Tag Archives: TFS

Ryanair to further expand in Germany at Cologne/Bonn

Ryanair (Dublin) is doubling its Cologne/Bonn traffic as it launches seven new routes, including a four-times daily service to/from Berlin (Schoenefeld), as part of its Cologne Winter 2015/16 schedule (17 routes in total).

Besides Berlin, the new routes include Copenhagen (once daily), Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) (weekly), Milan (Malpensa) (twice-daily), Porto (four times weekly), Valencia (three times weekly) and Warsaw (daily).

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 737-8AS EI-DMO (msn 40283) with special Podkarpackie Travel markings prepares to land at Tenerife Sur.

Ryanair aircraft slide show:

Norwegian’s pilots end their strike after 11 days

Norwegian Air Shuttle (Norwegian Air Norway) (Norwegian.com) (Oslo) has announced the devastating strike by its pilots, represented by the Norwegian Pilots Association (NPU), is over after 11 days of strikes. The airline today is attempting to get back to a normal schedule and will transport the affected passengers.

Norwegian CEO Bjorn Kjos stated “Norwegian has gone far to get a solution to the conflict which lasted for 11 days”. According to the company (translated from Norwegian);

“For Norwegian it has been important to enter into contracts that give the board and management the right to continue to build a modern group structure that makes the company competitive internationally. It also has been central to the negotiations to not sacrifice the commercial management and the ability to adapt the company in an industry that is constantly changing. The company has introduced the collective defined contribution pension even for pilots, a reduced Loss of Licence (LOL) insurance and some increased flexibility in working hours.

The Scandinavian pilots have received a new collective agreement with conditions that remain among the best in the industry. The agreement has been concluded with the pilot companies they are now employed. Norwegian has also sent a special employment guarantee for all pilots who are employed in Scandinavia today. Such a guarantee is unique in Scandinavian workplace and in a competitive industry like the aviation industry. Employment guarantee is the collective agreement and applies until October 2017.”

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. A dramatic photo of Boeing 737-86N LN-NOJ (msn 37884) landing at volcanic Tenerife Sur (TFS) in the Canary Islands.

Norwegian aircraft slide show:

Norwegian’s pilots continue to strike as talks fail

Norwegian Air Shuttle (Norwegian Air Norway) (Norwegian.com) (Oslo) continues to face a strike by its pilots after overnight mediated talks on a new collective agreement failed. The strike today enters the eighth day. The strike by its pilots, represented by the NPU and labor group Parat, will continue indefinitely. As a result Norwegian is canceling today all flights in Norway and Sweden and most flights between the Scandinavian capitals.

Norwegian issued a statement (translated from Norwegian):

“Norwegian has submitted several proposals that provide all the Scandinavian pilots job security, employment guarantee for three years, to keep their good wage conditions and not the least, their ties with the parent company. Therefore it is extremely sad that it was not possible to reach an agreement with Norwegian Pilot Union (NPU) and Parat with the national mediator. The strike continues, unfortunately indefinitely.

Norwegian deeply regrets that the strike will continue and that travelers, employees and others are affected. After many hours of negotiations on Friday night to Saturday, both sides failed to reach a solution. Norwegian wants an end to the strike and has gone a long way economically to end the strike and bring peace to the Group. The company has submitted written guarantees to the NPU on key points that job security, job security, and to become attached to the group.”

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 737-81D LN-NOR (msn 39412) completes the final approach into beautiful Tenerife Sur (Tenerife South Airport) in the Canary Islands.

Norwegian aircraft slide show:

Ryanair to make Berlin Schonefeld its 73rd base

Ryanair (Dublin) has announced it will open a new base at Berlin (Schonefeld), its 73rd base, from October with five based Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Ryanair will launch 16 new routes (22 in total) as part of its Berlin Winter 2015 schedule, which will grow Ryanair’s Berlin traffic to 2.6 million customers a year.

16 new routes include: Alicante, Athens, Barcelona, Bari, Bologna, Bratislava, Brussels, Glasgow, Madrid, Malaga, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca, Riga, Rome (Ciampino), Venice and Valencia.

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 737-8AS EI-EVH (msn 40290) prepares to land at Tenerife Sur.

Ryanair aircraft slide show:

Ryanair announces its 72nd base in the Azores

Ryanair (Dublin) has announced a new base at Ponta Delgada Airport in the Azores. The Azores will be the Irish budget carrier’s 72nd base, and fourth in Portugal. Ryanair released the following statement:

“Ryanair, Europe’s favorite low fares airline, today announced it will open its fourth Portuguese base in the Azores from April 2015 with one based Boeing 737-800 and three new routes to London Stansted, Lisbon and Porto.”

The ultra low-cost carrier is also in discussions with the government of the Azores about possible services to Terceira and additional international flights to the islands.

In other news, ch-aviation is reporting Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has revealed that the carrier is planning to lease seven aircraft to cover next year’s summer high season.

The airline currently operates 302 Boeing 737-800s on flights covering 180 destinations scattered throughout Europe and North Africa.

This year, the carrier wet leased four Boeing 737-400s, split between AirExplore (Bratislava) and Air Contractors (Dublin), three Boeing 737-800s from flydubai (Dubai), and a maiden Airbus A320-200 from defunct Italian carrier Livingston Compania Aerea (2nd) (Milan), for the duration of the summer

Reported by Oliver Wilcock, Assistant Editor, from Manchester.

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 737-8AS EI-EXE (msn 40321) gracefully climbs away from Tenerife Sur.

Ryanair aircraft slide show:

http://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-Europe-3/Airlines-Europe3-QZ/Ryanair

Greybull Capital is the preferred bidder to acquire Monarch Holdings Limited

Monarch Group (Monarch Airlines) has announced Greybull Capital LLP is the preferred bidder to acquired the group. The company has also announced that the various labor groups have agreed to major concessions to make the acquisition possible. The group issued these two statements:

The Board of Monarch Holdings Limited has announced that Greybull Capital LLP is the preferred bidder to acquire Monarch from the Group’s shareholders, principally the Mantegazza family.

Greybull is a family office with a focus on investing in private companies across a diversified range of industry sectors. Greybull backs incumbent management teams to support and invest into established businesses and brands and creates long-term sustainable and profitable businesses. It views an investment in Monarch as a long-term opportunity in a very strong brand with great potential in all of its markets, and intends to be supportive shareholders throughout Monarch’s next chapter.

Completion of a deal remains subject to the successful outcome of ongoing negotiations, whereupon Greybull intends to provide significant capital to Monarch in order to grow the Group and to capitalize on the long established and trusted brand name.

Conditional upon the successful conclusion of these negotiations with Monarch stakeholders, a transaction is expected to complete towards the end of October.

The Monarch Group has also confirmed that each of its staff groups has agreed to major concessions on pay and terms and conditions as part of its plan to evolve into a leading scheduled European low-cost airline.

Following supportive discussions with union representatives of BAPLA, the pilots union, and UNITE, which represents its cabin crew and engineers, staff were balloted on the proposed changes and on average more than 90% voted in favour, with a proportionately high level of staff deciding to vote.

Results showed pilots voted 96% in favor with over 90% of cabin crew voting yes and engineers at Monarch Aircraft Engineering Limited (MAEL) also voting 88.43% in favor.

The changes impact all areas of the business and involve concessions of up to 30% in salaries, as well as changes to working patterns and other conditions.

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A321-231 G-OZBO (msn 1207) prepares to land at Tenerife Sur.

Monarch Airlines:

Germania to create a Swiss subsidiary to fly for Hotelplan

Germania Fluggesellschaft (Berlin) will create a new Swiss subsidiary to be based in Zurich. Operations will commence in March 2015 with one Airbus A319 for tour operator Hotelplan according to Aero.de. The new unnamed subsidiary is currently going through the AOC process as a Swiss airline.

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-112 D-ASTZ (msn 3019) departs from the lunar landscape of Tenerife Sur in the the Canary Islands.

Germania:

Jet2 expands at Newcastle and Belfast for the summer of 2015

Jet2.com (Jet2holidays) (Leeds/Bradford) is continuing its growth at Newcastle International Airport with the launch of four brand new destinations for the summer of 2015. The discount airline will launch new routes from NCL to Antalya (Turkey) (weekly, May 22), Larnaca (Cyprus) (weekly May 27), Malta (weekly May 21) and Zante (Zakinthos) (weekly May 27).

The company has also announced a significant expansion plans at Belfast International Airport, including new routes, an additional aircraft plus even more seats for the summer of 2015. The new routes include Prague and Rome and the sunshine hotspots of Gran Canaria and Zante.

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 757-27B G-LSAE (msn 24135) in the Jet2holidays livery (which is based on Allegiant Air’s color scheme) departs from Tenerife Sur. The 757 was previously painted in a promotional livery for Newcastle International Airport when they celebrated 75 years .

Jet2:

Ryanair to launch new Manchester winter services

Ryanair (Dubin) has announced it will launch a new Manchester winter route to/from Shannon as part of an extended Manchester winter 2014 schedule, with 24 routes in total, including four other new routes to Barcelona, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Lisbon and extra frequencies to Madrid, Riga and Rome.

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 737-8AS EI-DPK (msn 33610) arrives for landing at Tenerife Sur.

Ryanair:

U.S. and European carriers are resuming flights to Israel

EasyJet (easyJet.com) (UK) (London-Luton) has issued this statement about its flights to Israel:

The safety and security of easyJet’s passengers and crew is the airline’s highest priority. ‎

Due to the FAA lifting its instruction to all United States’ airlines to suspend their flights to Israel, and the European safety regulator EASA following suit, easyJet will operate its services to and from Tel Aviv as scheduled from Friday July 25.

easyJet will also operate one return flight this afternoon between London Gatwick and Tel Aviv. ‎

easyJet will continue to monitor the safety advice on travel to and from Tel Aviv from all relevant authorities.

easyJet flies to and from Tel Aviv from the UK, Switzerland, Germany and Italy.

Bloomberg Businessweek: How Israel convinced international airlines to return to Tel Aviv: CLICK HERE

EasyJet (UK):