mr. Roger Lewis.
To celebrate this special occasion, the award-winning airline flew its ultra-modern Airbus A350-900 to Cardiff, providing VIP guests the opportunity to experience the state-of-the-art aircraft. This was the first time a commercial passenger Airbus A350-900 aircraft, whose wings are built by Airbus in Wales, has landed on Welsh soil. Going forward, Qatar Airways will operate its daily Cardiff service with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which has a two-class configuration including 22 seats in Business Class offering passengers direct aisle access with its 1-2-1 configuration, as well as 232 seats in Economy Class.
The launch of the new route to Cardiff is Qatar Airwaysโ first-ever service to Wales, providing passengers enhanced connectivity to the Middle East, Asia and Australia, with seamless connections to Sydney, Hong Kong, China, Melbourne and many more attractive business and leisure destinations.
Qatar Airways currently serves London Heathrow, Manchester, Birmingham, and Edinburgh, with service to London Gatwick to commence on May 22, 2018.
The airline last month revealed a raft of forthcoming global destinations in line with its expedited expansion plans, including the announcement that Qatar Airways will be the first Gulf carrier to begin direct service to Luxembourg. Other exciting new destinations to be launched by the airline include Tallinn, Estonia; Valletta, Malta; Langkawi, Malaysia; Da Nang, Vietnam; Bodrum and Antalya, Turkey; Mykonos, Greece and Mรกlaga, Spain.
Flybe Group Plc (Exeter) reported a pre-tax loss for its full fiscal yearย of ยฃ35.6 million ($55 million) for the fiscal year ending on March 31, down from a pre-tax profit of ยฃ8.1 million ($12.5 million) for the previous fiscal year.
Flybe blamed its massive loss on having more Embraer E-Jets than it needs. It also blamed the loss of the costly disposal of its Finnish joint venture.
In other news,ย Flybe on June 1 opened its second base in less than a month, this time at Cardiff Airport, with passengers boarding inaugural flights to Edinburgh, Paris and Dublin as part of its extended route network that includes brand new routes to Cork, Duesseldorf, Faro, Glasgow, Munich, and Milan.
The first of the two 118-seat Embraer 195 aircraft to be based at the airport jetted into Cardiff to begin operations.
The 10-year agreement secured with Cardiff Airport creates an additional half-million extra seats for sale each year, supporting 50 new jobs that includes flight crew. Last month, Flybe opened another new two-aircraft base at Bournemouth with Bombardier Q400 aircraft.
Copyright Photo: Rob Skinkis/AirlinersGallery.com.ย Flybe Embraer ERJ 190-200LR (ERJ 195) G-FBEA (msn 19000029) arrives in Manchester.
Flybe (Exeter) has announced 11 new routes from itโs newest base: Cardiff.
The new network connects the Welsh capital to Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh, Faro, Glasgow, Munich, Milan and Paris (CDG) and will create 50 new jobs including flight crew and ground handling staff.
The routes will be operated by two of the carrierโs Embraer ERJ 195 aircraft.ย One of these 118-seat aircraft will arrive at Cardiff in June and the second in September 2015.
Flybe currently operates from Cardiff to Belfast, Jersey and Dusseldorf.
Copyright Photo: SM Fitzwilliams Collection/AirlinersGallery.com.ย Embraer ERJ 190-200LR (ERJ 195) G-FBEM (msn 19000204) prepares to depart from Dublin.
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