19.01.2021 - 05:40 UTC
Austria’s Innsbruck Kranebitten Airport will close from September 20 to October 18, 2021, to allow for a EUR18.8 million (USD20.2 million) overhaul of its only runway, 08/26, with preparation work beginning in March and April 2021.
The airport's largest construction project to date will involve removing about 14cm of asphalt from the runway totalling around 40,000 tonnes and re-applying 12cm over an area measuring about 140,000m², roughly the size of 19 soccer fields, technical manager Alexander Strasshofer explained in a statement. Austria’s largest construction company, Strabag SE, had been commissioned to carry out the project. Electrical installations near the runway would also be modernised, and the runway lighting would be converted to energy-saving LED technology.
Renovation of the runway was urgently needed and future investment, commented airport manager, Marco Pernetta. The airport is 581,25m above mean sea level (MSL) with a 2,000m long and 45m wide runway. The runway substructure dates back to the 1950s/60s. Thin layers of asphalt were applied every 10 to 15 years, but these were now in poor condition, necessitating a thorough...
Editorial Comment: Corrected construction work timings to be from 06:00 to 22:00 as opposed to 06:00 to 10:00. - 19.01.2021 - 06:37 UTC
11.01.2021 - 10:23 UTC
easyJet (U2, London Luton) announced on January 11 “the continued strengthening of its liquidity position” with the signing of a new five-year loan facility worth up to USD1.87 billion, underwritten by a syndicate of banks.
The facility for the cash-strapped carrier is supported by a partial guarantee from the United Kingdom’s export credit agency UK Export Finance under its Export Development Guarantee (EDG) scheme.
The EDG is available to qualifying UK companies, does not carry preferential rates or require state aid approval, and contains some restrictions such as around dividend payments, easyJet said in a statement dated January 8 but published on January 11.
As with other European airlines, easyJet had been pinning its hopes on a recovery in air travel demand this spring, but with most countries back in lockdown, capacity is expected to remain minimal for several more months.
“This facility will significantly extend and improve easyJet’s debt maturity profile and increase the level of liquidity available,” CEO Johan Lundgren said, adding that the company had now secured more than GBP4.5...
07.01.2021 - 01:11 UTC
Ryanair UK (RK, London Stansted) says it has cancelled 12 routes in and from the United Kingdom after what it termed the UK Civil Aviation Authority's "sudden change of policy" regarding the wet-leasing of aircraft from sister carrier Ryanair (FR, Dublin Int'l).
"We are disappointed to have to cancel 12 UK domestic and international (Morocco and Ukraine) routes from London [London Luton and London Stansted], Manchester Int'l, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Belfast Int'l, and Londonderry, because of the CAA's unexpected policy-shift late last night [on December 20]. Ryanair UK had agreed Brexit contingency arrangements with the CAA 2 years ago and cannot comply with its new and impractical requirements at 10 days’ notice," Ryanair's spokesperson said.
As exclusively reported by ch-aviation in early December 2020, Ryanair Holdings planned to shift the operation of all of its domestic routes in the UK, as well as international services to outside the European Union, to its British subsidiary as of January 2, 2021. Flights would have been operated by...
05.01.2021 - 07:14 UTC
IAG International Airlines Group has tweaked its corporate structure to ensure that its Aer Lingus (EI, Dublin Int'l) and Iberia (IB, Madrid Barajas) subsidiaries remain controlled by European Union investors and therefore retain their access to the bloc's internal market.
"These remedial plans were approved by national regulators in Spain and Ireland and, as required, the EU has been notified about them. The plans include the implementation of a national ownership structure for Aer Lingus and changes to the Group's long-standing national ownership structure in Spain," the Madrid-headquartered holding said in a stock market filing.
IAG has long held that Iberia is controlled by Spanish department store chain El Corte Inglés. The Spanish government previously vowed to support the holding in protecting the carrier's "Spanishness".
Irish radio station Newstalk reported that in Ireland, IAG has placed control of Aer Lingus in the hands of a local trust.
As the post-Brexit trade agreement between the EU and the United Kingdom did not waive the bloc's usual control and ownership rules for airlines,...
