Category: Aviation Strategy

Low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA will begin operating flights in Argentina beginning in late 2017, a spokesman said Dec. 16th , as more air travel operators seek a foothold in Latin America’s No. 3 economy.

The company plans to open two or three operating bases and begin passenger flights by November. It already has begun the relevant regulatory processes. Spokesman Alfons Claver did not say which routes the airline plans to run but expects to have bases in Buenos Aires, Cordoba and possibly Mendoza. “South America is a very interesting market characterized by little competition and high prices,” Claver said in a statement. He said

Continue reading “European Lowcost Airline ,Norwegian Air Shuttle´ starts flights in Argentina”

The Ryanair Holdings PLC on November 7th lifted its outlook for long-term passenger growth and nonticket sales. Ryanair said it now expects to carry 200 million passengers a year by March 2024, or 20 million more than previously projected.

The airline expects to gain customers through expansion and retrenchment of other airlines in the face of stiff competition. Sales for the July-to-September period, traditionally the busiest for the airline, advanced 2% to €2.4 billion.  The Irish carrier said its board had approved a €550 million share-repurchase program, the airline’s eighth, to be carried out through February 2017. Continue reading “Ryanair: overall expansion plans”

German national carrier Lufthansa is in talks to rescue its arch-rival Air Berlin, ,Handelsblatt´ has learned. Europe‘s biggest airline is negotiating with Gulf carrier Etihad, Air Berlin‘s biggest shareholder with a stake of just under 30 percent, to acquire parts of the struggling airline that has been making losses for the past 10 years.

According to Handelblatt Etihad has shored up Air Berlin with credit of several hundred million euros in the past. But Germany‘s second-largest airline has kept on hemorrhaging money because it overreached itself with its ambition to be a premium carrier, budget and charter airline all in one. Lufthansa appears to be interested in taking over all Air Berlin routes that don‘t go via the hubs in Düsseldorf or Berlin, as well as around 40 leased aircraft including their crews.

The planes could join the fleet of Lufthansa‘s budget subsidiary Eurowings. The talks are scheduled to be completed by October at the latest. Up to now the three companies declined to comment.

If the deal happens, Air Berlin chief executive Stefan Pichler could Continue reading “Rescuing the arch-rival?”