Ryanair on 8 April launched a new training partnership with France-based flight school Astonfly. The partnership will see Astonfly recruit and train up to 500 new cadet pilots from across Europe over a four-year period for Ryanair, the Irish low-cost carrier says. Pilots on the programme will be trained in Paris using Ryanair procedures and operational philosophy. The Ryanair mentored programme will "give trainee pilots a structured path to achieve an exceptional training course and reach a standard where they are ready to join the Ryanair Boeing 737 type rating programme", the airline's director of operations Neal McMahon says. “This partnership highlights our commitment to supporting, developing and recruiting pilots in the region for current and future positions," McMahon says. "With hundreds of daily Ryanair flights in and out of France, we expect students from across Europe to avail of Ryanair’s low fares and enrol in Astonfly’s Ryanair mentored pilot training programme.”

Wizz Air has opened a new base at Cardiff airport in the UK with nine new routes to destinations in Europe and Africa. Destinations include Alicante, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife and Lanzarote in Spain; Faro in Portugal; Heraklion and Corfu in Greece; Larnaca in Cyprus; and Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, the Central European budget carrier says. Flights to Tenerife and Lanzarote commenced on 8 April, while services to Alicante, Faro and Palma De Mallorca will begin on 9 April. The routes to Larnaca and Heraklion will start on 10 April and 13 April, respectively. Also, it will start flying to Corfu on 16 June and to Sharm El Sheikh on 1 November. Wizz says Cardiff is its fourth base in the UK and creates over 40 direct jobs and over 250 indirect jobs. It plans to host an open recruitment day on 14 April to hire cabin and flight crew at Cardiff. "By bringing our new and efficient Airbus aircraft to Cardiff, the wings of which are manufactured in Wales, we are providing a significant boost to the Welsh economy and creating jobs," Wizz Air UK's managing director Marion Geoffroy says.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued orders denying the export privileges of three Russian airlines, after the carriers operated aircraft without its authorisation. The orders are directed against Aeroflot, Azur Air and UTair "due to ongoing export violations related to comprehensive export controls on Russia" imposed by the US Commerce Department, of which the BIS is an agency. The three temporary denial orders, known as TDOs, have been issued for 180 days and may be renewed. They terminate the rights of those airlines to participate in transactions subject to the export administration regulations (EARs) including exports and reexports from the United States. Those rules will be administered by the bureau. Back on 24 February, BIS imposed “expansive” controls on aviation-related items to Russia, including a license requirement for the export, re-export or transfer (in-country) to Russia of any aircraft or aircraft parts on the Commerce Control List. Then, on 2 March, BIS further excluded any aircraft registered in, owned, or controlled by, or under charter or lease by Russia or a national of Russia from being eligible for license exception "Aircraft Vessels, and Spacecraft", otherwise known as AVS. AVS authorises, among other things, the departure from the USA of foreign registry civil aircraft on temporary sojourn in the USA and of US civil aircraft for temporary sojourn abroad, according to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School. Accordingly – BIS goes on to say in its 7 April press release – any US-origin aircraft or foreign aircraft that includes more than 25% controlled US-origin content is subject to a license requirement if, for example, it is Russian-owned or operated and exported to Russia. On 18 March, BIS publicly released a list of private and commercial aircraft it had been tracking as likely operating in violation of the EAR. "This action notified the public that, absent authorisation from BIS, the operation of, or service to, any aircraft on the list or owned by Russian parties in violation of the EAR may lead to enforcement actions from BIS, which may include substantial jail time, fines, loss of export privileges, or other restrictions," it said. BIS further updated the list on 30 April 2022 and will continue to maintain and update the list "as circumstances warrant". It says that Aeroflot, UTair and Azur Air "engaged in and continue to engage in recent conduct prohibited by the EAR by operating controlled aircraft subject to the EAR without the required BIS authorisation". The three airlines, BIS says, operated multiple aircraft subject to the EAR. Aeroflot operated such aircraft on flights between Moscow and China, India, Turkey, and the UAE. Azur Air flew to Turkey, the Maldives, the UAE and Vietnam, while UTair flew to Tajikistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan. All three airlines also operated the aircraft on domestic flights. “The Biden Administration has imposed historic sanctions on Russia for its unwarranted aggression in Ukraine. With today’s temporary denial orders, the Department of Commerce takes another significant action to hold Putin and his enablers accountable for their inexcusable actions,” commerce secretary Gina Raimondo states. “We are cutting off not only their ability to access items from the United States but also re-exports of US-origin items from abroad. Any companies that flout our export controls, specifically those who do so to the benefit of Vladimir Putin and the detriment of the Ukrainian people, will feel the full force of the department’s enforcement.”