Lufthansa is set to give the go-ahead for renting about 40 planes and crew from Air Berlin at a supervisory board meeting at the end of this month, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported Saturday. The partnership would see Lufthansa renting planes and crew not operating out of Air Berlin's main hubs in Berlin and Duesseldorf in a deal known in the industry as a wet lease, the newspaper said, without specifying its sources. Loss-making Air Berlin would get fixed rate payments, while Lufthansa would assume the economic risk of operating the aircraft. People familiar with the matter said in July that Lufthansa was in talks with Air Berlin about the pact, which would affect about a quarter of Air Berlin-owned planes. The deal could allow Lufthansa to rapidly expand its budget Eurowings network and would ease pressure on Air Berlin, which is struggling to return to profit.<br/>
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South Africa’s National Treasury approved a request from the nation’s airline for a going-concern guarantee which the unprofitable company needs to finalize its annual financial statements. South African Airways, which has been surviving on about 14 billion rand ($969m) of government debt guarantees, last posted a full-year profit in 2011 and has yet to finalize its financial statements for the year through March 2015. Instability at the airline has accelerated in the past year as a raft of senior management departed and the airline was embroiled in controversial deals ranging from the attempt of Chairwoman Dudu Myeni to renege on a leasing contract with Airbus, to the appointment of a little-known financial adviser to source funding on its behalf. Both moves were later reversed while Myeni was last week reappointed for a year. “It will not be ‘business as usual’ for the airline, which is currently going through serious challenges including governance and financial difficulties,” the Ministry of Finance said Friday after a meeting with the carrier’s board. “The primary focus is to return the airline to financial sustainability.” The Treasury attached conditions to approving the guarantee, including the implementation of cost-cutting initiatives and to start a new process of appointing a chief executive officer, a chief financial officer and other key executives.<br/>
Thai Airways International (THAI) plans to export baked goods and curry sauces to increase revenue streams. The airline hopes to sell frozen baked goods and curry sauces sold in cartons under its Eurng Luang brand to key markets in Japan and China. Dishes such as pad Thai, krapao and tom kha gai are also slated for export in frozen form. Varangkana Luerojvong, THAI Catering's director of marketing development, said kaeng kiew wan is a favourite of Japanese consumers and negotiations are under way to have the curries put on supermarket shelves in Japan. THAI is also looking to market the products in Shanghai. If the products are popular, the sales will be expanded to other Chinese cities. <br/>
LOT Polish Airlines said it plans to more than double the number of passengers it carries annually from 4.3m in 2015 to 10m by 2020. In a strategy paper, the carrier said the growth will be achieved via a combination of short-haul expansion in Central and Eastern Europe, long-haul expansion to the US and Asia, and a growing number of transfer passengers at its Warsaw hub. The plan includes growing its Boeing 787 fleet from six currently to 17 by 2020. “Taking maximal advantage of the fact that the market [for] air services in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe is bound to grow at a much quicker pace than in other European countries is a starting point for our plan,” LOT CEO Rafał Milczarski said, adding, “We have estimated that in Poland alone the number of passengers is going to grow at about 5% per year. It is a huge opportunity for us.” In terms of long-distance flying, “we are mostly going to focus on developing flights to North America and the most important business centers in Asia,” Milczarski said. LOT will launch service to Seoul Incheon later this year and to New York Newark next year. <br/>