The German pilots' union has rejected Lufthansa's latest proposal in a long-running row over pay and conditions, a union spokesman said Friday. After the union declared talks were over last week, Lufthansa tried to restart discussions Wednesday by making a new offer including a revised early retirement scheme, a pay rise and job guarantees for pilots on German collective labour agreements. But a union spokesman said that coming to one agreement on a wide range of issues no longer made sense. Strikes are not on the cards at present, he added. 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. <br/>
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Lufthansa is considering suspending sales of its tickets in Egyptian pounds starting from November, and limiting sales to US dollars or credit cards, which would make banks responsible for securing dollars to clients. The move results from a delay of dues owed to the airline by the Egyptian govt amounting to E15m. Zied Gueblaoui, Lufthansa’s Egypt country manager, said that the company is suffering from the shortage of hard cash in the market. Gueblaoui said that the situation pushed the company to consider a number of possible solutions to avoid the accumulation of their dues, pointing out that the final solution will be implemented starting November. The company may resort to shutting down its tickets office in Egypt, or even go as far as exiting the market if the crisis continues. <br/>
A new route plan for THAI will take about 6 months from October, says president Charamporn Jotikasthira. After nearly 2 years of business rehabilitation, the enterprise has started to return to the black, he said. Now the carrier is entering a phase of adjusting entire routes and flights within each route to make them better suited to the carrier's locations and fleet. "Since we returned to the black, we can now resume some routes that we had temporarily terminated when cost cutting was our priority, and also open new routes that will support our network," Charamporn said. THAI's latest route, Bangkok-Tehran, launches Oct 1 with 4 flights a week. The route is expected to have as high as an 80% cabin load factor. The Bangkok-Moscow route, which THAI plans to resume Dec 15, will also offer 4 flights a week. <br/>
Air Canada will start daily Montreal Trudeau (YUL)-Shanghai Pudong (PVG) Boeing 787-8 flights from Feb 16, 2017. The nonstop service will be Air Canada’s first 787 flight from Montreal. Air Canada currently operates flights to PVG from Toronto and Vancouver. Air Canada president and CE Calin Rovinescu said the YUL-PVG flights “reinforce Montreal Trudeau as a strategic hub” for the airline, which will serve 13 international destinations outside of the Americas from YUL when the Shanghai flights commence. Air Canada said it will start selling tickets for the YUL-PVG flights Sept 28. The airline’s 787-8s are configured with 251 seats, including 20 “executive pods” in business class and 20 premium economy seats. The 14.5 hr. YUL-PVG flight will be the longest flight operated from YUL, Air Canada noted. <br/>