Tag: Lufthansa (Page 8 of 8)

Ryanair, its pilots, and Niki

December 15, 2017 / WIL BALDWIN

Facing the imminent threat of a strike by its pilots, Ryanair has offered for the first time in its 32-year history to recognize the rights of its pilots to unionize. The action is a last ditch effort to avert a planned pilot strike scheduled to take place on December 20. Ryanair had previously refused to recognize unions as part of its ultra low-cost model, which has helped to turn the small Irish regional airline into one of Europe’s largest air carriers. “Recognizing unions will be a significant change for Ryanair, but we have delivered radical change before,” Chief executive Michael O’Leary said in a statement. “We hope and expect that these structures can and will be agreed with by our pilots early in the new year.”

Ryanair pilots in several countries were threatening strike actions in the days leading up to the Christmas Holidays. Strikes had already been scheduled to take place in Ireland, Italy, and Portugal. The Irish based company stated that it had sent a letter to unions in Britain, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain this morning. The letter stated that the airline was ready to hold talks to formally recognize the unions, and asked for confirmation that the planned industrial actions would be canceled. The pilots have been angered by Ryanair following the announcement of 20,000 flight cancellations that began in September, and are expected to extend into March of 2018. The airline blamed the cancellations on a lack of standby pilots due to a rostering error that followed rule changes by Irish regulators. Pilots have stated that Ryanair is facing a major staffing shortage, a claim that management has repeatedly denied.

In other news today, Ryanair has stated that it is looking into buying the assets of insolvent Austrian leisure airline Niki. Niki was formerly part of the now insolvent carrier Air Berlin, which is seeking a new buyer after Lufthansa decided to drop its bid for those assets two days ago. The airline wants to look into the possibility of using Niki’s take-off and landing slots at Berlin’s Tegel Airport to operate a 9 or 10 aircraft base at the airport. “At first look, Niki’s Tegel slot portfolio would be woefully inadequate to support a nine-aircraft base but we will review the utility of Niki’s slots as their availability becomes clearer,” Ryanair said in an email statement. The rest of the Air Berlin assets were divided amongst Lufthansa and European low-cost carrier EasyJet.

Air Berlin collapses into bankruptcy

October 20, 2017 / WIL BALDWIN

Air Berlin, Germany’s second largest airline, officially filed for bankruptcy protection on August 15, 2017. The move came after its main shareholder, Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi, stated it would no longer make any financing available for the struggling discount carrier. Etihad had purchased roughly 29% of the airline in December of 2011. The airline consistantly lost money while it carried around 80,000 passengers per day. Air Berlin was able to secure a 150 million euro loan from the German government to continue flying until the end of October 2017.

Lufthansa has emerged as the main winner in the bankruptcy filing, agreeing to purchase more than half of Air Berlin’s assets. The German flag carrier will pay around €210 million to buy 81 of Air Berlin’s planes, as well as agreeing to take on 3,000 of 8,500 employees. Lufthansa will also acquire Air Berlin subsidaries Niki, an Austrian leisure travel airline, and regional airline LG Walter. Reports have stated that the 81 planes being added to Lufthansa’s fleet was the maximum that regulators would allow.

In other Air Berlin news, the pilots of a flight from Miami to Dusseldorf have been suspended. The suspension followed a fly-by of the control tower in Dusseldorf before the plane landed, similar to the stunt pulled by “Maverick” in the Hollywood movie “Top Gun”. Before the flight landed, the Airbus A330 jet flew low across the runway, then banked around sharply to the left before landing on its second approach. Video of the fly-by can be seen in the video link below.

Air Berlin Fly-By

Alitalia, national flag airline of Italy, reports 2015 net loss

May 3, 2016 / WIL BALDWIN

Alitalia, the national flag airline of Italy, reported a net loss for 2015 of €199 million. That was down from a loss of €580 million in 2014, as the SkyTeam alliance member confirmed its turn around is still on track. Alitalia plans to return to profitability by 2017, as it works to execute the company’s three year turnaround plan. Alitalia reported total revenue for 2015 of €3.3 billion, and an average flight load factor of 76.2% for the fiscal year. The company is focusing on efforts to improve its service, update its aircraft fleet and route networks, and reduce operating losses.

Alitalia still facing headwinds in its restructuring

Alitalia is still facing some very considerable headwinds as it seeks a return to profitability. There was a fire that broke out at the Rome Fiumicino International Airport on May 7, 2015. This fire caused major damage to the facilities, and caused severe disruptions in operations that are estimated to have cost the airline €80 million. This fire also resulted in my wife and I almost missing our Lufthansa flight from Rome to Munich on the 11th of May. Our flights departure was relocated to Terminal 2 from Terminal 3, where the Lufthansa ticket counter was located. It also appeared that the agents at the ticket counter were engaged in a work slow down. The line hardly moved until about 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Then, they rushed us all through, telling us we now had to go out and over to the other terminal to catch our flight. Some other issues that Alitalia has faced included the suspension of their route between Rome and Caracas. The airline pulled the plug on that route as a result of the Venezuelan government’s refusal to allow the repatriation of foreign currency from their country. They also suffered decreased load factors on their Paris routes following the terrorist attacks on the “City of Lights”.

There are positives that Alitalia reported. These include rising revenue from the airlines codeshare partnerships. The biggest of these partners is Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi. The two carriers shared more than 450,000 passengers between their two networks in the last fiscal year. Etihad Airways bought a 49% stake in Alitalia in 2014 for €387.5 million. Another big partner for the Italian air carrier is Air Berlin. Those two carriers are working to improve their network connections across Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. On time performance also rose to 80.2%, and the airlines share of the Italian air travel market rose to 30%.

1 Euro = 1.16 US Dollar

Version 2

Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicino Airport

Lufthansa delays new flights from San Jose to Frankfurt

February 4, 2016 / WIL BALDWIN

Lufthansa has confirmed a 2 month delay to its launch of a new daily nonstop flight from San Jose, California to Frankfurt, Germany. Frankfurt is just 1 of the 3 new international destinations planning to launch from the Silicon Valley airport this year. The flights were suppose to begin on April 29, but have been delayed until July 1. No specific reasons was given for the delay, but the airline stated “With the higher demand of summer bookings, Lufthansa expects to extend the time for ticket sales”. This sounds like the flights maybe were extremely under booked.

Lufthansa

Ryanair, its pilots, and Niki

Air Berlin collapses into bankruptcy

Alitalia, national flag airline of Italy, reports 2015 net loss

Alitalia still facing headwinds in its restructuring

Lufthansa delays new flights from San Jose to Frankfurt

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