Ryanair deliveries end Seattle drought.

The drought of Ryanair deliveries is finally over following the IAM strike and the strip nut problem. Two new frames arrived in Dublin today. EI-DYR, msn 35713 (hex code 4CA6A6) and EI-DYS, msn 35714 (hex code 4CA6A7) arrived over lunchtime.

Rap on the knuckles for Paddy Power

Bookmakers Paddy Power have received a rap on the knuckles from the British Advertising Standards Authority after the bookie ran a full page ad in the press offering odds on which airline will go bust next. Under the headline "Booked a flight ? Don't sweat, insure with Paddy Power" odds were being offered ranging from 3/1 for FlyGlobespan and 4/1 for Spanair all the way up to BA and Ryanair at 100/1. 

The ASA received a complaint claiming that the ad denigrated the airlines concerned, implying that they might go into administration. In their defence, Paddy Power argued that they were bowing to customer demands and had been asked for odds after several high profile airline failures. They also claimed that a £200 maximum bet per customer would also make it difficult for customers to manipulate the markets perception of a particular airline. The ASA upheld the complaint however on the basis that the ad suggested that the named airlines, especially those with the shortest odds might go into administration and that this unfairly discredited the airlines concerned.

Aviance workers vote to accept job saving proposal

150 Aviance employees at Dublin airport have voted to accept a survival package involving a 15% pay cut in order to save their jobs. The rescue package was first proposed by SITPU follwoing the cpmapnies announcement on Tuesday that they would be ceasing operations at Dublin airport from March 2009.

Under the deal sick pay, holiday entitlements and pension arrangements of the 150 employees will not be affected.

Recent arrival

There has been a noticeable drop in aircraft movements through the country's airports of late, due not only to the seasonal winter drop in traffic but also due to the recession which we have talked ourselves into. Combine that with dull winter weather and the net result is precious few photo opportunities of late. Even the seemingly mundane can cause a stir of late ! Today was no exception to that rule when former Futura B737-86N N977RY msn 32740 arrived in Shannon for attention with Air Atlanta Aero Engineering. The aircraft arrived from Dublin just before lunchtime, wearing Futura tail colours and Primera titles.

DAA split could be deferred for up to 3 years

RTE News this evening said that informed sources had told them that the final separation of the three state airports may be deferred for up to three years due to the crisis in the aviation sector. The idea of splitting the then airport operator Aer Rianta into three separate entities was first proposed by the Minister for Transport at the time, Seamus Brennan back in 2003. The following year, Aer Rianta was replaced by three separate airport Authorities for Dublin, Cork and Shannon. Political and union pressure led to a partial back down by the government which allowed the Dublin Authority to retain ownership of the assets of the other state airports. The initial plan also ran into trouble when the DAA resisted the governments plan to allow the SAA and CAA start life debt free with Dublin carrying the combined debt of the three airports. Cork had just completed a new terminal and the DAA refused to carry the total debt. A compromise was worked out whereby Cork assume 113 million of the 200 million cost for the new terminal with the DAA taking the balance. The DoT now say that they will announce before the end of the year if they are going to proceed with the plan as originally envisaged.

AEA report into lost bags and punctuality

Ryanair today welcomed the report by the Association of European Airlines (AEA) on baggage delivery performance and punctuality statistics for it's member airlines for the period April to October 2008. Ryanair pointed out that British Airways and BMI lost 19 and 25 bags per thousand compared to their own figure of 0.4 bags. In terms of punctuality, BA at 73% within 15 minutes of scheduled and BMI at 77% within 15 minutes of scheduled lag behind Ryanair's figure of 88%. AEA reports are compiled from the voluntarily submitted statistics of it's members. This report covering the summer 2008 period was compiled from the submissions of 30 of the 35 member airlines. Ryanair is not a member of the AEA. Aer Lingus is a member of the AEA but chose not to submit statistics.

Rescue off Southwest coast

Edit - Updated at 11.55 pm

A rescue got underway this afternoon off the southwest coast to rescue an injured crew member on a cargo ship. Both the USAF And RAF are involved in the rescue which began shortly after lunch today. A USAF MC-130P, 69-5828 'Rescue 5828' based at Mildenhall, positioned overhead Cork to the vessel. This aircraft first visited Shannon in 1979.

Two HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters were also involved in the search, 88-26109 callsign 'Rescue 109' and 89-26205 callsign 'Rescue 212'. A Nimrod using the usual callsign 'Rescue 51' provided top cover for the operation, returning to Kinloss in the course of the evening.

Ryanair confirm Fuerteventura pull out

Ryanair today confirmed that the airline would be ceasing all services to and from Fuerteventura effective January 31 2009. The airline had previously threatened to end services to the Canary Island unless the local tourism group AEI honoured the commercial agreement that it had entered into with Ryanair to promote the island. Effective January 31, a total of 23 services on nine international routes will cease, including one flight per week from Shannon and two per week from Dublin. Since Ryanair started to serve the island, passenger numbers had grown to over 250,000 per annum from a base of a few thousand. Ryanair have also confirmed that legal action will continue against AEI and it's members.

United Travel

The Commission for Aviation Regulation today issued a further statement in relation to the current status of United Travel. The Commission confirms that Manorcastle Ltd trading as United Travel applied for a new tour operator's licence on December 1. In examining that application, the Commission sought additional information and supporting documentation from Manorcastle Ltd/United Travel to enable the application to be processed. Based on the information received to date, the commission says that very serious questions remain as to the ability of Manorcastle Ltd/United Travel to fulfil its contractual obligations for overseas travel adding that the position remains, therefore, that Manorcastle Ltd/United Travel is not currently licensed to trade as a Tour Operator. The Commission reiterates its view that, under these circumstances, Manorcastle Ltd should wind up the business in an orderly fashion and refund its customers.

Airline complaints for Q1 / Q2 2008

The Commission for Aviation Regulation yesterday published it's Report on Passenger Rights complaints for the first two quarters of the 2008. In total, 86 complaints were received which were deemed valid under EU regulation 261/2007. In addition to this number the commission received a further 86 complaints relating to flights which originated in another EU member state other than Ireland. The vast majority (65) of complaints related to flight cancellations with long delay, greater than two hours (12), denied boarding (3), downgrading (1) and other (6) making up the balance. Not all complaints have been resolved yet but of those that have, airlines have made refunds or paid compensation in 44% cases but have escaped liability in 34% by claiming extraordinary circumstances such as extreme weather conditions. Not surprisingly, of the complaints relating to flights originating at Irish airports, Dublin tops the list with 58 complaints. Dublin does however perform better on a per passenger basis than Cork (11), Shannon (8), Knock (3) and Galway (3). Of the complaints at Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Galway, Ryanair had 19 complaints or 3.11 complaints per million passengers. Aer Lingus had 21 complaints or 4.35 complaints per million passengers.

150 jobs to be lost as Aviance quit Dublin

Aviance, the ground handling and maintenance provider have announced that they will be shutting their operation at Dublin airport effective end of March 2009. The company said that it had recently carried out a full review of it's operations and found that the "cost base and customer profile could not be sustained with the Dublin business model". Last week the company advised it's employees and SIPTU of it's intentions. Following discussions between the union and senior Aviance management it was decided that SIPTU would present a business plan in an effort to secure continuity of the company's presence ta Dublin Airport. This afternoon SIPTU’s Civil Aviation Sectoral Organiser Dermot O’Loughlin confirmed that, “Aviance has advised us that it is giving active consideration to our survival proposals and a decision will be made in the next 24 hours. We are hopeful that this episode will have a successful outcome for all the workers at the company”.

Mannion rules out Ryanair merger

Speaking on RTE radio today, Aer Lingus CEO Dermot Mannion said that the recently brokered deal with SIPTU and IMPACT unions will save the company fifty million euro and will see 200 staff leave the airline without being replaced. The airline will however continue to be a significant employer with 3,500 employees. Mr. Mannion also predicted that the cost saving program would make Aer Lingus more competitive and that there was no need for a merger with Ryanair.

Ryanair welcome CAA price cap at Stansted

Ryanair today issued a cautious welcome to the decision by the UK CAA to adopt the passenger service charge price cap as recommended by the Competition Commission. Ryanair had high praise indeed for the CC whom it said had performed "Trojan work in reviewing the abusive practices of the BAA and disallowed huge amounts of wasteful expenditure." The proposed cost cap will run for five years. The cost per passenger in years one and two will be set at £6.34 and at £6.65 for the years 2013/014. It is hoped that the measure will encourage competition among the big three London airports. The CAA is also putting in place what it calls a "financial incentive scheme" ( or fine ) to ensure that Stansted Airport does not fail in it's obligation to provide good service to the travelling public. Under the terms of the scheme the Airport will be liable to rebate the airlines up to 7% of it's total passenger revenue should it fail to meet the required standard in areas such as security queuing, baggage reclaim, presentability of the airport and in services to the airlines such as available power and serviced stands. A similar scheme is currently in operation at both Heathrow and Gatwick and has seen the BAA pay rebates of £7.9m in the first seven months of this year. Whilst welcoming today's news, Ryanair reckons that the measures do not go far enough as only the breakup of BAA will introduce true competition into the market.

Fleet departure

Ryanair B737-8AS EI-CSM, msn 29926 was due to position Prestwick - Norwich today for painting prior to delivery to Romanian Low cost Carrier Blue Air.

IMPACT back proposal

IMPACT trade union members at Aer Lingus have backed the proposal that their colleagues in SIPTU signed up to last week. Whilst the motion to effectively allow Aer Lingus to buy out existing contracts with cabin crew in favour of reduced terms of employment has been approved the result is not a landslide with 59% in favour and 41% against. The airline's CEO Dermot Mannion said that the decision would keep the Shannon base open and allow the airline to "look at opportunities for short haul growth from Shannon."

Words from O'Leary

Addressing the Shannon Chamber of Commerce lunch on Thursday last, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said that Ryanair's proposed take over of Aer Lingus is the "best opportunity to guarantee long term competition" between Aer Lingus and his airline. He suggested that if the Ryanair proposal fails to succeed then Aer Lingus' future will be as a "peripheral loss making airline that is going to stumble along from crisis to crisis." Should the proposal succeed, Mr. O'Leary has vowed to sack the board of Aer Lingus. He has offered Aer Lingus Chairman Colm Barrington a seat on the Ryanair board but he has made it clear that he has no need of any of the other Aer Lingus directors. "They'll all be gone. If you look at the board of Aer Lingus, with a number of notable exceptions, the rest are like the board of bloody FAS (Irish State training agency). They're all Bertie's pals or political appointees or trade union representatives." Summing up in the usual O'Leary colourful style, he says that the board should be "taken out and shot".

Ryanair schedule disrupted at Stansted

Ryanair cancelled in excess of 50 flights this morning from Stansted Airport when a group of environmental protesters called "Plane Stupid" breached airport security at approximately 03.00 am and occupied a secure area close to the runway for approximately 2 hours. The group, numbering 50 caused serious flight disruption before the runway was reopened at 08.10 am. Ryanair called the action "unacceptable" and told intending passengers to go home and rebook flights, warning travellers that the airline would have difficulty coping with the domino effect of this morning's action.

Efforts begin to save Heathrow slots

Northern Ireland's Junior Minister Jeffrey Donaldson is to seek a meeting with the Irish Government to lobby for the retention of the Aer Lingus Belfast - Heathrow slots, should Ryanair's bid for Aer Lingus be successful. Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Mr Donaldson said “Certainly having worked hard to attract Aer Lingus to Belfast we would certainly not want to give those slots away again and we will be talking to the Irish Government — who were supportive of the Aer Lingus move in the first place — we would encourage them not to withdraw the slots.” A spokesman for Belfast International Airport said : "This is standard mischief making from Ryanair. The comments made are abit rich coming from an airline that is threatening to take out a significant number of services from Shannon itself. This situation is entirely hypothetical anyway."

Aer Lingus traffic statistics for November

Today, Aer Lingus released the traffic statistics for November 2008 . Total passengers carried for the month were 741k, down 3.6% Year on Year ( YoY) on the same month in 2007. Short haul was down 1.2% but longhaul was down a massive 17.2%, even though capacity was only 10.8% lower. On the all important load factor figures, short haul was flat at 71.8% YoY but long haul was down 8.1% to 72.9% for the month. Year to date, load factor is down 4% at 74.8%. The company has also released it's punctuality figures for November which exhibited the best performance of the year so far. For the month, 83% left on time with 97% departing within 1 hour of scheduled departure.

Unions spurn Ryanair advance

Following the rejection by Aer Lingus of the takeover offer by Ryanair, both SIPTU which represents ground staff and IMPACT which represents cabin crew have rejected Ryanair's latest takeover offer. Niall Shanahan, communications officer with IMPACT said that the Ryanair corporate culture is anathema to their members. To date, Aer Lingus has rejected the Ryanair offer on the basis that it undervalues the business and the unions have responded that they already have recognition at the airline so yesterday's Ryanair offer of union recognition doesn't propose anything that they don't already have. The key to the success or failure of the latest bid will probably hinge on how the government react to a formal proposal from Ryanair which will be on the table in the next two weeks. This time lag gives ample opportunity for the government to sound out Brussels' reaction, which could well change this time round given the current state of the worldwide airline business. Ryanair may well have seen the government shareholding as the easier of the two ( government / employee ) to swing in their favour and given the current state of the Irish economy who would bet against them ?

Ryanair sweeten the offer

Ryanair tonight sweetened the offer for Aer Lingus by offering the government complete control over the Aer Lingus Heathrow slots, promising to restore the Shannon - Heathrow route and respect the trade union recognition in place at Aer Lingus. Earlier in the week, Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey had said that one of the government's roles as a shareholder in Aer Lingus was to prevent a hostile takeover. The government has also been concerned that Ryanair would dispose of the Heathrow slots in the event of a takeover. Tonight, Ryanair countered those fears by stating that they would change Aer Lingus' articles of association to give a legally binding guarantee that the Heathrow slots could not be sold, transferred, leased or switched to another airport without written approval of the Irish government.

Flybe to drop Norwich - Dublin

Flybe announced today that they would be dropping the Norwich-Dublin route in March 2009, blaming the economic climate for the decision. The decision is part of a wider decision by the airline to downgrade their presence at Norwich where they have 45 employees ( 21 cabin crew, 20 flight deck and 4 engineers ). The airline will no longer have aircraft based at the airport and will operate Norwich services in reverse, for example - Edinburgh - Norwich - Edinburgh.

Slot refusal causes CSA withdrawal

CSA Czech Airlines today announced a " temporary reduction of flights to Dublin" for summer 2009 due to the refusal of "Dublin Airport" to grant the airline's requested early morning slots for departures from the Irish capital. As a result, CSA stated that services on the route would be reduced to a minimum to facilitate Czech customers with a Friday Prague departure and a Sunday return flight from Dublin.

The last weekday services to be operated on the route will be January 13 from Prague and January 14 from Dublin although the airline does not rule out the possibility of returning to the route at some time in the future. In the meantime though, the capacity being released from Dublin is being used for additional services on Manchester - Prague and Copenhagen - Prague.

Pictured - The CSA colours will become a rare sight in Dublin in the coming months. OK-DGL, picture courtesy CSA.

Lapland flights cancelled

The Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) today refused to renew the Tour Operators Licence of United Travel and has called on the company to wind down it's business and refund it's customers. United Travel had taken bookings from 1,100 people hoping to travel on the traditional pre Christmas charters to Finland. Con Murphy of United Travel appeared on Joe Duffy's Liveline program on RTE Radio 1 yesterday, begging the CAR to issue him with a licence. The Commissioner for Aviation Regulation Cathal Guiomard also appeared on the program and announced that as early as October he had informed United Travel that it's licence would not be renewed, adding that "I don't want to be the Grinch who has several customers in Lapland on Christmas Eve and no aircraft to get them home". Today the CAR urged customers to contact United Travel to enquire as to the status of any money paid over to date and also as to how the company intended to make refunds or put alternative arrangements in place.

Ryanair press ahead with offer for Aer lingus

Just two days after Ryanair announced their latest bid for the remainder of Aer Lingus, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary met with Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey for 40 minutes at Leinster House. Following the immediate rejection by Aer Lingus of the latest offer, Michael O'Leary said that he would ignore the wishes of the board and that he would urge the government to consider the merger. Strict stock market rules governing mergers and takeovers preclude Minister Dempsey from making comment on the matter but the fact that a meeting took place so soon after the latest offer was announced would give credence to the idea that the government is giving serious consideration to the proposal.

Aer Arann announce new Blackpool route

Just days after Ryanair announced that they were ceasing to serve Blackpool after the airport operator announced the introduction of a £10 passenger service charge, Aer Arann have stepped in to fill the void. Commencing January 5 2009, Aer Arann will commence a five times weekly service between Dublin and Blackpool.

Ryanair traffic figures for November

Ryanair today published their traffic figures for November 2008. Passengers carried, at 4.32m represented an 11% increase over the same month last year. Load factor was up 1% to 79% for the month. In the 12 months ended November 30 2008 the airline carried 57.3m passengers with a load factor of 81%.

SIPTU vote to accept Aer Lingus deal

SIPTU members in Aer Lingus, representing ground handling staff have voted to accept the deal worked out last month whereby the airline will effectively buy out the contracts of it's employees who will return to work on reduced conditions. The agreement will now see a greatly reduced number of redundancies at the airline.

Recent visitors

Some recent visitors to Shannon.... On Sunday November 30 the airport had a visitor in the shape of Israel Aircraft Industries IAI-1125 Astra registered N916CG. The aircraft is a 1990 vintage machine with msn 045 and is certainly eye catching with this black, grey and gold colour scheme. Registered to Wilson and Associates of Delaware LLC, N916CG stopped off for fuel en route Gander. Over the weekend Shannon had a visit of an Isle of Man registered visitor, registered Citation Jet CJ2 M-WMWM. IoM registered aircraft appear to frequent some of the countries other airports more so than Shannon where the 'M' prefix still has the exotic feel to it. M-WMWM is registered to Standard Aviation UK and arrived on Friday evening before departing on Sunday morning.

The last visitor of note, also on Sunday was Boeing 767-231ER, msn 22569 N606TW which is registered to the Boeing Company. The aircraft is currently being operated by the Italian Air Force for crew training as part of their 767 tanker program and made a fuel stop at Shannon before departing for Palm Beach. This is the second time that the aircraft has worn the registration N606TW as it had a stint as OM-NSH with Slovak airlines before being impounded in Birmingham. It then went onto the Brazilian register as PR-BRV with Brasil Rodo Aero until March of this year when it was acquired by Boeing. The aircraft is no stranger to Irish soil having spent many months in front of the then FLS hangars in Dublin at the end of 2000 / first half of 2001 in it's 'original' 606TW registration.

Ryanair mount second hostile bid for Aer Lingus

Today saw Ryanair launch a hostile bid for the balance of the Aer Lingus shares which are currently outside it's control. Today's offer at €1.40 per share is valued at €748m and represents a 25% increase over Friday's close but is still 50% less than the value of the first hostile bid in 2006.

Ryanair is currently Aer Lingus' single biggest shareholder with the Irish Government retaining a 25.1% stake holding.

Speaking in Dublin today Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said that this time round the bid stands a better chance of success than the original bid in 2006. He also said that Ryanair hasn't changed a plan to develop a trans Atlantic service but at the moment that plan is going nowhere and is separate from the plan to acquire Aer Lingus.

In response to the bid, Aer Lingus said that it would respond in due course, adding that shareholders are "strongly urged to take no action".

Speaking on RTE Radio, Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey T.D. said that the Government would retain it's shareholding in Aer Lingus for "strategic reasons", including protection of the Heathrow slots and to "prevent hostile bids".