Ryanair plans for 5,000 new European jobs as Covid eases

Bloomberg

Ryanair Holdings Plc plans to create 5,000 European jobs over the next five years as the airline returns to growth following the coronavirus slump.
The Dublin-based carrier will need to add aviation crew to meet demand from an expanded Boeing Co 737 fleet, unit Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wilson said in an emailed statement. The airline expects passenger numbers to more than double to 200 million a year by 2025, after the addition of 210 Boeing 737 Max narrow-bodies, he said.
The expansion comes as the airline industry starts to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, with the global rollout of vaccinations easing government concerns about border controls. Ireland restarted widescale international travel in July after more than a year of advising against non-essential trips.
The UK plans to revamp its so-called traffic-light border rules this month and may ease test requirements for arrivals to make it easier to visit.
Ryanair is opening new training centre in Dublin as part of the expansion plan. That is a “real vote of confidence in the airline industry as it rebuilds after the pandemic,” Irish Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said.
Ryanair said that it had ended talks with Boeing Co about a possible follow-on order for 737 Max 10 aircraft. While the new training centre has simulators for both Boeing and Airbus aircraft, Wilson made clear the Airbus simulators are to service the group’s Lauda Air unit.
“We are a Boeing customer,” Wilson said at a briefing Dublin. “I think we will be still around for when the cycle changes on that in terms of new aircraft orders.”
Business is “recovering strongly in a lot of countries,” Wilson said. At some airports in Europe, Ryanair could reach 135% of pre-coronavirus capacity for this coming winter, he added.

Air travel to outside Asia to recover faster
Bloomberg

International air travel beyond Asia is expected to recover sooner than between countries within the region given the different Covid-19 vaccination rates and continued strict border measures imposed by governments, according to the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA).
Many Asian countries have tightened measures in recent months to contain the spread of the delta variant, Subhas Menon, director general of the 14-member AAPA, said during a briefing. There will be some recovery for places where vaccination is higher, he said.
“Inter-regional travel can take place because many places in the West are already opening travel from the
Asia-Pacific region for the vaccinated,” Menon said. “Resources are constrained and the supply of vaccines is also constrained. So intra-regional travel will be held back for a while longer, hopefully not too long beyond the end of 2021.”
Some countries in Asia are shifting away from Covid-Zero strategies and adopting a policy of living with the virus, backed by widespread vaccination, as they try to revive economies that have suffered from lengthy lockdowns. Singapore is taking steps to reopen and last week started allowing short-term, vaccinated visitors from Germany and Brunei.