Flydubai has finalized a wet-lease agreement with Czech Republic-based Smartwings for four Boeing 737-800s from Dec. 14- Jan. 25, 2020 as the MAX grounding drags on. The Dubai-based carrier has 14 MAXs in its fleet.
Flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith said: “The continued grounding of our MAX aircraft has had a significant impact on our operations with a 30% reduction of our flying schedule … these four additional aircraft will enable more passengers to have more travel options during the holiday season.”
The all-economy leased aircraft will operate on flydubai’s select routes, including Bahrain; Colombo (Sri Lanka); Faisalabad, Multan, Karachi, Sialkot (Pakistan); Kuwait; Muscat (Oman); and Prague (Czech Republic).
Flydubai said it continues to review plans and explore all options to minimize passenger disruption until the MAX aircraft receive regulatory approval by the General Civil Aviation Authority to fly again following two fatal crashes.

Ryanair Boeing 737-800 i Skavsta. (Foto Stockholm Skavsta Airport)

Ryanair lukker sidste større skandinaviske base

Danny Longhi Andreasen Af: Danny Longhi Andreasen i Ruter 5. december 2019 Senest opdateret: 5. december 2019 kl. 18:14 Print Print

Den sidste større Ryanair-base i Skandinavien, Stockholm Skavsta, lukkes i foråret 2020, da det irske lavprisflyselskab mangler kapacitet som følge af MAX-groundingen.
Flyselskaber verden over foretager løbende ændringer i trafikprogrammerne på grund af den vedvarende grounding af Boeing 737 MAX.
Ryanair er et af de flyselskaber, der skulle have modtaget en lang række Boeing 737 MAX i løbet af i år, og de forsinkede leveringer tvinger selskabet til løbende at ændre planer for den kommende sommer.
Onsdag kunne det irske lavprisflyselskab meddele, at de to næste baser, der lukkes, er Stockholm Skavsta og Nürnberg i Tyskland. Dette sker med virkning fra den 29. marts 2020. Stockholm Skavsta er Ryanairs sidste større skandinaviske base, mens basen med et fly i Gøteborg-Landvetter stadig vil være intakt.
”Vi forventer også at reducere sommerkapacitet i en række andre eksisterende baser, og vi er i øjeblikket i dialog med vores ansatte, vores fagforeninger og vores berørte lufthavne for at afslutte disse mindre reduktioner,” forklarer Ryanair i en erklæring.
Ryanair har tidligere haft skandinaviske baser i blandt andet Billund Lufthavn, Københavns Lufthavn og Moss Lufthavn Rygge, og Stockholm Skavsta droppes således som den næstsidste i Skandinavien i denne omgang.
Stadig Ryanair-fly fra Skavsta
Oprindeligt havde Ryanair kalkuleret med at have 58 Boeing 737 MAX i sommertrafikprogrammet 2020. Da MAX-groundingen fortsatte, blev dette tal justeret ned til 20 for en måned siden. Og nu forventer Ryanair kun at have modtaget 10 fly af denne type i tide til den kommende sommer.
Selv om Ryanair lukker sin base i Stockholm Skavsta, vil selskabet stadig flyve til og fra lufthavnen – dog med langt færre flyvninger, meddeler administrerende direktør i Stockholm Skavsta, Peter Steinmetz, i et internt brev til sine ansatte ifølge SVT. Det er uklart, hvad det kommer til at betyde for lufthavnens ansatte.
”Antallet af afgange er naturligvis det, der påvirker, hvor meget personale vi har brug for, men i øjeblikket kan vi ikke sige noget om det. Hvis de lukker ruter, kan det betyde færre medarbejdere, men forhåbentlig ikke,” siger Lena Josefsson fra Stockholm Skavstas marketingafdeling til det svenske nyhedsbureau TT ifølge SVT.
Nedjusterer forventede antal passagerer
Michael O’Leary, koncernchef i Ryanair, advarede i sommer om, at den vedvarende grounding af Boeing 737 MAX sandsynligvis kunne få den konsekvens, at det irske lavprisflyselskab måtte lukke baser og afskedige ansatte.
”Vi beklager disse to ekstra baselukninger og mindre kapacitetsnedskæringer på andre baser, som udelukkende skyldes yderligere forsinkelser af levering af vores Boeing MAX-fly,” lyder forklaringen fra Eddie Wilson, personaledirektør i Ryanair.
Ryanair lukkede sin base i CPH i 2015 som følge af problemer med fagbevægelsen. Basen i norske Rygge syd for Oslo blev lukket med den forklaring, at den norske stat indførte passagerafgifter på flyvninger fra norske lufthavne. Generelt set er Ryanair kendt for at binde baselukninger op på forskellige begivenheder i markedet. Senest har Ryanair altså forklaret Skavsta-lukningen med MAX-problemerne.
I regnskabsåret, der slutter den 31. marts 2021, havde Ryanair indledningsvis kalkuleret med at transportere 162 millioner passagerer. Dette tal blev først justeret ned til 157 millioner, og de vedvarende MAX-problemer får nu selskabet til at forvente 156 millioner rejsende i pågældende regnskabsår, meddeler selskabet.

Boeing chief engineer who defended Max airliner is retiring


FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2019, file photo, Boeing Commercial Airplanes Vice President and Chief Engineer John Hamilton, testifies during a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Hamilton who has played a key role in the company's response to the grounding of the 737 Max is retiring. Boeing said Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019, that Hamilton planned to retire last year as chief engineer of commercial airplanes, but he stayed on to help get the Max back into service. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

CHICAGO (AP) - The Boeing engineer who has played a key role in the company's response to the grounding of the 737 Max is retiring.

Boeing said Wednesday that John Hamilton planned to retire last year as chief engineer of commercial airplanes, but he stayed on to help get the Max back into service.

Hamilton appeared alongside CEO Dennis Muilenburg during two congressional hearings in late October and explained the design and production of the Max, which has been grounded since March following two deadly crashes.

Hamilton acknowledged Boeing made some mistakes. Those included not having tested whether a faulty sensor could trigger the plane's anti-stall system, which investigators believe happened in both crashes, pushing down the noses of the planes.

At other times he defended Boeing's safety culture. While a couple lawmakers expressed frustration with Hamilton's answers, they reserved most of their anger for Muilenburg.

Hamilton has spent 35 years at Boeing and served as chief project engineer for several planes including the 737 NG, the version that preceded the Max. He was responsible for engineering design and safety for all Boeing airliners when the company got final approval of the Max from the Federal Aviation Administration.

He was named to his current position in March to deal with the accident investigations and other technical risks, according to the company.

He will be replaced by Lynne Hopper, vice president of engineering for Boeing's commercial airplanes business. She will be the first woman to hold the job at Boeing, a company spokesman said.

Boeing's expectations for returning the Max to flight have been set back several times. Boeing engineers began updating flight-control software called MCAS shortly after it was determined to have played a role in the crash of a Lion Air Max off the coast of Indonesia in October 2018. They were still working on the software when an Ethiopian Airlines Max crashed near Addis Ababa in March.

The company's hopes for a quick return to service were dashed in June, when test pilots for the Federal Aviation Administration discovered a separate problem involving flight computers during a session in a flight simulator. The three U.S. airlines that own Max jets - Southwest, American and United - don't expect them back in the schedule until March.