Lufthansa and pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit will decide next week whether to accept a deal proposed by a mediator to settle a long-running labor dispute over issues including pay. Mediator Gunter Pleuger, a former diplomat, presented his proposal behind closed doors on Friday, while Lufthansa and VC agreed to make a decision on Feb. 15 over whether or not to accept, a spokesman for the airline said. Lufthansa's pilots have walked out 15 times since early 2014 over disputes with management on topics including pay and early retirement, costing the carrier hundreds of millions of euros in lost profits. Most recently, they were on strike for six days in November, costing the airline a further E100m in profits. Before the mediation process, the pilots had asked for an average annual pay increase of 3.7% over a five-year period back-dated to 2012, which is when their last collective bargaining contract with Lufthansa expired. The pilots say altogether these increases would amount to a rise of nearly 20% on current pay.<br/>
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United replaced a pilot before takeoff on Saturday after she boarded in civilian clothes and told passengers over the intercom that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were liars and that she was getting a divorce, witnesses said. The airline on Sunday declined to identify the pilot or comment beyond a previous statement apologizing to customers, many of whom left the plane out of concern for their safety. The flight from Austin, Texas, to San Francisco took off with a new pilot about 90 minutes late, passengers said. "She shows up dressed like a civilian and asked us to take a vote to see whether we should have her change into her uniform or fly as is," passenger Pam O'Neal told KPIX television upon landing in San Francisco. "She started off by saying that she had not voted for either Trump or Clinton because they're a bunch of liars. ... It just really sort of went downhill from there and didn't make a lot of sense to any of us," she said. United spokesman Charles Hobart said the airline would not comment beyond Saturday's statement. "We hold our employees to the highest standards and replaced the pilot with a new one to operate the flight, which has since departed Austin. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience," the statement said.<br/>
United Continental and New York-based OTG have unveiled the new 265,000-square-foot Terminal C North at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The $277m renovation included technology upgrades, modernizing gate-lounge areas and adding five new restaurants from some of Houston’s most renowned chefs such as Chris Shepherd and Monica Pope. The restaurants will open next month. “This new terminal is truly befitting Houston’s hometown airline,” said Scott Kirby, president of United. United and OTG, which specializes in airport redesigns, first announced their partnership in May 2016. They are also renovating Terminal C South and Terminal E as part of phase II, which will include adding eight restaurants from Houston chefs. Phase II should be complete in the second half of the year. Overall, OTG will invest more than $120m in United's terminals at IAH, according to a spokesperson. The renovations include installing thousands of iPads throughout the terminals that will allow passengers to access entertainment and order food on the go. United also has a deal through that program where passengers can use their miles to purchase food and other products.<br/>
A group of THAI employees have called on PM Prayut Chan-o-cha to exercise his power under Section 44 to probe the national carrier's procurement contracts to see if any were tainted by graft. About 200 members of the so-called THAI Employees Fighting Corruption group gathered at the airline's operations building to demand the probe be formed by invoking Section 44 of the interim charter. Nares Puengyam, the group's representative, said Section 44 would enable the premier to set up a special committee to investigate all procurement contracts secured by the airline for any irregularities. Any such irregularities would constitute policy-oriented corruption, which must be dealt with, according to the group. The move follows a scandal in which Rolls-Royce admitted to paying bribes to Thai agents or officials to sell engines to THAI between 1991 and 2005. Nares said the airline decided to lower the age of its fleet, forcing the carrier to acquire up to 75 new aircraft valued at over 400 billion baht in two lots between 2011 and 2022. <br/>