GERMANY: Disabled Wheelchair Passenger Thrown Off Ryanair Flight

A disabled teenager was reportedly thrown off a flight after his electric wheelchair signaled safety concerns.

Noel Diaz of Aachen in Germany, was looking forward to spending Christmas and New Year’s Eve with family members in Alicante. Together with his father Jose, 19-year-old Noel travelled to Cologne-Bonn Airport to board their Ryanair flight however claims he was turned away.

Noel, who suffers from muscle atrophy, a disease which results in the partial or complete wasting away of the mass of the muscle, has been wheelchair-bound since the age of 12 and says he is well aware of the rules when it comes to taking his wheelchair on an aeroplane.

Weeks prior to departure, Noel and his dad booked the tickets and cleared the paperwork with the airline in which they have to give the precise type of electric battery which powers the wheelchair.

However, just before take off on Christmas Eve, the father and son were in for a nasty surprise when the Ryanair flight attendants reportedly asked them to leave the plane.

Jose said my severely disabled boy and I just had our seatbelts fastened when the flight crew asked us to leave the aircraft.

Noel’s wheelchair could not be transported because of safety reasons. They said there was a danger of explosion. Despite their protests Noel and Jose had no choice but to leave the aeroplane.

Jose said the Ryanair personnel were tough as nails, heaving my defenceless boy out of the plane seat, pushing him onto the tarmac.

Both passengers were officially offloaded from the flight and forced to spend Christmas and New Year’s Eve back in Aachen instead of with the rest of the family in Alicante. According to the Diaz family, Ryanair refused to refund the €120 (£108) for the tickets.

They say the incident was so traumatic that Noel does not want to board an aeroplane again in the near future. Mum Natalia Diaz said it will take some time until he has processed this trauma.

According to aviation law passengers are allowed to take devices using so-called gel (gelified electrolyte) batteries when they are pre-cleared with the airline.

The wheelchair might however be subject to a maximum size, power and weight and must have its battery disconnected during the flight.


Tourism Observer

SPAIN: Vueling Airlines Launches Flights From Palma de Mallorca To Stuttgart, Vienna And Lisbon

Vueling launched three new routes from Palma de Mallorca (PMI) in the last week, with services commencing to Stuttgart (STR) and Vienna (VIE) on 1 June, and to Lisbon (LIS) on 2 June.

The latter 1,025-kilometre connection to the Portuguese capital city will be operated twice-weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays and there is no direct competition.

The 1,138-kilometre link to Stuttgart and the 1,456-kilometre route to Vienna will both be operated four times weekly and there is incumbent competition on each airport pair.

The Stuttgart route is already operated by Laudamotion, Eurowings, TUIfly, Condor, easyJet and Ryanair, with these six carriers providing a combined 89 weekly flights.

The Vienna sector is currently flown by Laudamotion and Eurowings which offer a combined 39 rotations.

Commenting on the new link to Palma de Mallorca Julian Jäger, Joint CEO and COO of Vienna Airport said: Thanks to the new flight connection, passengers will enjoy an even broader travel offering to Spain’s most popular holiday island.

The island offers a change of scene to travellers of all ages, whether for a city trip, beach holiday or sport vacation.

Vueling has added two more sectors to its domestic network in the last seven days, with two new sectors from Palma de Mallorca (PMI), its fourth biggest operation after Barcelona, Rome Fiumicino and Paris Orly.

On 15 June, the IAG-owned subsidiary started a three times weekly rotation to Jerez (XRY).

The next day it began a similar frequency on the 393-kilometre city pair to Zaragoza (ZAZ).

Both sectors will be flown by the airline’s A320 fleet, with the latter route to Zaragoza facing direct competition from Air Europa (three times weekly) and Volotea (twice-weekly).

This summer Vueling will serve 26 destinations non-stop from Palma de Mallorca. This is one more than last summer.

However, while five new destinations have been added the others being Florence, Lille and Zurich, four have been dropped: Algiers, Brussels, Catania and Turin.

Vueling Airlines, S.A. is a Spanish low-cost airline based at El Prat de Llobregat in Greater Barcelona with hubs in Barcelona–El Prat Airport and Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy.

Its name comes from the Spanish word vuelo, which means flight. It is the largest airline in Spain by fleet size and the number of destinations.

There are thirteen additional bases at A Coruna, Alicante, Amsterdam, Bilbao, Florence, Madrid, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Orly, Santiago de Compostela, Seville and Valencia.

A fifteenth summer seasonal base is located at Ibiza.

Vueling serves over 100 destinations in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. In 2015, the airline carried more than 24 million passengers, with a load factor of 81%.

MTV has since ended.

In November 2010, Vueling announced a new base at Toulouse Airport in France from April 2011, followed in December 2010 by the announcement of a new base in Amsterdam, also to open during April 2011.

The Toulouse base opened on 23 April 2011, but has since closed.

In January 2011, further expansion was announced with Vueling adding a further nine aircraft to its fleet, including Airbus A319 aircraft.

Six Airbus A320s were delivered between April and June 2011, whilst the remaining two A320s were delivered by the end of 2011.

On 21 March 2012, it was announced by CEO Alex Cruz that Rome would be added as a new base.

The base launched on 25 March 2012 with one aircraft based there, the airline has since expanded at Rome with numerous new destinations.

On 5 December 2012, Vueling announced the opening of a new base of operations in Florence, the carrier is to base one aircraft there and serve four new European destinations.

Ten months later, on 25 October 2013, Vueling launched Florence-Catania, its first domestic route in Italy.

Since November 2013, the airline has continued to expand from its hub at Barcelona.

On 6 November 2013, Vueling announced a new base with one aircraft in Brussels, with seven new destinations from May 2014, in addition to the four previous routes from Brussels.

Also in November 2013, Vueling announced an expansion of its base at Rome-Fiumicino. From mid-2014, 8 aircraft would be based there, operating more than 30 routes.

This expansion meant Rome-Fiumcino would become Vueling's second hub, after Barcelona.

During the first weekend of July 2016, Vueling had many delays and cancellations, which resulted in an investigation by the Spanish authorities.

During the same month, Vueling cancelled all the flights to Sheremetyevo International Airport, Vilnius Airport and Rabat–Sale Airport. Clients are able to get a refund or fly to the nearest airport where Vueling flies.

In October 2016, Vueling shut down their bases in Brussels, Catania and Palermo as part of restructuring measures.

In March 2017, Vueling cancelled its route from Barcelona to Frankfurt Airport.

On 29 December 2017, it was announced that IAG would acquire Austrian airline Niki as a subsidiary for Vueling.

In November 2012, International Airlines Group, whose subsidiary Iberia held a 45.85% stake in Vueling, offered to buy the remaining 54.15% of the company with both Iberia and IAG owning both shares and not resulting in the company being wholly owned by IAG through 100% of shares.

IAG, also the owner of British Airways, plans to use Vueling to help stem losses at Iberia.

However, market trends increased profits and improved figures from Vueling resulting in a higher share-price had made IAG's offer a significant undervaluation of the airline.

Vueling had urged its shareholders to reject IAG's offer and its shareholders had until the 8th of April 2013 to decide upon the recommendation.

On 27 March 2013, IAG improved its offer for Vueling, raising its offer per share from €7 to €9.25.

Vueling shares quickly surged following the announcement, rising by 8.8% to €9.23 following a temporary suspension as BMAD waited on an official comment from Vueling regarding the updated offer.

The acceptance period was also increased by 48 calendar days.

On 9 April 2013, the board of Vueling unanimously recommended shareholders accept an improved offer of €9.25 per share from IAG.

IAG CEO Willie Walsh confirmed that the board had recommended the new offer; however, Walsh also stated that Vueling would not be merged with Iberia, saying, Vueling will operate as a stand-alone entity in IAG group.

On 23 April 2013, IAG acquired control of Vueling which saw the recently purchased 44.66% stake by IAG merged with Iberia's existing 45.85% stake to form a 90.51% shareholding.

Vueling remains a standalone company now within the IAG and its management structure is unchanged; however, Vueling's CEO Alex Cruz reports directly to IAG CEO Willie Walsh.

Vueling has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

- British Airways

- Cathay Pacific

- Iberia

- Qatar Airways


The Vueling fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Airbus A319-100 - 5

Airbus A320-200 - 89

Airbus A321-200 - 15

Total - 107

Vueling orders for more aircrafts:

Airbus A320neo - 47


Tourism Observer

ITALY: Milan Malpensa Airport Traffic Up by 11%

Milan Malpensa is the busiest of the three airports that serve Milan, with Milan Bergamo (11.2 million passengers in 2016) and Milan Linate (9.6 million) being the other two airports which serve the city.

Last year Malpensa handled over 19.3 million passengers across its two terminals, which represents a 48% market share of all Milan traffic in 2016, with the city welcoming just over 40 million passengers.

By welcoming 19.3 million passengers in 2016, Malpensa witnessed an increase in traffic of 4.7% when compared to 2015. Looking at statistics for Q1 2017, growth for the year so far is much stronger than last year, with traffic up by over 11% for the first three months of this year, with a little over 4.4 million passengers using the airport.

However, what is important is that most of this traffic is growing from an O&D perspective. During the last winter season, Milan Malpensa welcomed 7.3 million O&D passengers, a record season for the airport, commented Andrea Tucci, Aviation Business Development, Milan Airports SEA.

This O&D traffic figure represents nearly 13% growth on the same season the year before. Tucci commented that this was even more impressive considering it was natural growth.

In 2015 the EXPO was held in Milan and in 2014 Malpensa welcomed Ryanair traffic from Bergamo as it was closed for runway work, so this year is the first to have seen natural growth which makes this result even more impressive.

For this calendar year, the hope is that Malpensa will break the 20-21 million passenger barrier, which is achievable given the current recording for the first three months of 2017.

Looking at the domestic/international split of traffic from Malpensa last year, around 86% of passengers travelled on non-Italian routes, with the remaining 14% flying domestically in 2016. This is the same ratio as was achieved in 2015, while in 2014 international traffic accounted for 85% of passengers.

Looking at the two markets individually, international traffic grew by 4.5% in 2016, while the domestic market shows a 6.2% rise. Looking at the two markets for Q1 2017, international passengers are up by over 10%, while the domestic market is growing faster, with traffic in this sector up 18% for the first three months of this year.

When referring to OAG schedules, this summer’s seat capacity from Malpensa has risen by 14%, matching the growth patterns of passenger traffic for the year so far, with just under 300,000 weekly one-way seats on offer, up from 259,000 weekly seats in June last year. The largest carrier at Malpensa is easyJet, with it occupying 29% of weekly seat capacity in S17.

Malpensa is the airline’s joint-largest base in continental Europe, with it occupying 4.6% of monthly seat capacity in S17, the same as easyJet’s Geneva base, while London Gatwick leads with 12% of capacity. Last year easyJet carried 6.75 million passengers from Malpensa, with 4.6 million flying on international services and over 2.1 million on domestic routes.

In recent weeks the airline has added new routes from Malpensa to Stockholm Arlanda, Granada and Santiago de Compostela, helping the UK LCC report a 3.1% increase in weekly seats this summer.

The next-largest carrier at the airport is Ryanair, an airline which has grown its weekly seat capacity from the airport by a mighty 189% in the last year, with it having been the airport’s 10th biggest carrier in S16.

Looking ahead to the winter season, Ryanair will expand further from Malpensa by adding an extra seven routes, with its next destinations including Alicante, Eindhoven, Katowice, Lamezia Terme, Liverpool, Palermo and Valencia. Malpensa officially became a Ryanair base in December 2015.

The carrier is reporting 45% growth in weekly seats for S17. In total 73 airlines are operating flights into Malpensa this summer, with the top 12 making up 63% of the overall seats when referring to OAG schedules.

Malpensa welcomed the return of Air France and KLM

On 26 March Malpensa Airport welcomed the return of two carriers after an absence of five years, with Air France beginning five daily flights from Paris CDG and KLM beginning a four daily service from Amsterdam.

As a result of both airlines’ return to Malpensa, Air France and KLM have become the airport’s 14th and 15th largest carriers respectively, with both of them sitting behind Italian national carrier Alitalia (which operates flights to Abu Dhabi, New York JFK and Tokyo Narita from Malpensa) in 13th.

It should be noted that Air France and KLM still serve Milan Linate.

With the arrival of Air France on the connection between Paris CDG and Malpensa, the route has welcomed a 45% increase in weekly seats this summer, with the airport pairing already served by easyJet (43 weekly flights). Along with CDG, Catania and Amsterdam (all highlighted in light green) have all welcomed an additional carrier in the past year, allowing all three to climb into the airport’s top four routes, with them joining Barcelona in third.

In 2016 Barcelona was the #1 route from Malpensa.

Currently this summer 152 non-stop destinations are served directly from Malpensa when referring to OAG schedules, with new routes recently launched including London Southend with Flybe and Moscow Domodedovo with Meridiana.

SPAIN: Fires On Spanish Coast

Stunning beaches, over 3,000 hours of sunshine a year and a rich history, it is no wonder that Alicante and Benidorm are such popular holiday destinations, with over 12 million British nationals visiting yearly.

Recent events may cause many holiday-makers to reconsider their plans as fires have raged through the Javea area, forcing tourists and residents to evacuate as fire services attempt to stop the blaze.

September is one of the busiest months of the year for tourism in Spain and being such a popular destination for British tourists, many may be wondering if it is safe to travel to the area.

Officers in Spain have said that the sources of the fire indicate that it may be the result of arsonists, and some may fear that the fire was started as an act of anti-tourism.

“Assuming that the fire was started deliberately and it could have been started by anyone, there is no reason to suspect that it will be started again,” says Dr Yeganeh Morakabati, principal lecturer in Tourism for the Bournemouth University.

“The destructive act was not aimed at people, it was aimed at the property and natural environment, which of course affects people indirectly.”

Dr Morakabati adds: “It can put people off from going to this region of Spain, especially because fire leaves an unpleasant smell and aesthetically degrades the area with charred grass, trees and soot.”

The rest of the country may not suffer a drop in tourism however, Dr Morakabati suggests: “Spain as a whole would only see some shift in tourist demand and therefore a redistribution of tourism activities to other areas within the region.”

The forest fires have led to evacuations of large areas, so if you are travelling to Benitachell or Javea, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advises you to “check with your travel company whether you'll be able to access your accomodation”.

Lecturer from the University of Salford, Manchester, Neil Robinson, says: “I would recommend always taking your own insurance, even in the European Union. Read the small print and check for regulations within the insurance that say in the result of fire or insurrection you may not be covered.”

He also suggested that some insurance companies may not cover you if you go on holiday while incidents, such as riots, are already taking place, so do check their policies.

“The Spanish fire services are well organised, check with the company you booked with, check your accommodation, flights and tourism organisations.”

While on holiday, try to stay up to date on the local news and social media for the area, so you can be aware if any incidents do occur, keep a charged mobile phone with you and keep in touch with friends and family at home.

As with any holiday abroad, the FCO suggest you carry a valid European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) with you in case of any emergency.

Keep family together and consider a potential plan for should you need to evacuate. Should you need to leave do so quickly and don't go back for possessions as wildfires can rapidly spread.

Robinson says: “In worst-case scenarios, you might need to pack water and some food source so that you have the essentials with you if you can't get to them.”

UNITED KINGDOM: Jet2 Unveils 57 Weekly Flights From Birmingham Airport

Jet2.com and Jet2holidays is to begin flying from Birmingham airport for the first time with the introduction of 57 weekly flights to 15 destinations.

Birmingham will become the operator and airline’s eighth base in the UK.

Destinations on sale for summer 2017 include Alicante, Crete (Heraklion), Faro, Fuerteventura, Girona (Costa Brava), Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Majorca, Malaga, Menorca, Paphos, Reus, Rhodes and Tenerife.

The flights will operate on four of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays’ new Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

The first flights from Birmingham will take off on March 30 to Faro and Malaga.

The airline already flies out of Belfast International, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, Manchester and Newcastle.

The company said the move will create more than 200 jobs in the region.

Jet2.com and Jet2holidays chief executive, Steve Heapy, said: “This is an incredibly exciting day for us as we announce our expansion into our eighth UK airport base, providing further growth and investment for the region.

“It’s fantastic to be bringing our friendly low fares, great value package holidays, plus our brand new aircraft to Birmingham Airport.

“This is our most significant programme launch for some time, giving local travel agents a choice of 15 of the most popular sunshine destinations, including eleven Spanish hotspots, two Greek islands, plus Paphos and the sunny Algarve.

“We’re thrilled that even more of our agents’ customers can now experience our award winning flights and holidays and we look forward to our first flights taking off next year.”

Alistair Rowland, group general manager at Midcounties Co-operative Travel, welcomed the news.

“This is great news for the Midlands and our loyal customers who already love Jet2.com and Jet2holidays. We already send tens of thousands of our customers from East Midlands with them and look forward to the new Birmingham routes offering more choice and great value.

“Our partnership is already very strong and we look forward to working even closer in the future with Jet2.com and Jet2holidays and our number one airport in Birmingham.”

ROMANIA: TAROM Adds Alicante Service in S16

Skyteam member TAROM in summer 2016 season is introducing new Spanish route from Bucharest, as it scheduled Bucharest – Alicante operation. This twice weekly flights will be operating from 04JUN16 to 27SEP16, with Boeing 737-300 aircraft.

Planned schedule as follow.

RO433 OTP2115 – 0010+1ALC 733 16
RO434 ALC0055 – 0525OTP 733 27

GERMANY: Lufthansa Adds Frankfurt – Alicante Service In S16

Star Alliance member Lufthansa in summer 2016 season is commencing new weekend service to Alicante, as the airline plans Frankfurt – Alicante operation. This service is scheduled to begin on 02APR16 with Airbus A321 aircraft, operating on Saturdays.

LH1174 FRA1325 – 1600ALC 321 6
LH1175 ALC1700 – 1935FRA 321 6

UNITED KINGDOM: Vueling Airlines Announces New Routes From Manchester Airport

Vueling will operate flights to Alicante on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday

Spanish low cost airline Vueling will offer direct services to Alicante and Rome from June next year.

Vueling Airlines has announced it will launch two new routes from Manchester Airport for summer 2016.

Part of International Airlines Group (IAG), Vueling will offer direct services to Alicante and Rome from June next year.

The Spanish low cost airline will operate three flights a week to Alicante and two flights a week to Rome in addition to their existing service to Barcelona, which started in June this year.

Flights to Alicante will operate on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday with flights to Rome on Friday and Monday.

The routes will be operated by an Airbus A320, with capacity for 180 passengers.

Ken O’Toole, managing director for Manchester Airport, said: “We’re delighted that Vueling Airlines has chosen to expand its route network from Manchester Airport.

“Alicante and Rome are popular destinations with our 22.9 million passengers and these additional services reinforce our status as the UK’s Global Gateway for the North of England.”

Gabriel Schmilovich, network planning, scheduling and slots manager at Vueling, said: “We are very pleased to announce the new routes to Rome and Alicante. With these additions, Vueling passengers from Manchester will have the opportunity to fly to more than 140 destinations across Europe connecting via our hubs in Barcelona and Rome Fiumicino.”

SPAIN: Air Europa To Fly To Canary Islands In October

The Spanish company Air Europa will launch at the end of October two new domestic routes to Tenerife North airport: Alicante from Saint-Jacques de Compostela, while Norwegian Air Shuttle provides the same period to connect different islands Canaries from Barcelona, ​​Madrid and Malaga.

The Norwegian Air Shuttle low cost will multiply the roads to the Canary Islands in October. From 25 October: from Madrid to Tenerife North and Gran Canaria (daily flights). From Barcelona to Tenerife North (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday) and Gran Canaria (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) from 26 October to Fuerteventura from 27 October (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday). From Malaga to Tenerife South from October 26 (every Monday and Friday) and Gran Canaria (from 30 October). All these flights are operated by Boeing 737-800 univalves 186 seats, with Wifi service.

Norwegian operates 133 routes to 15 Spanish airports, including six bases (Alicante, Barcelona, ​​Gran Canaria, Madrid, Malaga and Tenerife South). She keeps one fifth of its fleet of 96 aircraft and employs nearly 900 people. Since the beginning of its operations, Norwegian has carried over 17 million passengers in Spain.

Another company will build on the Canary Islands this fall. From 26 October, Air Europa will link Alicante indeed every Monday at Tenerife North. Flights operated by Boeing 737-800 of 183 seats including 15 in Business Class depart at 11:55 for arrival at 15.45, the return flight starting again at 16.35 and finish at 18.30. And from next October 31, Tenerife North airport will be connected to Saint Jacques de Compostela departing every Saturday at 12:45 and finish at 14:30 (2:45 flight). The return flight off again at 15:30 for arrival at 19:10. Note that Air Europa is already serving the airport Reina Sofia Tenerife South from Saint-Jacques de Compostela.