Lufthansa warned that it could move some of its flights away from Frankfurt airport because of a fee structure that it argues favours rivals such as Ryanair. Lufthansa, which accounts for two thirds of passenger volume at Frankfurt, has criticised airport operator Fraport for its new fee structure which offers incentives to airlines that increase their passenger numbers by opening up a new route or increasing capacity. The new fees are being introduced just as Ryanair plans to move into Lufthansa's home hub of Frankfurt, stepping up its push into bigger airports and ratcheting up pressure on the German carrier, which is expanding its own budget flights. "One of the consequences could be that we give up some routes," Lufthansa board member Harry Hohmeister said Tuesday, adding that the carrier was considering legal steps against the fee structure. He did not specify which airport Lufthansa might use as an alternative were it to move some flights. Lufthansa would hold talks with Fraport about the matter in January, he added.<br/>
star
SAS plans to cut 1,000 administrative jobs and double its cost-savings target as the Nordic airline prepares for rising fuel prices and intensifying competition that’s lowering fares and hampering earnings growth. The stock rose the most in three months. Profit in the fiscal Q1 that started Nov. 1 will fall from a year earlier following “more demanding” trading conditions in the autumn, SAS said Tuesday. The airline will try to reduce spending on operations by 1.5b kronor ($164m) from 2017 to 2019, versus an earlier target of 800m kronor, with the job cuts amounting to about 9.3% of its workforce. It’s also considering setting up operations outside its home markets of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, where SAS estimates labor costs are as much as 72% higher than the EU average. CEO Rickard Gustafson said that SAS will decide by H2 2017 whether to create “a few bases across Europe” to complement business in the Nordic region, which will remain the carrier’s focus. “Potentially moving bases to outside of Scandinavia is a move investors might appreciate,” said Jacob Pedersen, an analyst at Sydbank A/S. “Restructuring has become their way of life; the company is fighting for survival.” Setting up operations abroad “will not be an easy task, given the involvement of the unions, but if the company wants to survive, they have to look at all options.”<br/>
A plane bound for Germany was diverted to Kennedy International Airport on Monday as the authorities investigated a bomb threat called in about the flight. Officials evacuated about 500 passengers from Lufthansa Flight 441, which was headed from Houston to Frankfurt before it landed at Kennedy just after 8:30 p.m. “They’re searching the plane from top to bottom,” said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The flight was canceled, Coleman said. The plane was diverted after a bomb threat was called in to a Lufthansa office, Coleman said. It was moved to a remote area of the airport for a search, and the evacuation did not disrupt activities or other flights at the airport, he said. Lufthansa said the flight ”was diverted to J.F.K. as a matter of precaution and in coordination with the relevant authorities and the pilot.”<br/>
Two passenger planes skidded off an icy runway just before take-off at an airport in western China on Tuesday. No one was hurt in the two separate incidents at Urumqi Diwobao International Airport in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China News Service reported. The first incident occurred at 9.33am, when Shanghai Airlines’ flight FM9220 bound for Shanghai veered off the runway while making a turn. About forty minutes later, Shenzhen Airlines’ flight ZH9240 bound for Shenzhen slid off the taxiway. The civil aviation authority’s Urumqi branch said no one was injured in either accident and both planes also did not suffer damage. Airport operations were briefly affected. The airport is investigating the incidents.<br/>