Cantabrian lawmakers mum on airline subsidies

Ryanair to appeal as Hungary slaps it with $771,000 fine

Ryanair (FR, Dublin Int'l) plans to lodge an appeal with the courts of the European Union after Hungary fined it HUF300 million forints (USD771,000) it for “deceiving consumers through unfair commercial practices” in relation to a new profit tax.

As previously reported, Ryanair demanded in June that the nationalist government of Viktor Orbán scrap what it called a “misguided” tax placed on airlines of EUR10 to EUR25 (USD10.25-26.60) per passenger departing Hungary starting from July. The special tax measure, estimated to be worth HUF800 billion (USD2.06 billion) in total, targets “extra profits” earned by “banks, insurers, large retail chains, energy and trading companies, telecommunications companies, and airlines,” Orbán said, in an effort to compensate for inflation blamed on the war in Ukraine as well as to fund further defence spending.

On June 10, Budapest municipality (Budapest Főváros Kormányhivatala - BFKH) launched a consumer protection investigation against Ryanair for pledging to pass the costs of the tax on to passengers, and on August 8 it duly imposed the fine as the authority had “found that...

Belavia only beneficiary as Russia ungrounds B737 MAX

The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) has authorised the B737 MAX to operate in its airspace. However, as the move is limited to friendly countries only, Belarus's Belavia (B2, Minsk National) is the only beneficiary of the decision.

Unusually, Russia did not issue its own statement about the type's ungrounding. Instead, the news was shared by the Belarus Ministry of Transport and Communications and was subsequently confirmed by the Russian state-owned news agency TASS.

Belavia's sole B737-8, EW-528PA (msn 43344), crossed Russian airspace for the first time on July 21, 2022, operating from Minsk National to Kutaisi in Georgia, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows. It has since been regularly deployed on a variety of eastbound routes from Minsk, including to the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Russia itself. The aircraft was delivered to Belavia in April 2021, when most countries in the world (including Belarus) had already ungrounded the type. It was briefly deployed on services to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion, Larnaca, Kyiv Boryspil, and Warsaw Chopin between July...

Belavia eyes SSJs but not in the near future

Malta's Lauda Europe extends A320 ops to 2027/28