Airline news

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has accused Norwegian Air Shuttle of not having the resources to “trade for another year“. Speaking in Dublin O’Leary confirmed that talks had ended with the rapidly growing Norwegian budget carrier. Norwegian Air Shuttle has recently entered into a deal with rival easyJet over the transfer [read more]

Pilots flying for UK leisure airline Thomas Cook are staging a 12-hour walkout over pay. The strike, which began at 3 am this morning following a failed last ditch attempt by Thomas Cook to obtain an injunction to prevent the action. The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) authorised the strike which is [read more]

Airbus is preparing the A340 Blade aircraft for its first flights to test a breakthrough new wing with a laminar profile to help reduce fuel usage and increase efficiency. The Blade (Breakthrough Laminar Aircraft Demonstrator in Europe) is no stranger to testing as it is the 25-year-old A340-300 prototype MSN0001, registered as F-WWAI. [read more]

You might have thought that Ryanair would be Marxian (Groucho) in its approach to club membership (“I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member”) however, it has announced that it has joined Airlines UK (AUK), the industry body representing UK-registered carriers. Ryanair, which will carry [read more]

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued an emergency directive regarding a potentially explosive Airbus A350 fault. The directive, Number 2017-0154-E, relates to the hydraulic fuel cooling system which is located in the fuel tanks. It has been found that there is an overheat failure mode of the hydraulic pumps [read more]

Former British Airways Pilot Cat Burton talks about her career in aviation and how diversity in aviation, in particular towards Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT), helped her fly as the person she really is. I just retired from my 45-year career as a British Airways pilot, having joined Cardiff [read more]

Airline giant Air France-KLM has bought a stake in Virgin Atlantic equal to around a third of the company. The 31% stake, worth £220m GBP, leaves founder Sir Richard Branson Virgin Group with a minority holding of just 20%. Delta Airlines now holds the majority share of 49%. In an open [read more]

Katherine Bennett has been promoted to head Airbus UK following a shake-up of its management team in the UK. Having previously held the post of Senior VP (Vice-President), Public Affairs Ms Bennett’s new role will be as Senior VP, Airbus in the UK. The move follows the departure, by mutual [read more]