Ryanair has offered its pilots bonuses of up to €12,000 to buy back their leave and reduce the number of flights it has to cancel.

Qantas has launched preliminary legal action against Rolls-Royce, the manufacturer of the engine that exploded on one of its A380 superjumbos in mid-air last month.

Manufacturing giant Rolls-Royce today said it had identified the faulty part behind an engine failure which forced an A380 superjumbo into an emergency landing and was making efforts to fix the problem.

Europe’s air safety authority ordered airlines today to conduct more tests on the type of Rolls-Royce engine that failed in an Airbus A380.

The engine failure that forced a Qantas Airbus A380 to make an emergency landing was “probably” caused by a material failure or a design fault, the Australian airline said today.