Lufthansa made a new offer on pay and conditions for its pilots on German collective labour contracts in a bid to resume talks with the union and end a long-running dispute. The airline is trying to cut costs and restructure pension schemes to better compete with low-cost rivals and leaner Gulf carriers. It has already agreed wide-ranging deals with ground staff and cabin crew, but has so far failed to reach agreement with around 5,400 pilots on German contracts. Along with a pay rise of 4.4% in 2 stages, and a one-off payment, Lufthansa Wednesday proposed keeping an early retirement scheme for new employees, provided the average retirement age of its German airline pilots is brought up to 60, from 59 now. Lufthansa had previously wanted to scrap the scheme for new pilots, but Vereinigung Cockpit wanted it to stay. <br/>
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Avianca Holdings and Avianca Brasil, the two airlines controlled by the Efromovich brothers, are seeking separate international partners while maintaining a long-term goal of merging, Jose Efromovich said. “We are under confidentiality agreements’’ and many companies have shown interest, Efromovich, the chairman of Avianca Brasil, said. “We are looking for a partner anywhere in the world. In the Middle East, in Europe, in the US, in the Americas. Everything is possible, but it needs to make sense.’’ Avianca Holdings hired Bank of America Corp as an adviser, Efromovich said. He declined to identify who is advising the brothers’ closely held holding company that owns Avianca Brasil or provide any other details of the negotiations. <br/>
The airline industry is crying foul over govt practices that are hampering its growth, with Aegean Air vice chairman Eftychis Vassilakis attributing the stagnation in the carrier’s figures to increased taxes and charges and the poor official response to the migrant crisis. “Within one year the value-added tax on air transport has jumped from 13% to 24%, reaching the highest point in Europe, in the very country that needs it to be lower due to its islands,” Vassilakis said Wednesday, also protesting the high charges at Athens International that have yet to be addressed. “For the growth of Aegean and other carriers to continue, the errors that reduce competitiveness, either from the distant or the recent past, have to be rectified, otherwise we will have stagnation or even shrinking,” he warned. <br/>