According to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the German airline Lufthansa has offered €500 million (US$590) for the ailing Italian flag-carrying airline, Alitalia. It is understood that the offer is for the planes, airport runway slots, and air crew. However, it is believed that Lufthansa’s intention will be to reduce the 12,000-strong workforce by half,
In what Carsten Spohr, chief executive of Lufthansa, said was a “great day” for his company, Germany’s largest carrier has agreed to purchase the lion’s share of Air Berlin, which filed for bankruptcy protection on August 15. The purchase price of €210m (US$245m) will see Lufthansa looking to acquire 80 of Air Berlin’s 144 aircraft,
All previously open issues between Lufthansa and the pilots’ trade union, Vereinigung Cockpit, have been settled with the signing of a new collective labor agreement (CLA), the basis of which was agreed earlier in March this year. The CLA will still be subject to trade union members’ approval in the form of a ballot. Agreements
When Air Berlin, Germany’s second-largest airline, filed for bankruptcy protection, the stricken carrier was given a government bridging loan of €150 million (US$177 million) to keep it operational while a buyer, or buyers were sought. It was hoped that the carrier would prove more attractive if it remained operational and the loan was intended to
Following on from last week’s 219.63% duty levied by the U.S. government on Canadian plane manufacturer Bombardier’s CSeries aircraft for “countervailable subsidies”, the U.S Commerce department has added a duty of 79.82%. This latter figure is based on a predetermination of what has been referred to as the investigation into the ‘dumping’ of the CSeries
According to a memo seen by Reuters, Airbus Defence and Space has frozen capital expenditure and is stressing upon its 34,000-strong workforce to take “drastic measures” to make cash savings. This has come as a result of the European aerospace giant facing the prospect of missing its 2017 cash targets by hundreds of millions of
Lufthansa Technik has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Chinese company Air Esurfing (ARE) for providing connectivity services to Chinese airlines. The country’s largest communication company, Air Esurfing is a fully-owned subsidiary of Air Media Group and is dedicated to providing in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) services to airlines in China. The MoU
Monarch Airlines (Monarch), established in 1967 and the U.K.’s fifth-largest airline, has ceased operating with immediate effect, leaving over 100,000 passengers to seek alternative return flights to the U.K., while the cancelation of 300,000 flights will affect approaching 750,000 other customers. Throughout 2017 the beleaguered carrier has struggled to remain solvent after posting a loss
With the announcement of a further cancelation of flights over a five-months period, the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)s Chief Executive, Andrew Haines has said he is ‘furious’ that the airline has failed to comply with the law with regard to how passengers have been treated. The initial round of flight cancelations has affected 400,000,
Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach Residence saw a world first as a new two-seater self-flying taxi made its ‘proof of concept flight’. According to a government statement, the self-flying taxi will “be used for the world’s first self-flying taxi service set to be introduced by Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA)”, with passengers being shuttled across the
