Lufthansa’s 70-plus long-haul routes from Frankfurt showed a profit this summer after the carrier eliminated weaker destinations including Malaysia, Venezuela and Oman from its network. Those intercontinental services that survived the cull may now all be retained and Lufthansa will explore the possibility of keeping some older wide-body jets to boost capacity even when newer aircraft start to arrive, said Klaus Froese, who runs the German carrier’s main hub operation. “The consolidation of our routes portfolio has led to a very good result in Frankfurt,” Froese said. A positive trend in September bookings that prompted Lufthansa to upgrade its full-year earnings forecast on Oct. 19 has continued, with “things going well” in October, he said. CEO Carsten Spohr has revamped Lufthansa’s long-haul operations in the face of increasing competition from fast-expanding Persian Gulf carriers, especially on eastbound routes. At the same time he has bolstered Asian links via joint venture deals with carriers from Singapore and China, where the company ended flights to Shenyang last month. While Lufthansa has previously said that 25 Airbus Group SE A350 wide-bodies it has on order will replace less efficient A340s, Froese said it’s possible those retirement plans will be reversed. “We can decide with each plane coming in if it will grow our fleet, or if we use it for roll-over,” he said.<br/>
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Avianca Holdings is studying options including the sale of a controlling stake and is set to receive bids next week from suitors including Delta and United Continental, people familiar with the matter said. The offers, due by Nov. 9, may include about $500m in new capital for Bogota-based Avianca, plus a purchase of common stock from current shareholders, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Copa Holdings also is expected to present a bid. Avianca has been seeking a partner to help shore up its balance sheet and support growth. The carrier is controlled by brothers German and Jose Efromovich, who have used the majority of their shares as collateral to borrow funds from Elliott Management Corp. Elliott, controlled by billionaire Paul Singer, is active in the airline’s search for partners and has met with the potential suitors, the people said. The Colombian carrier declined to comment, as did Delta, United and Copa. Elliott didn’t reply to requests for comment. Avianca would consider offers for a controlling stake, the people said. Alternatively, control of the airline may end up being divided among the new bidder, the Efromovich brothers, and Kingsland Holdings, a partner in the current control group. The company’s indebtedness is one of the key risks, and its focus on curbing debt and slowing capacity expansion is “welcome,” said Renato Mimica, an analyst at BTG Pactual.<br/>
United has increased its frequency between Auckland and San Francisco to daily and the All Blacks test in Chicago has already proved a winner for the airline. United says it has benefited from strong demand from rugby fans travelling to this weekend's test against Ireland in what can be a soft month. "November is not usually a peak month but with the All Blacks they (flights) are absolutely jam packed," said Julie Reid, United's director of sales Australia and New Zealand. The airline has also put a bigger plane on the route, a Boeing 777 to replace the 787-8 it has flown five times a week since the beginning of July as part of a revenue-sharing deal with Air New Zealand. Reid said the bigger aircraft would provide about 50 extra seats and would be used on the route throughout summer. United last flew into Auckland Airport in 2003 and like other US carriers there were perception problems around service.<br/>
THAI has opted to use its latest Airbus 350 XWB jets for its Italian services, starting from the middle of this month. The flag carrier made the decision after it became apparent that approval from Australia for it to deploy the technologically advanced aircraft on its Bangkok-Melbourne route would not be forthcoming. THAI will use its first two A350 XWBs for its Bangkok-Rome and Bangkok-Milan routes to replace old Boeing 777-200ERs. THAI operates four non-stop flights a week to each of the two Italian routes. "Europe has no issues about us operating A350 XWBs to their airports," an airline insider said. Furthermore, European civil aviation authorities do not object to THAI switching to A350 XWBs, which are made by Airbus, he said. <br/>