United Airlines CE Oscar Munoz has staked out a hard-line position on alleged Gulf airline subsidies, warning of a "huge uproar from Americans" when the full scope of the issue becomes widely known. Speaking March 2 at the US Chamber of Commerce Aviation Summit, Munoz made clear that he and United will aggressively push the US govt to take action against the UAE and Qatar over what Munoz considers to be completely unacceptable govt assistance to Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways. "Those airlines aren't airlines. They're international branding vehicles for their countries," Munoz said. "Facts tend to overcome a lot of emotion," he said, explaining that the "order of magnitude" of the alleged subsidies, "even if you cut them in half," go beyond "anything I've seen before."<br/>
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Avianca Holdings top shareholder, German Efromovich, said Thursday that a deal between Avianca and United Continental Holdings "will happen," despite a lawsuit filed by Avianca's No.2 shareholder this week. A suit brought in New York by Kingsland Holdings alleges that the deal for Avianca with United is "an egregiously one-sided proposed transaction that Efromovich secretly negotiated with United for his own benefit at the expense of Avianca and all of its other shareholders." Efromovich said Friday that the deal with United was just "an extension of an already existing relationship" and was the best possible deal for Avianca's shareholders. He also insisted that reports of higher bids for Avianca from Delta and other airlines "are not accurate and are not correct." <br/>
Lufthansa airline group doubled its growth in Scotland to 4% last year compared to 2015, the carrier announced Thursday. A total of 300,000 passengers flew between Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Lufthansa's main Frankfurt hub, and with Brussels Airlines between Edinburgh and the Belgian capital. The increase from 2.1% growth in 2015 came despite Brussels airport being closed for 2 months following a terrorist attack last March. UK senior director Andreas Koster said Lufthansa had also cut seat capacity by 16% on the Aberdeen route by using smaller aircraft because of the downturn in the oil industry. He said the airline was upgrading its airport lounges and introducing new aircraft to improve quality and help take on increased competition, such as from Ryanair, which is to fly to Frankfurt's main airport for the first time.<br/>
Air India's performance has improved with competition posed by private players, chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian said Thursday, but wondered whether the airline should "exist at all". The carrier, staying afloat on a INR300b bailout package from the central govt, is working on ways to improve its financial position. In the last fiscal ended March 2016, the airline had posted an operational profit of INR1.05b "Air India with IndiGo and Jet Airways is very different from Air India without... Whether Air India should exist at all even with Jet Airways and IndiGo is another question which we don't want to go into now," Subramanian said. The point is competition has actually improved Air India's performance, he added. While there have been clamours to privatise the airline, the govt has so far desisted from taking a view on this.<br/>
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating an incident in which a SIA light approached Canberra Airport below the lowest safe altitude. There were no injuries and the Boeing 777 was not damaged in the incident Feb 22. It occurred just one day after a light aircraft suffered engine failure and crashed into a Melbourne shopping centre shortly after take-off, killing all 5 people aboard. A SIA spokesman confirmed the investigation and said the airline was cooperating. ATSB senior transport safety investigator Neil Campbell said the aviation authority would review blackbox recordings and radio traffic between the flight crew and Canberra's air traffic control. A report will be released within several months.<br/>