Ryanair to add first B737 MAX 200 in 2Q19

Ryanair (FR, Dublin Int'l) has announced it will take over the Berlin Tegel base from its subsidiary LaudaMotion (OE, Vienna) as of April 2019. Meanwhile, the Austrian leisure specialist will take over the Düsseldorf Int'l base currently operated by its Irish parent.

Ryanair will base four B737-800s out of the main gateway in Germany's capital. The base will utilise the slots taken over from the bankrupt Niki (HG, Vienna) by LaudaMotion. Currently, the Austrian unit also bases four Boeing narrowbodies wet-leased from Ryanair out of Berlin Tegel.

The Irish LCC will also launch two new routes out of the airport, to Kefallinia and Paphos. In total, Ryanair plans to operate fifteen routes out of Tegel in Summer 2019.

In turn, LaudaMotion will take over the existing Ryanair's base at Dusseldorf. Short of announcing any details, CEO Andreas Gruber told AustrianAviation.net that the change would lead to a "massive" expansion at Dusseldorf. LaudaMotion also intends to grow at Stuttgart Echterdingen in Germany in 2019, although...

Expedia has filed a lawsuit in a US court against Ryanair (FR, Dublin Int'l), seeking the right to include the LCC's tickets in its search and booking engine, The Irish Times has reported.

The travel booking giant is alleging that Ryanair is effectively trying to monopolise the tour operator market by banning other companies from selling packages including the LCC's flights.

Ryanair allowed reselling of its tickets and repackaging them until 2016, when it launched an own platform, Ryanair Holidays, which includes options to book accommodation together with the flight ticket. Expedia alleges that by terminating the option to resell its tickets, Ryanair effectively harmed competition and monopolised a large chunk of the European travel market.

As such, Expedia seeks an order from the US court which would force Ryanair to allow reselling its tickets by third parties. It also seeks damages from the Irish LCC.

The newest lawsuit follows earlier cases brought by Ryanair against Expedia. The Irish carrier accused Expedia in both an Irish and American court of "screenscraping" its website, meaning...

Alitalia (AZ, Rome Fiumicino) has announced it would relocate nearly all its flights to/from Milan Linate to Milan Malpensa during the former airport's closure between July 27 and October 27, 2019. The Italian carrier will also operate 4x daily shuttle flights to Rome Fiumicino out of Milan Bergamo.

The carrier said it would allow passengers who have already booked tickets for flights to or from Linate during its closure get a full refund if they do not want to fly from Malpensa.

According to the ch-aviation capacity module, Alitalia currently operates 681 weekly departures out of Linate. It is by far the largest carrier at the airport located within the city limits and has a 66.2% market share by capacity.

Alitalia currently offers 141 weekly departures on its trunk shuttle route to Rome Fiumicino, which translates to, on average, around 20 departures per day. During the closure of Linate, the carrier will operate nine daily departures to Rome from Malpensa and an additional four out of Bergamo.

Currently, Alitalia operates...