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Aer Lingus passengers look set to face disruption to their flights from next week as the dispute over the establishment of a new base in Belfast threatens to ground the airline.

The airline yesterday wrote to all of the airline’s 480 pilots asking them to confirm by next Monday that they would carry out duties to facilitate the opening of the new Belfast operation. Failure to do so would result in being suspended without pay, chief executive Dermot Mannion said in the letter.

The president of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa), Evan Cullan, accused the airline of “‘a lock-out'”. Impact, the union that represents the pilots, said mass suspensions would effectively shut the airline down.

source: ireland.com

Aer Lingus said on Monday it would suspend pilots who failed to help the Irish airline recruit and train new staff at its planned new Belfast base, in a further dispute between workers and management.

Aer Lingus said in August it would transfer valuable Heathrow slots from Shannon to a new Belfast base in Northern Ireland.

The move has triggered strike threats by Aer Lingus pilots who fear staff in Belfast will be employed on lower pay than those in the Republic of Ireland.

source: iii.co.uk

With reports that Iberia are planning to cut their flights to Gibraltar, an Iberia told that no final decisions have been taken, but added that flights to Gibraltar were under review.

It is well known that the Spanish airline is unhappy with the business on the Gibraltar route. It is not what was expected.

The route was launched with much trumpet-blowing, but it has gone from one problem to the next.

American Airlines has been named Best North American Airline for the fifteenth consecutive year at the 2007 Business Traveller Awards. Business Traveller magazine presents its awards based on findings of its annual survey of its readers, who represent some of the world’s most discerning, affluent, and frequent international business travellers.

source: Boarding.no

Airline SAS said on Monday it was cancelling at least 228 flights through to Wednesday this week because of the grounding of all its Dash 8-400 aircraft following two crash-landings last week.

In separate statements, SAS Sweden and SAS Denmark said they would cancel 48 flights and 180 flights, respectively.

Two SAS planes crash-landed within days, one in Denmark on Sept. 9 and another in Lithuania on Sept. 12, due to problems with landing gear. No one was seriously hurt in either incident.

source: Reuters

Lufthansa is the first European airline to introduce native Chinese flight attendants on board its flights from and to China. For over six years, Lufthansa has employed about 200 native Chinese flight attendants, providing Chinese-speaking passengers with in-flight services that are in their own language and sensitive to their cultural background.

fuente: China.org.cn

Scandinavian airline SAS said on Friday it had buried the hatchet with its Danish unions and that four organisations had pledged to work for a “‘no-strike situation'” after 2007 wage negotiations.

The carrier, hard hit by fierce competition from low-cost carriers and higher fuel costs in recent years, has had hundreds of flights grounded this year at a cost of millions of dollars due to strikes at its Danish and Swedish units.

SAS Chief Executive Mats Jansson said the airline should be able avoid new strikes through initiatives including profit-sharing programmes and share-ownership programmes.

source: Reuters

Management at Aer Lingus has claimed that a decision by the company’s pilots to go on strike over the employment of new pilots at the proposed Belfast hub on lesser conditions than colleagues in Dublin was a “‘veto on essential progress,'” which was “‘unacceptable and deeply regrettable.'”

The company’s 480 pilots are to stage a 48-hour strike next Tuesday and Wednesday in protest at what they said were moves by the airline to employ pilots at its new base in Belfast on less favourable terms and conditions than those applying to staff in Dublin.

source: ireland.com

British Airways was today hit with a record £121.5m fine after it admitted to collusion over fuel surcharges on long-haul flights.

BA is facing a second fine from the US Department of Justice, which will be announced later today. The airline said the combined sum was likely to be consistent with the £350m it set aside in May.

The penalty from the OFT is the highest ever imposed by the regulator for infringements of competition law.

source: thisismoney.co.uk

British Airways relinquished a top airline of the year prize – plunging from first place in 2006 to tenth in this year’s popularity table.

But there was some consolation for beleaguered BA when it was named best airline in Europe and best transatlantic carrier in the 2007 awards by research company Skytrax.

source: scotsman.com