Getting out of Egypt was never going to be easy for Seif Eldin Mustafa, a fugitive Egyptian convict who has been on the run since he escaped from prison 5 years ago. But Tuesday, he resorted to extraordinary measures. Claiming to be wearing an explosive vest, Mustafa commandeered an EgyptAir passenger airliner en route to Cairo from Alexandria, forced it to divert to Cyprus, and set in motion a tense standoff lasting hours. He issued an incoherent set of demands that left officials alarmed, puzzled and touched before he gave himself up. In the end, the crisis ended peacefully, only after confused scenes, including a hostage leaping from a cockpit window. Mustafa, who it turned out did not have explosives, walked off the plane with his hands up. The Foreign Ministry of Cyprus described him as “psychologically unstable.” <br/>
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The closure of its Brussels hub is costing Brussels Airlines E5m (US$5.6m) in daily costs after last week's attacks. Expenses from re-routing passenger traffic and from lost revenues are weighing on the bottom line, a Brussels Airlines spokesman said. Belgium's regional airports in Antwerp and Liege offer only limited short-haul capacity as an alternative. Brussels airport is trying out a make-shift check-in area that could allow a limited restart of passenger flights in coming days to end the airport's shutdown. Brussels Airlines last week restarted some commercial flights from Belgium via Liege and Antwerp. Separately, Lufthansa said it cancelled all flights to Brussels from March 31 until April 3, instead offering a shuttle bus service between Brussels and Frankfurt airport and some flights from Liege. <br/>
Air NZ is looking at selling its stake in Virgin Australia, as it does not want to stay a large minority shareholder. Air NZ holds a 25.9% stake in Virgin worth about A$344m, which it has increased in recent years despite the Australian airline making a loss. According to its annual report, Air NZ has invested a total of $422m in Virgin, excluding a recent commitment to lend a further $145m to the airline. Air NZ announced Wednesday it has hired First NZ Capital and Credit Suisse to advise it on options, which includes a possible sale of all or part of its shareholding. Air NZ CE Christopher Luxon has also quit the Virgin board, effective immediately. Air NZ chairman Tony Carter says the airline is reviewing its financial investment in order to find alternate uses for the capital currently deployed in Virgin. <br/>
Turkish Airlines is planning to increase seat capacity by around 20% this year between Turkey and Qatar. The carrier will introduce wide body aircraft with more seating capacity compared to the existing narrow body aircraft. “Initially for the summer one of the flights will be upgraded to wide body. Capacity for narrow body, the one which we operate as of now, is about 180 seats. The capacity of wide body will be above 250 seats. So we are increasing the capacity by almost 20% between the two countries,” Ziya Taskent, senior VP sales, said. He added that enhancing the capacity is more reasonable step than increasing the flight frequency. Currently, the airline files 2 daily services of A320 aircraft to Istanbul from Doha and about two-thirds of all Turkish Airlines passengers from Doha use Istanbul as connection point. <br/>