Reading Time: < 1 minute Icelandic startup airline PLAY will receive its first aircraft – Airbus A320neo – at the beginning of June. Two more aircraft will follow in July. In the meantime, PLAY pilots are completing simulator training in the UK in preparation for the first passenger flight, which is planned for June 24th. The airline that intends to […]

Reading Time: < 1 minute Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, the new low-cost carrier of the capital city and now the 5th airline in the UAE, has received Air Operating Certificate (AOC) giving the green light for the airline’s operations. Air Arabia Abu Dhabi is a join venture established by Etihad Airways and Air Arabia. The new independent budget airline will […]

Reading Time: < 1 minute In a sign of the emerging popularity of the low-cost carrier concept and the stimulation of increasing population mobility within and across the Central Asia region, Kazakhstan’s national carrier Air Astana has announced plans to launch the country’s first low-cost carrier (LCC) subsidiary before summer 2019. The fleet of the new Kazakh budget airline, which […]

Reading Time: < 1 minute WestJet announced it has been recognized as Best Low-Cost Airline – The Americas for 2018 by airlineratings.com. The website rates more than 425 airlines around the globe to determine its award winners. “It is an honour to be named Best Low-Cost Airline for the whole of North and South America,” said Ed Sims, WestJet Executive […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes Following on from the rostering debacle, Ryanair has addressed the competitiveness of the low-cost carrier’s pilots’ pay, together with communication, career progression and basing. Michael O’Leary, the company’s CEO has claimed that the pay offered was “already slightly higher” that competitor airlines, but he admitted that response to a tightening market for experienced first officers […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes That took a while. The arrival of the low-cost model in Latin America has been a slow process. The reason? Well, quite a few. Long distances for starters. Culture, high aeronautical taxes and charges that impact every operator’s bottom-line and the lack of a solid competing means of transportation, within others. Mexico, Brazil and Colombia […]

Reading Time: < 1 minute Saudi Arabian Airlines’ budget subsidiary sold 10,000 tickets in the first 24 hours after tickets were made available for purchase according to CEO Kon Corfiatis. Flyadeal began operations flying its first route from Riyadh to Jeddah and bookings through October are “very solid” Corfiatis told Air Transport World earlier in the week. Flyadeal is currently […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes UK-based low-cost carrier (LCC) easyJet reported a strong balance sheet with net cash of £426 million ($553 million) as of June 30. As a result, easyJet raised its profit guidance and expects its pretax headline profit for the full-year to reach £380–£420 million, compared with the £365 million analysts predicted. However, the LCC warned low […]

Reading Time: < 1 minute Low-cost carrier (LCC) Wizz Air has reported a 31% rise in maintenance costs, to EUR 27m, for Q1 2017/18. The Budapest-based airline says most of the rise was due to a larger fleet, which increased by 13 aircraft from the year-before period. By 2020 it expects to operate 120 Airbus narrowbodies, including A320neos and A321neos, […]

Reading Time: < 1 minute UK low-cost carrier easyJet has announced that Carolyn McCall will step down as CEO around the end of 2017 to lead UK television company ITV. The airline said McCall will continue with her existing responsibilities; the search for her successor is already underway. “This was a really difficult decision for me to make,” McCall said. […]