EI-EBX joins Ryanair fleet

With an alphabet almost delivered this year so far, Ryanair's latest 737, EI-EBX arrived in Dublin at lunchtime yesterday arriving from Seattle via a fuel stop in Iceland. EI-EBX is msn 35007, hex code 4CA73F.

Posted 090430

EI-CRK becomes VQ-BCW

Former Aer Lingus A330 EI-CRK was re registered VQ-BCW of Vladivostok Avia at Shannon this morning. The aircraft arrived in Shannon from Bordeaux on Monday last, having been painted in full Vladivostok Avia colours at Filton during the first week of March.

Posted 090430

Ryanair in talks to revive assistance fund

Ryanair have held talks with Scottish Enterprise in an effort to bring back a fund which supported direct flights in and out of Scotland. Up to two years ago Scotland operated a Route Development fund (RDF) which gave cash to airlines to open up routes which would have been otherwise deemed uneconomic. The scheme was scrapped after the EU ruled it illegal. Scottish Enterprise has now examined the decision of the European Court of First Instance which last December ruled in Ryanair's favour in the infamous "is-it-or-is-it-not-state-aid-case" in relation to Charleroi.  

Scottish Enterprise is evaluating if it can bring back the scheme in light of the decision. Ryanair claim that although route growth is happening in Scotland it is not happening as fast as it would were grant aid available.

Posted 090430

Ryanair announce new routes

Ryanair has announced a number of new routes.

From July the rapid expansion of the airline's presence in Edinburgh sees a new route linking the city with Haugesund on the west coast of Norway. The new serevice brings to 29 the number of routes served from Edinburgh, up from just 7 a year ago. Frequency on the Edinburgh - Bremen route is also being increased.

From July 1 Kaunas in Lithuania will get a new twice weekly service linking it with Bremen and from July 14 Malta get a new three times weekly service to Madrid, bring to 10 the number of routes served from Malta. 

Posted 090430

Aer Arann introduces paycuts but saves jobs

Aer Arann announced today that it was introducing an 7% pay cut for it's workforce with managerial salaries to fall by 17%. The airline did say however that it would not be making as many redundancies as previously announced. Last October Aer Arann were forecasting 100 redundancies, a figure which was reduced to 70 when it opened it's Isle of Man base. This figure has now been further reduced to 60 due to the success of it's cost cutting measures.

Posted 090428

Ryanair bottom of web list

UK based company Webcredible has issued it's annual Flights Online Report into airline and travel agent websites. The report which examined user experiences with 20 leading UK airlines and travel agencies rated the websites under a number of headings. Ryanair came bottom of the rankings with a score of 41% just below Monarch and Thomas Cook who tied with a score of 47%. 

British Airways came top of the pile with a score of 71% whilst Virgin Atlantic and Expedia came second with a score of 70%.

The websites were scored under the headings of Flight Search, Search Results and Flight summary, Booing Pages and Error Handling.

Posted 090428

Ryanair to give price comparison websites access to .com

Ryanair announced today that it will allow websites which perform price comparison only to access it's fare and timetable information for a nominal €100 annual fee payable to charity.

In the same statement the airline has once again reaffirmed it's intent to continue fighting against 'ticket tout' screenscrapers.

Posted 090428

Aer Lingus issues interim management statement

Aer Lingus today issued an Interim Management Statement to cover the three months ended March 31 and also announced a reorganisation of it's senior management as part of it's approach to meet the challenges of a deteriorating market.

For the period Q1 2009 (01/01 to 31/03) revenue fell 16% YoY while passenger numbers fell 6.5% YoY. Revenue per passenger fell 9.6% YoY. The airline blamed a deepening recession in Ireland and a declining demand on it's US routes for the fall in revenue.

Comparing short haul and long haul the YoY Q1 numbers look like :

Short  Long

Passenger numbers -05.7% -12.5%

Capacity in available seat kms -04.5% -19.5%

Load Factor 70.1% 67.1%

Change in Load Factor +01.4% +03.2%

Average airfare -10.8% -18.9%

The famed Aer Lingus cash pile has taken a hammering in the period also, dropping 9.2% since December 31 2008 to €593.6m. A charge of €80m has been taken for restructuring costs and also for a final payment on an A330 aircraft. 

As a result of the worsening situation, the company is currently reviewing it's long and short haul fleet requirements and scheduling. A further update in relation to capacity and capital expenditure will be issued on June 5 2009.

In it's outlook for the remainder of 2009, Aer Lingus expects that the average fare trend for the year will be worse than previously forecast and as a result "it is currently expected that the loss for the 2009 full year will be materially below the bottom of the range of current market expectations."

In order to meet the challenges of the current market the airline has announced a number of management changes.

Niall Walsh, currently Deputy CEO will assume the role of Chief Operating Officer with responsibility for all of the Group's ground and flight operations, procurement and airport bases.

Sean Coyle, currently Chief financial Officer has been appointed as Head of the Group's short haul operations with additional responsibility for IT, e-commerce and ancillary revenue.

Stephen Kavanagh has been appointed as Head of the Group's long haul operations with added responsibility for cargo operations, strategic alliances and resource planning.

Commenting on  RTE Radio, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary poured scorn on the management restructuring program saying that it amounted to "rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic."

In relation to Ryanair's 29.8% shareholding in Aer Lingus he said that he didn't anticipate a third Ryanair bid for Aer Lingus. "The next time the government will have to come ask us to rescue Aer Lingus."

Shares in Aer Lingus closed today, down 19% at €0.56.

Posted 090428

JetBird launch new website and livery

JetBird the new pan European air taxi operator headquartered in Dublin has launched a new website, brand and livery in the lead up to it taking to the air later this year. The operator is due to start operations from Koln-Bonn in September of this year using Embraer Phenom-100 aircraft.

Over the course of 2009 the website (flyjetbird.com) will be further developed to incorporate an on-line flight booking system with the ability to book events, package deals and other services such as car rental and hotels. A German language version of the website will launch in May 2009.

Commenting on the launch of the new look site and launch of the company's livery, Mr. Stefan Vilner, CEO of JetBird said that “Despite the current challenging market environment, we are on schedule for a full commercial launch in September 2009 with four Jetbird Phenom 100 aircraft and 10 aircraft in total by the end of 2009."

Posted 090427

Lufthansa Airmotive workers accept NIB proposals

Workers at Lufthansa Airmotive in Rathcoole Co. Dublin have accepted a deal which looks to have secured employment for the future. Last week the company placed the 465 workers at the plant on protective notice following the failure of the employees to accept new work practices. The National Implementation Body (NIB) presented proposals to the workers which were accepted.

Tupolev Tu204 CU-C1703 delivered to Cubana

Cubana has taken delivery of another Tu204 aircraft. CU-C1703, msn 1450744764037 arrived in Shannon this lunchtime from Moscow Domodedovo airport for a fuel stop in preparation for it's onwards journey to Gander and Havana.

The aircraft registration carries the 'C' prefix to the numerical part of the registration as identifying the aircraft as "Cargo", although that should be fairly obvious from the livery !

CU-C1703 may have been originally intended for sale to North Korea as it carries hex code 7277A8. The aircraft is ADS-B equipped and showed flight number LX9121 as opposed to it's actual designation CUB1461.

Pictured above, CU-C1703 prepares to land on R24.

Posted 090427

German Navy Atlantic 16+03 visits Shannon

Shannon had a most unusual visit in the shape of a German Navy (Bundesmarine) Breguet Br1150 Atlantique 2, serial 61+03. Based at Marienefliegerhorst (Naval Air Station) Nordholz, north of Bremen, 61+03 is one of only two or three Atlantique aircraft remaining in service with the German Navy until January next year. Since 2005 the primary anti submarine warfare role has been fulfilled by Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft acquired from the Dutch Navy.

Pictured above, GNY 4750, 61+03 prepares to land on R24 for a fuel stop on it's west bound atlantic leg.

Posted 090427

EI-DND performs test flight for Axis

Former Futura B7237-86N EI-DND performed a test flight at Shannon today in the new colors of French operator Axis. The aircraft arrived in Shannon on St. Patrick's Day March 17 in full Futura colours. The aircraft is still marked EI-DND but used French transponder code 392232 for the flight which lasted just under 75 minutes. 

Earlier this week Axis took delivery of another former Futura B737 which has taken up marks F-GZZA. This latter aircraft is the former EC-KFB which became EI-ECN when it was repossessed by GECAS following the demise of Futura. 

Pictured above EI-DND lines up for departure off R24 at Shannon this lunchtime.

Posted 090424

DAA forecasts loss and cancels second runway for Dublin

The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) which manages the three state airports at Dublin, Cork and Shannon has forecast a loss for 2009 and an even higher loss in 2010 if current trends continue.

Speaking as the DAA published it's financial results for 2008, the Authorities Chief Executive Declan Collier said that traffic figures that "Passenger traffic is falling at our three airports in line with similar declines at airports throughout Europe". During 2008, passenger numbers fell marginally but in recent months the situation has worsened significantly with the company now forecasting an 11% decline in numbers for the year. As a result, the DAA has decided to reduce it's capital expenditure at Dublin Airport by 50% for the period 2010 to 2014, to less than €400m. Among the projects being mothballed are the second runway and additional aircraft parking spaces. The existing runway will now be repaired and taxiways which are up to 40 years old will be replaced.

The DAA has now said that "it is imperative" that the Commission for Aviation Regulation sanction a price increase in passenger charges to cover the cost of the projects being delivered at Dublin. 

T2 will now be completed in February 2010, twelve weeks behind schedule. The DAA has agreed with the main tenant of T2 (Aer Lingus) that the terminal will not be fully operational until November 2010 "to coincide with airline scheduling and allow for efficient commissioning and testing". 

Excluding exceptional items, the DAA made a profit of €78m for 2008, a 28% YoY decline over 2007. Combined passenger numbers at the three airports were down 0.6% YoY at 29.9m. 

Responding to today's results Ryanair called on the office of the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) to launch an urgent inquiry into the DAA monopoly as the airline believes that " DAA monopoly is yet again "gaming" the regulatory system".

In a four point criticism of the DAA, Ryanair has called on the Authority to explain "what it has done with the €800m proceeds it has received over the past two years from the sale of the Great Southern Hotels Group and it's investment in Birmingham, Dusseldorf and Hamburg Airports. Since these proceeds have not been used to pay down airport debts incurred by the DAA at Cork, Shannon or Dublin, the DAA must explain where this €800m has been squandered."

Posted 090424

Ryanair to cease operations at Niederrhein ?

On Wednesday of this week (April 22), Ryanair announced that it had ceased taking bookings for flights originating or arriving at Dusseldorf-Weeze (Niederrhein) airport affected by the decision of the Oberwervaltungsgericht (OVG) Court in Munster to limit the hours of operation at the airport. The airline said that it would review the situation with the airport and it's lawyers but confirmed that the base will close if the decision is not overturned by Wednesday next, April 29. 

Ryanair currently have 6 aircraft based at the airport and reckon that up to 2,500 jobs in the region depend on the Ryanair services to and from the airport. Weeze airport is located at the former RAF base of Laarburch and has been in civil operation since 2003. It's location is such that the south east Netherlands is better served by the airport than Dusseldorf proper.

In the past year Ryanair have shown a willingness to  pull out of airports where the local authorities have failed to live up to the airline's expectation so this week's threat cannot be taken idly.

Posted 090424

AAIU report into incident with G-FLTM

The Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) of the Department of Transport has issued it's report into a serious incident which occurred with Flightline MD-83 G-FLTM at Santry Cross in Dublin on August 16 2007 at 23.34 hrs.

On the day in question the aircraft was on it's third sector having positioned empty from Dublin to Belfast, flown Belfast - Lisbon and finally Lisbon - Dublin with 112 passengers and a crew of six. On the night of August 16 runway 10-28 at Dublin was closed for maintenance with Runway 34 being used for landing and takeoff. Although the crew were in possession of NOTAM paperwork which indicated the runway status, it was not until the crew listened to the Dublin ATIS on descent, that they were aware of the runway change, having assumed that R10-28 was the active. As a result, the aircraft was at Top of Descent later than required for a VOR-DME approach to R34.

The aircraft was cleared for a non precision approach to R34 but at 5nm from touchdown it veered left of track. This deviation was as the result of the crew misinterpreting the lighting on a 16 storey hotel building at Santry Cross as being the approach lights for R34. The aircraft continued to descend below the Minimum Descent Altitude (MDA) without visual identification of the landing runway.

Following hand over from Approach control to the Tower controller, the Approach controller noticed that the aircraft had deviated left. At the moment the aircraft descended below the MDA the Tower controller was distracted by a call from the ground maintenance crew working on R10-28, just as the aircraft commander called the Tower to query if the runway lighting was working ok. This radio transmission was made at the same time as the Approach Controller called the Tower on the intercom to warn of the aircraft's situation.

At an altitude of 580 ft AMSL and with the aircraft 200 ft above and 1,700 ft from the hotel, ATC instructed a go around, having identified the aircraft as being off track, and offered the crew a vectored approach to R16 where the aircraft landed safely without injury to crew or passengers.

In it's investigation the AAIU found that the incident had occurred for a number of reasons.

• The aircraft commander who was pilot not flying (PNF) had failed to ensure that company Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for non precision approaches was followed, allowing a visual approach from a height of 2,200ft.
• Extraneous lighting from Dublin city made it difficult to correctly identify the approach lighting to R34.
• The lighting on the sixteen storey hotel in Santry Cross resembled the red and white lighting of a simple approach lighting system.
• Poor communication between the pilots (Italian and Croatian) and poor Crew Resource Management assisted in allowing poor situational awareness develop.
• The final intervention by ATC although somewhat late was a primary factor in ensuring a safe outcome.

Three recommendations are made in the report -

• The aircraft operator to review it's CRM training. Flightline ceased ops in Decmber 2008. The administrators stated that they would not be taking any action in response to the recommendation
• The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) should review it's procedures for Tower manning levels during night ops or when maintenance is taking place
• That when considering it's guidelines for obstacle lighting in the vicinity of an aerodrome the IAA should consider the possibility of the lighting being mistaken for runway lighting. The IAA accepts this recommendation.

Pictured at top, G-FLTM lines up on R24 at Shannon, exactly two weeks before the incident on August 2, 2007.

Posted 090421

EI-EBV and EI-EBW join Ryanair fleet

After a very short hiatus deliveries have continued at Ryanair. The latest two B737-8AS aircraft arrived in Dublin this lunchtime. EI-EBV is msn 35009, hex code 4CA73D while EI-EBW is msn 35010 and hex code 4CA73E.

A320 D-ABDV to join airarabia.com as CN-NMB

After one week in the Lufthansa paint shop at Shannon, A320 D-ABDV has emerged in full airarabia.com colours, but still waering taped on registration D-ABDV. The aircraft, msn 3833 was delivered to Air Berlin on March 23 of this operating as BER100P but never entered revenue service. It arrived in Shannon as BER123P on April 12 from Paderborn and immediately entered the Lufthansa paint hangar. The aircraft emerged yesterday afternoon in the full colours of it's new operator. The aircraft will presumably become CN-NMB on delivery as the 'NMB' is visible under masking paint on the nosewheel doors. Pictured above D-ABDV sits on Taxiway 7 at lunchtime today.

Posted 090421

Aer Lingus launch phase 2 of LGW base

Aer Lingus launched phase two of it's Gatwick base yesterday with services commencing to Munich, Vienna and Nice. Over five hundred passengers travelled on the three sectors according to the airline. As a publicity stunt to launch the latest expansion, the airline availed of the services of a Royal-look-alike who boarded the first flight to Munich.

The event was captured for Youtube and can be viewed below.

The final phase of the current Aer Lingus expansion takes place on April 26 when flights to Faro and Zurich commence.

Posted 090421

 

Ryanair introduce mobiles on Italian fleet

Ryanair have announced today that it has launched mobile phone services on five of it's Rome Ciampino based fleet. The services will be available to customers of all four Italian mobile service providers - TIM, 3 Italy, Vodafone Omnitel and Wind. Roaming charges are being set by the individual operators but range from €2 to €3 per minute for voice calls, €0.50+ for text and €2 to €3 for e mail. Speaking in Rome today CEO Michael O'Leary said that the latest move is part of the plan to have the entire Ryanair fleet mobile enabled over the next 18 months adding "We expect customer demand for this service to grow rapidly and hope that customers on all our flights will soon be able to call or text from 30,000 feet to tell loved ones about yet another on time Ryanair flight." He doesn't miss a beat !

Speaking at the same news conference O'Leary said that the airline expects to save €30m to €40m annually when on line check in becomes mandatory in October.

Posted 090421

Barrington rules himself out of contention for CE of Aer Lingus

The Irish Times reports today that acting Aer Lingus CEO Colm Barrington has confirmed that all costs are under review and the airline isn't waiting for Dermot Mannion's successor to be appointed before making decisions. Axing of routes is under consideration with loss making routes to the US most under threat as the airline puts it's expansion plans on hold in an attempt to survive the global recession. The paper reports that the selection of a new chief executive will take somewhere in the region of two to six months and one name that won't be on the list is Colm Barrington. He has ruled himself out of contention on the basis of age. 'It's a young person's job', Mr. Barrington is quoted as saying.

Posted 090417

Tui Respond to Ryanair

Tui UK has responded to Ryanair claims that it had screen scraped the latter's web site.

Ryanair had stated yesterday that the English High court had approved a 'Cease and Desist Agreement' signed by Tui UK on March 26 whereby Tui had agreed not to make bookings on the Ryanair web site.

However Tui said that it had never conducted screen scraping. It said it had offered customers a service whereby it would book flights on behalf of the customers on the Ryanair web site. It added that the service had been availed of by a very small number of customers and when the matter was highlighted by Ryanair it had decided to stop the practice. 'As a result Tui  did not feel that it was worthwhile contesting legal proceedings on the issue and was happy to sign an undertaking not to make any further bookings for customers on the Ryanair web site.'

Posted 090417

7T-WHB and 7T-WHD, Algerian Air Force visit Dublin

Dublin had two rather unusual and welcome military visitors this morning in the shape of two Lockheed C-130H-30 Hercules of the Algerian Air Force. The aircraft concerned were 7T-WHB, msn 5224 which was delivered in November 1990 and 7T-WHD, msn 4987 which is a much older version delivered in April 1984. 

The aircraft were in Dublin to collect horses and were scheduled to depart at 16.00z. Pictured at top 7T-WHB prepares to land on R10 at 07.56z and at bottom, 7T-WHD prepares to land, also on R10 at 08.20z. Both aircraft used the registration as callsign on arrival.

Posted 090416

Shannon Aerospace announce Jet Time contract

Copenhagen based charter operator Jet time has added a fifth aircraft to it's General Terms Agreement with Shannon Aerospace for the completion of C checks over the next two years. The first C check will take place later this year. Jet Time was founded in March 2006 and operates a fleet of B737-300 aircraft, one of which was a long term resident with Shannon Aerospace as RP-C4010 with Philipinne Airlines back in 2005.

Posted 090416

Tui UK agrees to end screenscraping of Ryanair website

Ryanair confirmed today that Tui UK had agreed to end the practice of so called screenscraping in settlement of legal proceedings filed by Ryanair against the travel company. On March 26 Tui signed a Cease and Desist agreement after it agreed not to make any more bookings on the Ryanair website. The agreement was subsequently approved by the English High Court. 

Posted 090416

UK CAA traffic figures for March

The UK CAA has published traffic figures for March 2009.

The key Ireland - London area airports all show strong Year on Year decline in numbers for the month. Easter was in March last year which will have had a detrimental effect on this March's numbers. 

From Dublin, Gatwick traffic was down 6% YoY at 91,250. Heathrow and Stansted both showed strong negative trends with LHR down 13% to 147,647 passengers and Stansted down 18% to 65,317. In total, Dublin's traffic to the 'Big 4' London area airports was down 12% .

At Cork, Gatwick traffic was down 9% to 9,219. Heathrow and Stansted again showed strong adverse trends with LHR down 7% to 39,775 and Stansted down 12% to 21,933. In total, Cork's London traffic was down 9.5% for the month.

Shannon has fared similar to Dublin and Cork with Gatwick traffic down 5% YoY at 16,860 and Stansted down 12%, the first YoY decline in some time to 27,905. Luton showed a 24% reduction to 5,148. 

Shannon is back on the LHR stats this month with the recommencement of the Heathrow service. A total of 639 passengers are recorded as having flown the route which restarted on March 29 so the figures relate to a total of 12 sectors. Not exactly an auspicious start as this figure works out at 53 passengers per aircraft or less than a 30% load factor.

In total, Shannon's London area traffic fell 9.8% YoY to 50,552 passengers.

In Belfast, City Airport continues to decline on the key LHR route with numbers dropping 11% YoY to 43,893. This drop is in line with the generally quoted drop in traffic at present so it would seem to indicate that BMI wouldn't appear to have lost any ground to Aer Lingus on the LHR routes.

At Belfast International, Aer Lingus LHR figures have shown a 3% gain YoY to 19,327.

Posted 090415

AAIU issue preliminary report into crash of EI-HOG

The Air Accident Investigation Unit of the Department of Transport has issued a preliminary report into the crash of a Cessna 206 registered EI-HOG at Clonbullogue Co. Ofally on March 15 2009. The aircraft was registered to the Irish Parachute Club (IPC). The aircraft had been recently acquired by the IPC and was on it's sixth flight with the club when the incident occurred. While climbing through 9,000 ft the pilot reported a significant loss of power and instructed the parachutists to jump from the aircraft. The pilot attempted to recover to Clonbullogue airfield but the aircraft failed to reach the runway, touching down in a ploughed field. On impact the nose wheel collapsed and the aircraft pitched over and came to rest inverted. the pilot was uninjured. To date the investigation has revealed that when the fuel tanks were inspected it was found that the LH fuel tank was empty and the RH tank had 2 litres remaining. The aircraft had been fitted with an additional fuel bladder system outboard of the factory fitted centre fuel tank . The modification was approved by the US FAA. The modification involved plugging the original fuel filler cap and fitting an additional filler to the bladder. The only fuel level monitoring system was the factory fitted equipment about which the IPC had concerns. A calibrated dip stick and fuel flow meter were used as an alternative. The investigation found that there was a slow fuel transfer rate from the bladders into the main tanks which caused the dip stick to over read by approximately 100% if the fuel level was checked immediately after fueling. Allowing the contents to settle gave a true reading some minutes after fueling. Fuel starvation is the primary cause of crash being investigated at present. Pictured above in the copyright photograph by Mark Willis, EI-HOG is seen at Clonbullogue in August 2008.

Posted 090415

DAA to hold London meeting to discuss T2 retail opportunities

The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has called a meeting to be held in London at the Mayfair Radisson  Edwardian Hotel on April 23 to discuss retail opportunities in the new T2 with interested parties.

The DAA's Director of Retail Strategy, Mark Banchansky has described T2 as having "the sensuous cocktail of the convenience of a mall and the allure of a department store". Operation of the Duty Free shop will be retained by the DAA. In total, 9,000 square metres of retail and dining space are up for grabs when T2 opens.

Is it a mall with an airport attached or an airport with a mall attached ?

Posted 090415

Alitalia AZA 604 diverts to Shannon

Today's Alitalia flight AZA604 operated by B767-35HER EI-DBP diverted into Shannon this evening. The flight was en route Milan - JFK when the pilot suffered a suspected heart attack. The aircraft was at mid Atlantic around 30W when the crew declared the emergency to Shannon Air Traffic Control. The aircraft landed safely just after 5pm with 168 passengers and it's crew of 11.

Ryanair estimate €500m saving in fuel

Speaking in Milan today, Ryanair's Deputy Chief Executive Michael Cawley said that the airline hopes to save €500m in fiscal 2009 / 2010 due to better fuel hedging. "Most of the savings will be reinvested in promoting lower fares", said Mr. Cawley, adding that the savings were as a result of a bad fuel hedging strategy last year and a good strategy this year. During the presentation in Milan it also emerged that Ryanair are still on target to achieve 67m passengers this year, up from last year's 58 million. Mr. Cawley also said that the growth in passenger numbers this year would be an organic growth, "without acquiring other airlines."

Posted 090415

Ryanair to take legal action over bird strike

Ryanair has taken the decision to take legal action to force Ente Nazionale per L'Aviazione Civile (ENAC) to accept it's responsibilities in relation to starlings at Rome-Ciampino airport. Following the write off of B737-8AS EI-DYG in a multiple bird strike at the Italian airport on November 10 last, Ryanair has repeatedly called for ENAC to take control of the bird hazard at the Rome airport. ENAC however has refused to do so saying that it is the airport operator's responsibility. The matter has now reached a head with Ryanair taking legal action through Tar Lazio in an attempt to make ENAC accept it's responsibilities.

Posted 090414

Ryanair flight lands on taxiway

A Ryanair flight from Girona in Spain to Cagliari , RYR 9265, operated by B737-8AS EI-DCE, landed on a taxiway at the Sardinian airport on Sunday morning last April 12. The taxiway is parallel to the main runway 14/32 and had been in use as the designated runway since December 20 2007 while the main runway was being upgraded. On Wednesday last April 8, runway 14/32 was re designated as the primary runway. In a statement Ryanair said that the aircraft had landed safely on the taxiway and the passengers had disembarked normally.  ENAC the Italian Civil Aviation Authority said that as no other aircraft posed a threat at the time of the landing a go around was not ordered. ANSV, Agenzia Nazionale per la Sicurezza del Volo, the Italian National Flight Safety Agency has launched an investigation and has acquired the FDR and radio tapes as part of the process.

Posted 090414

EI-DUA third Kras Air B757 on hand back at Shannon

A third B757 operated by Russian airline Kras Air arrived in Shannon on lessor return last Thursday. The aircraft in question is EI-DUA, msn 26247 which was built in 1999. The aircraft was originally delivered to Iberia on April 30 1999 as EC-GZY. Subsequently it became PP-VTQ with Varig Brazil before becoming N241LF with leasing company ILFC. In December 2006 the aircraft became Irish for it's lease to Kras Air.

Kras Air or Krasnoyarsk Airlines to give it it's full name goes back to 1934 when Yenisey Air was established by the Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route. It was privatised in 1993 with the Russian state maintaining a 51% shareholding. In private hands the airline was managed by Alexander and Boris Abramovich who were instrumental in establishing the first Russian airline alliance in the shape of AirUnion which comprised a total of 5 operators including Kras Air and Domodedovo Airlines. Unfortunately during the summer of 2008 KrasAir became one of the earliest casualties of spiralling fuel prices. A pilots strike in October became the straw that broke the camels back with Kras Air finally ceasing operations on November 1 2008.

Pictured above EI-DUA in Air Union colours sits on the taxiway at Shannon.

Posted 090411

N872SJ visits Shannon

This week saw two visits by Murray Air Dc8 registered N872SJ. The aircraft is a Dc8-71F msn 46040 and has a long and varied history as would be expected of an aircraft. Originally delivered to United airlines as N8096U it subsequently served with Tampa Colombia, MAS Air Florida West and Southern Air before joining Murray Air. It became N872SJ in July 1998. Until several months ago the aircraft operated in an anonymous white scheme before taking up the colours of Murray Air's owner National Airlines. Pictured above N872SJ is seen on finals to R24 this morning.

Posted 090411 

BFU report into incident involving EI-CVC

The Bundesstelle fϋr Flugunfalluntersuchung (BFU) - Germany's Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Investigation has published a report into an incident involving Aer Lingus A320 EI-CVC at Frankfurt Main airport on January 12 2006.

On the night in question a B747-200 registered B-2446 to Air China Cargo landed on Frankfurt's R07R at 19:07L. During the landing roll the crew were given the instruction by ATC to ".. taxi Golf and hold short of runway 07L". The crew repeated the instruction "Taxi Golf and Hotel ah hold short of runway 07L". The controller repeated the instruction "Yes, on Golf hold short of runway 07L", to which the crew confirmed "On Golf ah cross 07L". At his time the crew confirmed that the aircraft was on taxiway Golf.

Almost immediately the controller issued landing clearance to the Aer Lingus flight EIN656 with a crew of 6 and 114 passengers which was on finals from Dublin. The Aer Lingus crew reported that they touched down approximately 1,000 ft beyond the threshold and applied brakes and reverse throttle. As the aircraft decelerated below 100kts the crew observed the B747 enter and cross the runway in front of them. The Frankfurt ground radar showed that the aircraft were 800m apart when the incursion occurred. The crew of the Airbus increased braking and reported to the tower at 19.11 "Just be advised we had an aircraft cross the runway right to left ahead of us."

The report concludes that the incident occurred because of a misunderstanding in communications between the Tower and B747 crew as a result of which the B747 crossed the runway in the path of a landing aircraft. The report also notes that due to the fact that the B747 has a considerably longer landing roll than the A320 the incident occurred on a part of the runway which was less critical than if two aircraft of similar landing rolls had been involved.

Frankfurt's ground movements radar is equipped with an incursion warning system which is intended to give the controller a visual and audio warning in the event of a conflict. At the time of the incident the warning system was de-activated in line with an instruction given in the Standard Operating Procedure.

The report issues a safety recommendation to the effect that the Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH (DFS) air traffic control company should ensure that airport ground movements monitoring systems equipped with conflict warning and alarm functions should give reliable warnings.  

Posted 090411

IAA publish March traffic figures

The Irish Avaition Authority today published the traffic statistics for Irish airspace and the three state airports for March 2009.

During March,

• En route overflights were down 6% on March 2008
• North Atlantic HF communications were down 7.8% on March 2008
• Commercial traffic movements at Dublin were down 11.8%, Shannon down 6.8% and Cork down 25.4% on March 2008.

For Q1 2009

• En route overflights are down 5.17% YoY
• North Atlantic communications down 5.7% YoY
• Dublin commercial terminal movements down 12% YoY
• Shannon commercial terminal movements down 7.7% YoY
• Cork commercial terminal movements down 24.1% YoY

Posted 090409

LTAI to enter Labour Court talks

Fears for job losses at Lufthansa Technik Airmotive Ireland (LTAI) have receded slightly after the company agreed to enter Labour Court talks next week with unions representing the 475 workers at the plant which is located at Rathcoole Co. Dublin.

The move comes following a board meeting at LTAI and telephone contact with Lufthansa Technik Hamburg following union rejection of new work practices being sought by the company. The talks are scheduled for next week. 

Posted 090409

AAIU report into in flight emergency on Dc8 N865F

The Air Accident Investigation Unit of the Department of Transport today issued it's final report into an in flight emergency which occurred to Murray Air Dc8 N865F at Shannon on March 28 2008. The aircraft had departed Shannon's R24 at 22.18 for a sector to Qatar with a cargo of baggage and personal belongings. Shortly after departure and while still in the initial climb out phase the aircraft suffered a compressor stall to the nr. 1 engine. This engine was shut down following which a stall occurred on the number two engine. The crew declared an emergency and requested a return to Shannon, just over 4 minutes into the flight. The crew commenced the engine anti ice routine after which the situation stabilised allowing firstly the nr. 1 engine to be relit followed by the nr. 2 engine. 

When the incident occurred the aircraft was 4nm south of the airport over Askeaton Co. Limerick and under the guidance of Approach Control having been handed off by Shannon Tower. The loss of two engines resulted in an increase in the aircraft's VMCA (minimum airspeed to maintain directional control) to 208kts which was higher than the aircraft's actual airspeed. In order to regain control it was necessary for the aircraft to descend to increase air speed. The minimum altitude achieved during the incident was 1,100 ft. The Approach Controller is commended in the report for his quick thinking in vectoring the aircraft for R06 once it became apparent that a left hand downwind for R24 would have been incompatible with the aircraft's flight profile due to high terrain. 

In the event, the aircraft continued on for a right hand downwind to make an overweight landing on R24. No damage was recorded. The subsequent investigation showed that the probable cause of the incident was rapid icing of the engine nacelles on departure which caused a disturbance of the engine inlet airflow thus causing the compressor stalls. The JT3D engines fitted to the Dc8 have an engine de-icing feature which requires engine bleeed air to be pumped around the nacelles. This procedure causes a significant loss of engine power which reduces the aircraft's MTOW due to less climb thrust being available. As a result there may be a reluctance by air crew to utilise the feature unless absolutely necessary. The report does make mention that the Dc8's crew would have been unfamiliar with the local met conditions at Shannon and not predicted the high possibility of engine icing occuring in the ambient temperature of 6C at the time of their departure from the airport.

Posted 090409

Tailwind sees another departure

Tailwind, the company formed by Aer Lingus pilots in 2006 in an attempt to deflect the hostile bid from Ryanair has seen the departure of yet another director. Last month, three of the companies directors resigned, citing 'grave concerns' as to how the company was being run. Now it has emerged that one of the founding directors, David Coolican resigned last December. The Irish Independent reports that news of Mr. Coolican's departure was not advised to the Companies Registration Office until April of this year due to 'administrative issues'.

Tailwind has just completed the negotiation of a financial restructuring package with Bank of Scotland (Ireland) which will see the bank extend a new €10m loan to Tailwind which has seen the value of it's investment in Aer Lingus turn a paper loss of €20m in recent times. Reports have indicated that there have differences of opinion within Tailwind as to how the company should be run, a situation which won't have been helped by the Aer Lingus share price performance.

Posted 090409

 

Aer Lingus announce March traffic statistics

Aer Lingus announced it's March traffic figures today.

For the month of March the total number of passengers carried was 835,000 down 7% Year on Year (YoY) over 2008. Short haul numbers at 748,000 were down 5.1% while long haul numbers were 87,000, a 20.9% YoY decline.

For the first quarter of the year, short haul numbers are 1.955m, down 6.3% while long haul stands at 229,000 down 14.6%. Total passenger numbers YTD are 2.184m down 7.3%.

During March, short haul load factor grew 0.6% YoY to 78.6% while long haul load factor dropped 0.8% YoY to 71.5%. Total network load factor for the month was 75.6% up 0.3% YoY.

Year to date the short haul load factor is up 1.1% to 73.4% while long haul is up 1.7% to 66.6%. Network load factor YTD is up 1.7% to 70.6%.

Capacity on short haul for the month was down 5.7% to 952m seat kilometers while long haul was down 22.5% to 673m seat kilometers.

Posted 090407

Dermot Mannion quits as Aer Lingus Chief executive

Aer Lingus announced Monday that Dermot Mannion was stepping down from his role as Chief Executive, effective immediately . His departure after four years at the helm of the former state airline brings to ten the number of Chief Executives at the airline in the past 16 years. In a statement, Aer Lingus said that Chairman of the Board, Colm Barrington would assume the role of Chief Executive until such  a time as a successor to Dermot Mannion can be found. The statement fails to give a reason for Mr. Mannion's departure who is quoted as saying that "my decision to step down will allow a new CEO to bring fresh thinking and new ideas to the business."

It is thought however that the investor road show which followed the airline's full year results was particularly badly received by the investment community which was dubious about the ability of the airline's management to conserve cash during the current economic downturn. Following the announcement of Mannion's departure, Aer Lingus shares jumped 7.5%, their largest increase in two months, reducing the stock's 12 month drop to 64%.

Commenting on the departure of Dermot Mannion, Ryanair called on Aer Lingus to appoint David Begg, President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) as CEO of the airline in recognition of the fact that the unions and Government control the Board and Management of Aer Lingus. David Begg is already a €40,000 pa director of the airline.

In a rough paraphrase of Oscar Wilde, the airline went on to say that " to lose so many Chief Executives is neither an accident nor carelessness but the product of a dysfunctional Board which has prevented the management from running the airline in the interests of it's shareholders...The fact that Aer Lingus CEOs have an average life expectancy of just 18 months is a damning indictment of the Government and Board of the airline."

Posted 090407

Ryanair slow Manchester expansion

Ryanair announced today that it would slow it's expansion at Manchester airport until such a time as it starts paying less for airport, passenger handling and ATC fees. Last month the airline announced that it was increasing frequency on the Manchester - Charleroi route and would increase it's passenger throughput at the airport to 1m. Today however, Leslie Kane, Ryanair's head of sales and marketing said that the growth plans had been scaled back to around 800,000 passengers this year which is still a 26% growth over 2008. She also said that there would no further growth at the airport citing Manchester's cost base as the obstacle, claiming that Ryanair "can get a much better deal in Milan for example".

Posted 090407

First Lady stops in Shannon

US First Lady Michelle Obama stopped off in Shannon on Sunday afternoon last April 5 on her return to the US after the G20 summit in London. The aircraft in question was C32 99-0003 which landed in Shannon at 14.25L. Mrs Obama did not leave the aircraft while it was on the ground. Several hours later, former First Lady and current Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton also stopped off in Shannon while her aircraft made a fuel stop.

Posted 090407

Ryanair Pau flights transferred to Tarbes

Ryanair has announced that it's flight schedule at Pau airport in France will be transferred to Tarbes, 40 km away for a two week period to allow an upgrade to airfield navigation aids take place at Pau. The disruption to the flight schedule will occur between July 27 and August 9 during which time a complimentary coach transfer will operate between the two airports.

Posted 090407

LN-NOS joins Norwegian Air Shuttle

Norwegian Air Shuttle took delivery of it's latest B737 today, LN-NOS. The aircraft is a model 737-8BK msn 33018 and is ex EI-EDL. The hex code of LN-NOS is 478662.

Posted 090407

EI-EBR and EI-EBT join Ryanair fleet

Ryanir took delivery of it's second and third aircraft this week with the arrivals of EI-EBR and EI-EBT.

EI-EBR is msn 37530, hex code 4CA73A and was delivered Boeing Field - Dublin yesterday, April 2.

EI-EBT is msn 35000, hex code 4CA73C and was delivered Boeing Field - Dublin today.

Posted 090403

Ryanair could pull out of Prestwick

Following discussions between Ryanair and management at Prestwick airport, the airline has indicated that it's future at the airport is under review. Ryanair blame the Airport Passenger Duty (APD) tax for a decline in numbers at the Ayrshire airport which saw January's throughput fall by 9.6% YoY over 2008. Maria Macken Ryanair's UK marketing manager has said that as a result of the APD tax the airline is effectively subsidising it's own tickets and called on the government to scrap the scheme. She went on to say that Ryanair were having to lower their fares to get people flying, an action which was not sustainable long term. "If we feel we can get better value elsewhere we will do that. If we can operate for less we will do that."

Prestwick's fortunes are suffering at the hands of Edinburgh where Ryanair has increased it's presence significantly with a total of 10 new routes announced in recent weeks. Prestwick's difficulty is that it's airport charges are already attractive compared to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen and it is operating on thin margins. With money so tight there is little room for Prestwick to manoeuvre. Ryanair operate 28 routes from Prestwick.

Posted 090403

Software company takes complaint against Ryanair to Brussels

A Bristol based software company that supplies online booking software to a majority of British travel agents is taking a complaint against Ryanair to the European Commission. Multicom has been joined in the action by Bravofly who are an online travel agency services provider which claims that Ryanair's stance on so called screen scrapers breaches anti competition guidelines. Multicom is seeking protection for what it claims is it's right to offer Ryanair flights to travel agents and retailers.

Ryanair has dismissed the claim as rubbish and says that it will continue to fight against the rip off of consumers by screen scraper web sites which inflate it's fares and add fictitious fuel surcharges.

Posted 090403

Ryanair's March traffic grows 5%

Ryanair continue to buck the trend. The airline today announced that it's March passenger figures have grown 5% YoY from 4.5m in 2008 to 4.7m this year. Load factor fell 2% YoY from 79% to 77% which the airline attributes to Easter being in April this year whereas it fell in March last year. For the 12 months to the end of March Ryanair carried 58.6m passengers which equates to a load factor of 81%.

Posted 090403

Two killed in helicopter crash

The two occupants of a Schweizer helicopter were killed when it crashed in a bog near Carbury in Co. Kildare yesterday evening. The helicopter, operated by the European Helicopter Academy departed Weston Airport west of Dublin around 5pm yesterday evening on a training flight with Cork as the destination. The helicopter hit power lines before crashing in Kilmurray bog. Investigators reported that there was no power in the lines but that the helicopter appeared to have made contact before crashing. It was 12pm this afternoon when a Coast Guard helicopter located the wreckage of the aircraft in an inaccessible location in the bog. The alarm was initially raised this morning by the families of the two occupants when they failed to arrive in Cork.

The pilot instructor was from Co. Donegal with two years experience and the student was in his 20's and from Co. Clare.

Emergency services and accident investigators are in attendance at the scene. It is anticipated that it will take some time to retrieve the wreckage due to the inaccessibility of the crash site.

Posted 090402