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Irish government opposition is weakening to Ryanair’s 750 million euro ($952 million) bid for former state airline Aer Lingus.

The government, which owns more than 25 percent of the loss-making flag carrier, opposed Ryanair’s 2006 bid for Aer Lingus, which was blocked by the European Union on competition grounds.

A spokeswoman for the transport ministry said it would not comment until Ryanair submits its formal bid for Aer Lingus. Europe’s biggest budget airline said on Thursday it would publish the formal bid within the next two weeks.

source: Reuters

The budget airline Ryanair is to make a fresh takeover offer for the Irish flag-carrier Aer Lingus. The all-cash offer would value Aer Lingus at 748m euros ($950m; £619m).

Ryanair’s previous offer for Aer Lingus, which valued it at 1.5bn euros, was blocked by the European Commission on competition grounds.

Other major shareholders include the Irish government and Aer Lingus employees, both of which rejected the takeover offer last time.

source: BBC

The budget airline’s 2009 calendar features bikini-clad young staff posing next to jet engines, petrol pumps and tool kits.

Last year’s calendar raised more than £55,000 for charity, and the airline hopes to top that figure with the new shots, which feature the likes of Miss Runway, Miss Hostess and Miss Cockpit.

All the money raised will go to Dublin Simon Community, an Irish homeless charity.

source: telegraph.co.uk

Ryanair’s recent decision to designate both Alghero and Cagliari on the island of Sardinia as bases is another step in the airline’s on-going expansion in the Italian market. Passenger traffic at Sardinia’s three main airports of Alghero, Cagliari and Olbia has almost doubled from just under three million in 1996 to over five and a half million in 2007. Cagliari has remained the busiest airport on the island followed by Olbia and Alghero, though thanks to Ryanair’s existing network Alghero has been the fastest growing, especially last year when passenger numbers increased by 22%.

Ireland-based low-cost airline Ryanair has opened its 26th base at the Reus Airport in Spain.The airline has announced new domestic routes which will link Reus with Santander, Seville, Santiago de Compostela and Palma de Mallorca starting December 19, 2008 and a new international route to Paris, France.

Four of the new Reus routes will operate as daily services, while the new service to Seville will operate twice daily

source: Redorbit.com

Ryanair was last night stunned to hear a Spanish court backed an online travel agent against its policy of only accepting flight bookings from its own website.

Yesterday, a court in Madrid sided with Spanish online travel website Rumbo, who in August applied for an injunction to prevent the low-cost carrier from going ahead with its plans to cancel flight bookings made through third-party websites.

Madrid’s Mercantile Court No 1 granted Rumbo’s application and has banned Ryanair from cancelling tickets booked by passengers through the Spanish website.

source: belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Low-cost airline Ryanair will allow mobile calls on its flights from next month, but users could end up paying £2 a minute.

The Irish carrier is launching a trial which will see 14 of its 166 planes fitted with the technology needed to enable mobile calls back to land.

But the development will come at a cost with OnAir, the company behind the in-flight calls, predicting a price of up to £2 a minute.

source: Metro.co.uk

A senior official at Ryanair, the biggest discount airline in Europe, said Tuesday that the airline would ground more planes than usual as it prepared for a “‘very difficult winter.'”Howard Millar, the chief financial officer said he expected more carriers to go bankrupt in coming weeks as economies slow.

Millar said Ryanair would ground 14 aircraft at London Stansted airport, the Dublin-based airline’s main hub. That is twice as many as were grounded during the winter last year.

source: IHT

Low-cost airline Ryanair has been forced to cancel flights from its new Edinburgh base for the next six weeks because of strike action at Boeing.

Ryanair said the strike meant US aircraft manufacturers Boeing was unable to deliver two 737 planes it purchased to operate on the new routes.

source: BBC

Budget airline Ryanair yesterday declined to comment on speculation that it may make a bid for Stansted Airport.

The carrier’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, reportedly said he was interested in making a bid for the airport, which is London’s third largest.

The move comes after BAA started legal action against the airline after it refused to pay a 15% increase in landing charges.