SpiceJet: Indian airline planes 'grounded'

India's troubled airline SpiceJet has grounded flights after oil companies refused to refuel any of its planes, reports say.

The debt-ridden carrier owes money to creditors, including oil companies.

SpiceJet is India's fourth-biggest airline by market share.

On Tuesday, civil aviation authorities gave SpiceJet a reprieve when they said state-owned oil companies would be asked to give credit to the cash-strapped airline for up to 15 days.

The civil aviation ministry also said that

American Airlines plane diverted to Tokyo after being hit by winter storm, several hurt

A U.S. bound-American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Tokyo on Wednesday after hitting severe turbulence created by a strong winter storm, with several people taken to hospital for minor injuries.

American Airlines Flight 280, a Boeing 777-200 heading to Dallas/Fort Worth airport from Incheon in South Korea, was flying across Japan when the plane dropped suddenly and was rocked for 30 to 40 seconds, passengers said.

"We were eating and all the food just flew up in the air and pretty much bounced off and fell. There were carts all over the place," one passenger told TV Tokyo when the aircraft landed shortly after midnight at Tokyo's Narita airport.

Photos posted on Twitter showed splotches of

Aviation Agencies to Contribute 25% of Earnings to FG

The Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, on Tuesday said henceforth aviation agencies must be contributing 25 per cent of their revenues to the federal government.

Chidoka said this was to ensure that the parastatals did not squander their earnings which had received a boost since more airlines have started operating in the country.

The parastatals include the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Nigerian Metrological Agency (NIMET).

Chidoka said

Air fares fall as new local operators board

The domestic scene of the nation’s air transport sector is witnessing a boom, as more airlines join the sector, bringing down fares.

With increased seat capacity, new entrants such as Azman Air, Discovery Air and Air Peace, have crashed the fares to as low as N9,000 (one way) on the popular routes from Lagos to Abuja, Kano, Portharcourt, Enugu, Calabar among others, as travellers throng their counters.

Already, with the coming of Air Peace with seven (Boeing) B-737 aircraft, Azman Air with three B-737; Discovery Air with three B-737 and FirstNation also with three B-737 , capacity in the domestic scene has increased, as travellers also have

Easyjet profits rise sharply as passenger numbers increase

No frills airline Easyjet has reported a 21.5% rise in annual pre-tax profits, helped by increased passenger numbers.

Profits rose to £581m for the 12 months to end of September, up from £478m in the previous year.

The UK carrier also said it had transported 64.8 million passengers - marking a 7% rise.

Chief executive Carolyn McCall said EasyJet had "opened up clear blue sky" between the airline and its competitors.

Easyjet, which has a fleet of 226 planes, said the acquisition of slots at Gatwick airport from rival airline Flybe had boosted its performance.

The amount of available seats on Easyjet flights grew by

Air France puts cost of pilots strike at €500m

Air France has estimated that last month's strike will cost it about €500m (£393m) in lost revenue.

The struggling French flag carrier was in dispute with pilots over plans to expand its budget subsidiary Transavia.

Finance director Pierre-Francois Riolacci said there would be an immediate impact of about 320-350m euros, plus loss of future business.

Shares in Europe's second-biggest airline fell 2.53% on Wednesday following the announcement.

The company has already cut its profit target for 2014.

Air France said that total passenger traffic fell

Court vacates order granting AMCON possession of MMA2

A Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday vacated an order granted the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) to take over Terminal 2 of Murtala Mohammed International Airport.

Justice Ibrahim Buba, in a ruling, upturned the order on the grounds that it was an abuse of court process since the order was obtained in the face of previous pending cases and specific orders, reports News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Justice Okon Abang of the same court had on September 22 granted receivership of assets of Wale Babalakin, Bi-Courtney’s chairman, to Olisa Agbakoba.

Agbakoba was appointed receiver/manager over all the companies of Babalakin, including MMA2, Bi-Courtney Ltd, Chartered Investment Limited, Resort International Ltd and Roygate Properties Ltd.

The orders were based on

Air France insists budget airline must be low cost

Air France has said it will go ahead with plans to develop its low cost airline within France despite objections from striking pilots.

Conditions at the budget operator are the main sticking point between management and Air France pilots.

Talks on Thursday failed to find a resolution to the 12 day old strike.

Air France said demands that pilots at the new operation receive the same pay and conditions as at Air France were incompatible with the low-cost model.

The pilots are demanding that the same contract be offered to all pilots across Air-France KLM's subsidiaries.

No single contract

Air France originally hoped to develop its low cost operation, Transavia, via regional hubs around Europe. But

Air France resumes talks with pilots' union SNPL

Air France and pilots' union SNPL have resumed talks in the hope of resolving the 11-day strike that is costing the airline up to 15m euros (£11.8m) a day.

The two parties are discussing a counter-offer made by the union following the airline's proposal to scrap plans to expand its Transavia low-cost airline in Europe.

These plans sparked concerns among pilots over pay and job security.

The resulting strike is affecting almost half of all Air France flights.

On Wednesday evening, Air France offered to

Air France offers to scrap low-cost Transavia expansion plan

Air France has offered to scrap plans to expand its Transavia low-cost airline in Europe, in return for pilots returning to work immediately.

In a statement, it said the proposal would help "find an immediate outcome to this destructive conflict".

The company also offered "a renewed guarantee that there will be no relocation" of jobs.

Pilots have been on strike for 10 days and have grounded about half of the airline's flights.

They are unhappy at the lower rates of pay offered by the expanding budget operation compared with core Air France services, threatening to strike indefinitely unless the European expansion is scrapped.

The strike has been costing the airline up to 15m euros (£11.8m) a day.

Air France said it would instead develop its Transavia France project.

"Our Transavia project is a

Monarch airline staff agree to pay cuts of up to 30%

Monarch says its staff have agreed to pay cuts of up to 30% to secure the future of the airline.

It said its employees had voted overwhelmingly in favour of the plan, following discussions with unions.

Monarch's chief executive, Andrew Swaffield, said the vote was "a step forward" in the company's re-organisation.

On Tuesday the firm said it was in talks with investors Greybull Capital to sell a majority stake.

Mr Swaffield added that there were still "further hurdles to be overcome" but that the company had secured future investments from Greybull.

"This is firm progress for Monarch, its employees and for its customers," he said.

Jim McAuslan, General Secretary of the British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa), said pilots had made "major sacrifices to secure the future of this important British company".

"We welcome the announcement that Greybull are moving towards securing their position as majority shareholders in Monarch," he said.

Air France-Transavia: Confusion over expansion plans

Air France has denied that plans to expand its Transavia low-cost airline have been dropped following a 10-day strike by its pilots.

The country's transport secretary, Alain Vidalies, had told RMC radio that "the Transavia Europe project has been abandoned by management".

But Air France said the announcement was "premature", and that it had only proposed to suspend the scheme.

The strike has been costing the airline up to 15m euros (£11.8m) a day.

The dispute is over local employment terms, which can be less generous at European hubs than at core Air France operations.

On Tuesday, Air France said it expected to operate just

Air France suspends plan to expand Transavia

Air France has said it is suspending until December its plan to develop its budget carrier, Transavia, in an effort to end a pilots' strike over the move.

The decision was announced by the airline's boss, Alexandre de Juniac, as the dispute entered its eighth day.

The strike is the airline's longest since 1998 and has been costing the firm 15m euros (£11.8m; $19.3m) a day.

Mr de Juniac said the aim was to allow time for "a thorough dialogue" and provide guarantees for unions.

He told Le Monde newspaper the strike was "disastrous" for the airline.

But he added: "This arrangement must not call into question our ambition to develop Transavia, which is one of the key sources of growth for the Air France-KLM group."

FG Renews Plan to Establish National Carrier

The federal government has initiated fresh plan to establish a national carrier, which it believes would be the pivot of the Aviation Master Plan that hopes to transmute the sector into a key contributor to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Just yesterday, federal government started the assessment of the defunct Nigerian Airways Limited (NALS) assets that have not been sold out or privatised as part of the plan towards the establishment of another national carrier, which would be largely privately owned.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Aviation, Mr Yemi Adelakun, who  was at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos to carry out the assessment on behalf of the federal government, said the purpose of his visit was to see what could be salvaged and to move the sector forward to actualise the set goals, guided by the Aviation Master Plan.

Adelakun said part of the Aviation Master Plan was to

Air France pilots begin week-long strike over jobs move

Pilots for Air France have begun a week-long strike.

The carrier will run less than 50% of normal flights, it said.

The pilots are protesting against a transfer of jobs by the airline to a low-cost carrier to keep up with competition.

Air France is urging passengers around the world to change or postpone travel. Last week it said it would transfer much of its European operations to low-cost carrier Transavia.

The same difficult conditions are faced by large airlines across Europe, facing tough rivalry from budget airlines and Gulf state carriers, that are often backed by royal families.

Lufthansa strike

Chief Executive Frederic Gagey told France Inter radio that the strike would cost the airline 10m to 15m euros (£8m - £12m) a day.

The airline said it would consider negotiation on benefits based on

Airline boss suggests Malaysian tragedy could have been avoided

The boss of Emirates has told the BBC it would have avoided flying over Ukraine if knowledge high altitude missiles were there had been passed on.

The president of Emirates, Sir Tim Clark, said: "There was evidence that these missiles had been on site, in situ for a number of weeks beforehand.

"Emirates did not know of that fact, and I don't think many others did."

He said though that some carriers did appear to know, but didn't share information.

He said it was likely that every airline would have by-passed the danger zone if they had known.

It's widely believed that a missile downed Malaysian flight MH17 on 17th July, killing all 298 people on board.

Planes had been cleared to fly in the area as long as they stayed above a certain height, and a report earlier this week highlighted the fact that

Airports Remodeling: Aviation Minister Orders Contractors Back to Site

Seven months after airports remodeling projects were abandoned, Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka has ordered contractors handling the projects to return to site with immediate effect and complete all pending jobs without further delay.

Contractors handling the remodeling work at the 22 airports under the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) had abandoned the project because the FAAN and Ministry of Aviation stopped funding them shortly after the removal of former minister, Ms. Stella Oduah in February last year.

Besides, funds allocated for the project by the Ministry of Finance, the accruals from the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA), could not assessed, under the acting Minister of Aviation, Dr. Samuel Ortom.

FAAN sources, who confirmed the development at the weekend, said

Lufthansa pilots' strike means travel chaos for thousands

Lufthansa said a pilots' strike later on Friday will mean cancelling 200 flights and hit the travel plans of about 250,000 passengers.

The German airline has been locked in a dispute with the Vereinigung Cockpit union over an early retirement scheme.

Lufthansa said short-haul and medium-haul flights leaving Frankfurt airport, Europe's third largest, will be hit.

Pilots at Lufthansa's budget carrier Germanwings went on strike last week over early retirement.

Friday's strike will involve a six-hour stoppage from