Further Insight into Ryanair Transatlantic ambitions

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary, yesterday gave more insight to the oft rumoured entry into transatlantic operations by the LCC. Admitting that the business plan has been completed, O'Leary said that his plans to invest in transatlantic operations could be expedited if there were a sharp fall in aircraft prices but until Boeing and Airbus start parking up aircraft he doesn't see Ryanair doing a deal on prices.

The new operation has been discussed with David Bonderman, Chairman of Ryanair along with former executives of Southwest and Continental Airlines. O'Leary does not see himself running the new operation and added that the new airline would be 'distinctly separate' from Ryanair. The business model sees the new carrier operating from up to 9 of the existing Ryanair bases in Europe with Islip in New York being proposed as an east coast US destination.

When we will see a Ryanair style carrier operating on the Atlantic will depend when all the many 'ifs' and 'mights' meet together. Two of the biggest ingredients are fuel and aircraft prices.

Until fuel prices drop and stabilise and Ryanair can do the deal on price we won't see any further developments. Airbus and Boeing are both in production backlog with the next generation of wide body aircraft so any movement in the price arena is unlikely to happen until supply exceeds demand.

The other unknown is that Ryanair are nothing if not opportunistic. Should Aer Lingus' AOC suddenly become available things could change very quickly.

SIPTU to invoke new labour law in Aer Lingus dispute ?

A report in today's 'Irish Times' suggests that the SIPTU trade union is examining a new piece of labour law in it's fight against large scale headcount reduction in Aer Lingus.

The Protection of Employment (Exceptional Collective Redundancies and Related Matters ) legislation was put in place following the Irish Ferries labour outsourcing debacle several years ago. The legislation allows for an independent panel to adjudicate as to whether the redundancies in the company are genuinely so, or are merely a case of replacing existing workers with cheap labour.

If the latter is found to be the case the matter can be referred to the Labour Court. In the event of the Labour Court finding in favour of the existing workers, the employees can claim unfair dismissal with a maximum of 5 years pay as compensation. The legislation also allows the Minister for Enterprise and Employment to refuse the 60% employers rebate on redundancy payments.

One of the key requirements for invoking the legislation is that the union must already be in dispute with the company which would explain the decision by Siptu for an immediate ballot of the Aer Lingus workers for an all out strike.   

Ryanair welcomes court decision in Germany

Ryanair today welcomed the decision of the court in the German town of Simmern to dismiss a compensation claim by a passenger arising from the cancellation of a Ryanair flight due to bad weather conditions at Jerez, Spain in October 2007.

The passenger claimed €1,600 in damages but the claim was dismissed by the court, finding that bad weather prevented the aircraft from landing safely and did constitute circumstances which were beyond the control of the airline under EU regulation EU261.

Aer Lingus outlines detail of survival plan

Following a three hour meeting between unions and management, Aer Lingus today outlined the details of it's survival plan. The main points outlined by the airline are as follows :

Headcount will be reduced by 1,500 through a combination of outsourcing and redundancies and a pay freeze will be imposed on remaining staff through the end of 2009.

Cabin crew bases in Shannon and Heathrow will be closed with crew being offered relocation to Dublin /Cork or the option of redundancy.  

Services from San Franciso, New York and Boston will be crewed by US based cabin crew from summer 2009.

The airline's base at Shannon will be closed.

The long haul aircraft fleet is to be reduced by one aircraft to eight units.

The plan is intended to save an annualised €74m.

The unions have now left the meeting to discuss their next move and have not ruled out strike action.

Ryanair September passenger figures

Ryanair today issued their passenger statistics for September. The total number of passengers carried, 5.23m, represents a 20% YoY increase over the same month in 2007. The annualised figure to the end of September now stands at 56m. At 84%, load factor for the month shows a 1% dip over September 2007. The rolling 12 month figure to the end of September is 81%. When the passenger growth and load factor figures are superimposed it is very obvious that fleet growth is closely pegged to passenger growth in contrast to Aer Lingus where long haul fleet growth has outstripped customer demand.

Citation in emergency landing at Shannon

Citation 750 N970SK made an emergency landing at Shannon this morning. The aircraft which is a regular visitor to the airport was en-route Gander - Paris Le Bourget when hydraulic problems were encountered. The aircraft landed safely in Shannon. After positioning to Taxiway 11 the aircraft was towed to the Signature Flight Support hangar where repairs will be carried out. Following the aircraft's arrival the runway was closed for a short time to inspect the surface for any hydraulic oil spills. No other flights were affected by the emergency landing. N970SK is owned by the Oshkosh Corporation of Wisconsin who ironically include airport rescue vehicles in their product portfolio. The picture below shows the aircraft during a fuel stop in Shannon on March 11 2007.

New Ukranian registrations at Shannon

Two new Ukrainian registered aircraft were unveiled in Shannon this morning at the Lufthansa Aircraft Paint facility.

UR-DNJ is the new identity of G-THOJ B737-36Q msn 28569. The aircraft entered the hangar last week end is painted in full Dniproavia colours. It is currently having regulatory safety markings applied to the frame. The aircraft made a brief appearance as it was moved out to allow the removal of the second hangar resident.

The second resident is the newly registered UR-WRE of Wind Rose. The aircraft, MD82 msn 49278 entered the hangar on Monday week last September 22 as UR-CDA. The newly applied livery is not yet complete on the aircraft which was moved to the Shannon Aerospace hangar. The pictures below show port and starboard views with titles on the starboard only.

New airliner additions

A few recent airliner additions to the Irish register are as follows : EI-WXA RJ85 msn E-2310 has been registered to CityJet and was seen in Norwich on October 1. EI-ECD B737-8FH msn 30826 has been registered to Royal Bank of Scotland Aviation Capital. The aircraft is ex EC-JHV of Futura. It been operating for Sun Express in Turkey.

KD Avia 737 in wheels up landing

A B737 operated by KD Avia was involved in a wheels up landing yesterday at Khrabrovo Airport in Kalingrad. The Irish registered aircraft, B737-3YO EI-DON, msn 23812 was operating flight KD 794 from Barcelona to Kalingrad when the crew reported that the undercarriage would not extend. The initial approach was aborted with the aircraft subsequently landing on it's belly. None of the 138 passengers or 6 crew were injured.

Ryanair and the courts

In August, Spanish travel agent Rumbo applied for an injunction in the Spanish courts to prevent Ryanair from cancelling bookings from so called 'screenscraper' agents or third party web sites. Yesterday Madrid's Mercatile Court nr 1 granted the injunction preventing Ryanair from cancelling the bookings. The ruling also asked Ryanair to remove the 'screenscraper' warning from it's website and to refrain from making statements discrediting other websites. Just how this decision will stand in European law remains to be seen. Today a Dutch law firm, EUClaim who specialise in class action law suits against airlines stated their intent to file a lawsuit against Ryanair over abuse of 'extraordinary circumstances' as an excuse to escape compensation payments to bumped off payments. Extraordinary circumstances are usually attributed to harsh weather conditions or technical problems and can be used by airlines as a get out clause to avoid compensation to passengers whose flights have been canacelled. The law firm plans to challenge Ryanair's continued used of those reasons by utilizing flight analysis and weather data to disprove the airline's abuse of the reasons. Could this latter case be the result of Ryanair declaring themselves as 'Europe's most financially secure airline' ?

Ryanair lodge complaint with EU over Alitalia rescue

The Alitalia survival story which seems intent on chasing 'War and Peace' for the title of Epic of the Century took yet another turn today just as it seemed that the Italian labour unions had finally signed up to supporting the latest rescue package. Ryanair today lodged a complaint with the EU against Italy's rescue deal for the national carrier. "This is the latest and perhaps most blatent example of the Italian government doing whatever it takes to protect their failed airline", said Ryanair director Jim Callaghan. The EU Commission said the complaint from Ryanair will be addressed in the same meticulous way as any other it receives. If the EU backs the rescue deal in Italy, Ryanair have threatened to take the case to the European court. Since it's founding in 1946, Alitalia have registered profit on only one occassion - in 1998.

Aer Lingus publish September punctuality stats

Aer Lingus today published their punctuality statistics for September 08. 71% of aircraft departed on time which is a one point improvement over August. 94% of flights departed within 60 minutes of scheduled departure which is a one point disimprovement over August.

Bell Geospace Basler Dc3 departs Shannon

Bell Geospace's Basler BT-67 converted Dc3C C-FTGI departed Shannon this morning. The aircraft arrived in Shannon on September 26 and was hangared with Signature awaiting an engine part. Following rectification the aircraft emerged this morning where engine runs were performed outside the Signature hangar. Shortly afterwards 'GI departed for Galway where it will again be based for the next week. Following this mission the aircraft will be based in Enniskillen for survey work. The picture shows C-FTGI taxiing for departure off Runway 24.

Second Silverjet changes registration

The last remaining Silverjet B767 at Shannon was reregistered this afternoon. The aircraft a B767-204ER, msn 24757 became JY-JAG of Jordan Aviation. It's sister ship JY-JAI departed Shannon earlier in the week following it's reregistration last Friday. JY-JAG is still in full Silverjet colours and is pictured below shortly after the new markings were applied.

Boeing strike bites harder at Ryanair

As the Boeing strike approaches it's fourth week, Ryanair today announced that they would be cancelling flights from their Birmingham and Weeze bases at the end of October. Over a five day period a total of 45 flights will be cancelled due to capacity shortfall. At this time there doesn't appear to be any end in sight of the labour dispute at Boeing. The LCC also announced today that they would be basing an additional two aircraft in Madrid from November which will create an additional 76 weekly rotations from the Spanish capital. Included in the increase is a doubling, to two flights per day on the Madrid - Dublin route.

New Citation Jet for Irish register

A new Irish Citation Jet 525B msn 525B-0266 was delivered tonight. The aircraft, EI-MJC was noted in Goose Bay yesterday. The hex code for the aircraft is 4CA6C6 but is not ADS-B equipped. The aircraft is intended for Munster Joinery Cork so it is thought to have landed in Cork. Updated at 23.25.

Ryanair 1312 returns to Shannon after lightning strike

Tonight's Ryanair Shannon - Birmingham flight RYR 1312 operated by B737-8AS EI-DWS msn 33625 was struck by lightning very shortly after take off at approximately 20:05L. As a precaution the aircraft returned to the field where the fire and rescue services followed the aircraft on landing at approximately 20:25L. The aircraft departed a second time as RYR 3312 at approximately 21:15L

Could Qantas move delay Ryanair launch of mobile services ?

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Qantas have shelved plans to launch live on board internet services on A380 aircraft next month as American Airlines has come under fire from flight attendants and customers for allowing passengers to surf porn web sites. Instead the airline has opted to offer 'cached internet content' and access to web based email and chat services. A Qantas spokesperson said that the internet plans had been pared back due to 'logistical and regulatory' issues encountered by the connectivity provider Onair. The airline said that full internet services would now be provided 'later in 2009'. Last month American Airlines started to offer full in flight broadband internet services on it's B767 aircraft but the flight attendants union were quick to request that software be installed to block inappropriate sites following complaints from FAs and passengers. The airline took the unusual view that they would rather offer unfiltered content and have flight crews monitor content for inappropriate content. Ryanair have opted to use the same provider ( as Qantas ) - Onair - as the provider of their airborne voice and data connection which begs the question - who is responsible for policing content - the user or the provider ?

Manx Beech 200 at Shannon

Shannon has lagged other Irish airports when it comes to visits by Manx registered aircraft. Although the 'M' register was launched on May 1 2007, the number of aircraft which have visited Shannon can be numbered on one hand.

Today, Friday September 26 though we were lucky to see Be200 Super King Air msn BB-1202 M-FSRE depart the airport. Registered to IAL King Air Ltd, the aircraft is pictured below in CAT2 conditions taxiing for the R24 threshold in early morning fog.

New reregistrations at Shannon

This week saw reregistrations of two of the current Shannon residents. Tuesday September 23 saw VT-SGA B737-8GJ msn 34955 change registration to N249FD. The aircraft had arrived in full Spice Jet colours via Amman on September 3. It was subsequently painted all white at the Lufthansa Paint hangar and test flown on September 16 in the Indian registration. Today, Friday September 26 saw former Silverjet B767-204 msn 24736 change registration in the early morning fog to JY-JAI of Jordan Aviation. The aircraft originally arrived in Shannon on July 4 following the collapse of Silverjet. The aircraft is still in full Silverjet colours with taped on Jordanian registration

Emergency drill at Shannon Airport

As required as part of it's aerodrome licence, Shannon Airport staged an exercise to test the response of the emergency services this Wednesday. The four-hour drill centred on a simulated crash of a Boeing 777 jet, carrying 156 passengers and 12 crew. The scenario involved the trans-Atlantic jet developing engine trouble, forcing it to divert to Shannon Airport before crash landing near the main runway. Ger Dollard, Director of Services, Clare County Council, said the exercise is not only vital to local emergency agencies but also required by Irish Aviation Authority regulations. He explained, ‘As part of an overall exercise programme a large-scale training exercise takes place at the airport about every two years to keep emergency services personnel prepared in the event a major aviation disaster would occur at the facility.’ The last emergency drill, ‘Exercise Eagle’, took place at Shannon in 2006. The agencies that took part in the exercise included the Garda Siochana, Shannon Airport Police Fire & Rescue Service, IAA, Clare Co. Council, Shannon Airport Authority, Clare Co. Fire Service and the HSE.

Ryanair add another aircraft to Shannon base

Ryanair announced today that they would be adding a sixth aircraft to their Shannon base. From November the additional aircraft will allow the relaunch of the Shannon - Frankfurt Hahn route along with the launch of Shannon - Newcastle. The extra capacity will also be used to increase frequency on routes such as Bristol, Edinburgh and Paris. In total, 26 extra flights per week will be operated from Shannon. As is often the case with such announcements there is a downside. In this case the Shannon - East Midlands route is to be dropped and frequency reduced on Shannon - Luton from October 31. Speaking in Shannon today, Michael O'Leary said that the extra aircraft represented an additional $70m investment in the mid west by Ryanair and will create an additional 100 jobs at Shannon this winter.

Ryanair launch phone service

A report in today's 'Independent' newspaper states that Ryanair will be offering mobile phone services on 14 of it's 166 aircraft within the next two weeks. Initially it will be customers of O2 and 3 networks that will be able to use the service. If the trial is successful, the service will be rolled out across the entire fleet in six months. The system reduces the transmitting power of mobile devices to ensure that they do no interfere with aircraft systems. A maximum of six passengers at a time can make voice calls but all on board will be able to use data services for SMS or email. The flight crew have control of the ON-OFF switch so that the system can be turned off if required. The system is supplied by OnAir, a joint venture company formed by SITA, the airline industry owned IT solutions provider and Airbus. It was as far back as August 2006 that OnAir announced that Ryanair had signed up to use their product. The 'Independent' reports that call charges ( which Ryanair get a percentage of ) have yet to be fixed but are expected to be around €2.50 per minute which is unlikely to see the service being used for anything other than very short calls.

Ryanair to ground 14 aircraft at Stansted

Ryanair announced Tuesday that they would be grounding 14 aircraft from the fleet at Stansted this winter asa they come to terms with high oil prices and weakening demand. The announcement was made by CFO Howard Millar at a news conference in London. Last winter Ryanair grounded 7 aircraft at Stansted. Also this week and possibly sensing a large gap in the Italian market should Alitalia stop flying, the LCC announced that they would be commencing 6 domestic routes based at Forli from December 1.

Ukraine President visits Shannon

The President of Ukraine, Victor Yuschenko and his wife Kateryna visited Shannon today on their way to the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Over the past few days several VIP aircraft have been noted transiting Irish air space in a westerly direction- notably the Ugandan Government Gulfstream 4 5X-UEF, MEA Airbus A330 F-OMEB on flight MEA 001 and V8-MHB the Brunei Government's B767, all presumably attending the UN session. The only aircraft to have stopped in Shannon was Ukraina Air Enterprise's IL62M UR-86528 MSN 4038111. The picture shows the aircraft departing Shannon's Runway 06 this lunchtime.

Irish air traffic dips in August

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) today issued the traffic figures for August 2008. For the first time since the 9-11 decline, commercial traffic displayed it's first ever dip. While YTD figures to the end of August are up, the monthly figures for August for the three state airports are down YoY for what is traditionally the busiest month of the year. The movements figures for the three state airports are as follows : Dublin : 18,108 down 1.4% Shannon : 3,111 down 10.7% Cork : 3,251 down 6.3% The report cites the high price of oil, reductions in airline schedules, currency fluctuations and the general economic state of mind as contributory factors. What is not mentioned is the weather which has been a significant contributor in the decline in Shannon's figures. For the month of August the Organised Track System (OTS) dictated by the prevailing winds has been either far north or south of Ireland. Shannon derives a higher percentage of total airport movements than Dublin or Cork from transit traffic. The presence or in this case absence of transit traffic is very much dependent on the OTS which 'failed' Shannon for August. North Atlantic communications handled by Ballygireen showed a modest 0.8% growth for the month to 36,356 which would tend to back up the theory on Shannon - the traffic didn't disappear - it just wasn't here.

IAA report into ATM failure at Dublin

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) today issued it's report into the failure of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system at Dublin which occurred on several occasions between June 2 and July 9 2008. The ATM system consists of primary and secondary radars, the data from which is processed by a central flight data processing (FDP) system which produces an air situation display on an air traffic controller's screen. The purpose is to allow the controller separate aircraft safely and maintain an efficient traffic flow. The screen shows the aircraft's identification, type, speed and altitude. The FDP system is linked to each controller's station by a local area network. A significant feature of the system is that each aircraft's flight plan data is coupled with the radar track on the controller's screen to provide aircraft ID. This process is known as coupling. The first system malfunction occurred on June 2 whereby aircraft entering the system did not have the aircraft type or identification displayed. On three further occasions up to July 9 similar failures occurred which eventually resulted in the decision being taken at 13.15 on July 9 to discontinue use of the system due to instability. Engineers from Thales ATM, the equipment supplier and Hewlett Packard had been on site attempting to replicate the problem on training equipment when this decision was made. It was between 13.15 and 15.10 that Thales and IAA engineering staff identified the root cause of the problem as being a faulty network card. Subsequently Thales identified that the root cause of all the system failures had been the dual failures of the network interface card and the network recovery system. Thales also issued a number of recommendations in relation to additional hardware and software improvements in the system which are currently in the process of being implemented in both Shannon and Dublin. The report also pointed out that aircraft safety was never compromised at any time during any of the failures and that the failure was not a 'radar failure' as described in certain elements of the media.

CityJet host aviator reunion at Casement

Yesterday, CityJet hosted an event at Casement Aerodrome Baldonnel which saw the reunion of almost 100 aviators who were involved in the making of such screen classics as Blue Max (1966)and Darling Lily (1970) which were made on location in Ireland. CityJet Chairman Geoffrey O'Byrne White is a former Air Corps pilot who maintains strong links with his former 'employer'. In March 2006 he was instrumental in organising the return visit by Spitfire 161 to Baldonnel. Five aircraft, including replicas were present for the event yesterday - three Tiger Moths, a Stampe SV4 and the Air Corps Avro 631 Cadet serial C7. One of the aircraft which arrived from Wexford was piloted by Geoffrey O'Byrne White and ex Air Corps pilot JJ Sullivan. Pilots from the Air Corps helped recreate the dog fight scenes in Blue Max, assisted by civilian pilots, including Derek Piggott who at 88 years still flies occasionally and came from his home in the UK for the occasion. Derek was the only pilot willing to fly the stunt at the climax of the film which saw two rivals challenge each other to fly under the spans of a bridge. Playing both roles and using different camera angles to achieve the desired effect, Derek flew 15 times under the wide span and 17 times under the narrow span of the bridge over the River Blackwater in Fermoy, Co. Cork. The wing tips of the Fokker Triplane replica had 1.2m of clearance on each side when passing under the narrow span. The stars of Blue Max were George Peppard, James Mason and Ursula Andress. Also among those present yesterday were Ken Byrne, an Air Corps pilot from the sixties who piloted Ursula Andress in the film and Tony Rowe, an aircraft engineer who was responsible for keeping the aircraft in the air. Tony said that over the years, 1000 men claim to have helped fit Ursula Andress' parachute belt but he is the only one who can truthfully make the claim !

JetBird announces €10m strategic investment

JetBird, the Pan-european private jet airline based in Dublin has today announced a strategic investment of €10m. The airline also announced that it had secured finance from RBS Group PLC for the pre delivery payments of it's first 25 Embraer Phenom aircraft.

The investment is a private placement of funds from a Middle Eastern family owned trading group. As a result of the investment the unnamed investor (with interests ranging from banking to hotels and leisure) will be appointing a representative to the JetBird board.

JetBird are the European launch customer for the Embraer Phenom 100 VLJ (Very Light Jet) and to date have placed firm orders for 53 of the variant. The company is in the process of firming orders for the final 47 aircraft.

Commencing operations in 2009, JetBird are hoping to transform the executive jet market in Europe by offering a product which will be costed at up to 50% less than that of the current operators - in essence establishing Europe's first low cost business jet operator.

JetBird was founded by Claret Capital which is a private investment firm founded in Dublin in 2005 by JetBird Chairman, Domhnall Slattery.

The first Phenom was rolled out on June 16. Pictured below the first aircraft takes to the air from São José dos Campos on July 26. Photo courtesy Embraer.

Three injured as result of helicopter crash

Three people, including the pilot, were injured this afternoon when a helicopter crashed in the Co. Meath village of Bettystown at around 4.30 pm.

The helicopter, Sikorsky S-76B N399BH msn 760311 is registered to Barrack Aviation Inc Trustee.

It had dropped two passengers off on the beach in Bettystown and had departed with the pilot as sole occupant. It flew low over the town and appeared to be in difficulty according to eye witnesses before attempting to land in the car park of the Neptune Hotel.

The pilot escaped before the helicopter was destroyed in a number of explosions. Two people suffered minor injuries from flying debris.

The centre of the town was sealed off and the Air Accident Investigation Unit attended the scene.

Prior to becoming N399BH the Sikorsky was registered N89WC and is pictured as such at the Heliexpo in Punchestown on June 6 2007.