American Airlines is in talks to acquire a stake in China Southern, according to a statement by Asia’s biggest carrier by passengers. The negotiations are over "a possible major strategic cooperation with American Airlines, Inc. involving, among others, proposed issue of shares of the company and other business cooperation," the Guangzhou-based operator said in a stock exchange filing on Sunday. Shares of China Southern will resume trading in Hong Kong on Monday. They have been suspended since March 23, after Bloomberg News reported that American will likely make an investment of about E$200m in China Southern’s Hong Kong-listed shares through a private placement. American would nominate an observer without voting rights to the Chinese company’s board, according to people familiar with the matter. The companies haven’t reached a binding or definitive agreement, and the cooperation may or may not proceed, China Southern said. For American a deal would strengthen its presence in the Chinese market after rival Delta acquired a minority stake in China Eastern Airlines in 2015. China Southern would be the last of the nation’s top three airlines to bring in a non-mainland Chinese strategic investor. Cathay Pacific Airways, which is based in Hong Kong, owns about 18% of flag carrier Air China.<br/>
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The Japanese airline industry will enter a new era of competition in April after Japan Airlines is freed from the restrictions imposed after the nation’s former flag carrier got a public bailout, and not everyone is happy. Following its bankruptcy filing in January 2010, JAL received Y350b (US$3.1b) from a government-backed corporate rehabilitation body plus tax breaks. The airline engineered a turnaround and its shares were re-listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in September 2012. But ahead of JAL’s return to the stock market, the transport ministry drew up a report that stipulated state supervision of the airline was necessary to prevent a company that had received generous public support from distorting the market. Based on the so-called Aug. 10 paper, JAL has faced restrictions on investment and new flight routes. It also received fewer new takeoff and landing slots than rival All Nippon Airways when they were distributed at Haneda airport. ANA capitalized on JAL’s setback to rapidly expand its international flight network. In fiscal 2015, the 30th year since it began regular international flights in 1986, ANA Holdings finally overtook JAL in international passenger numbers. In January, transport minister Keiichi Ishii said the government’s supervision had achieved its purpose. “Through the allocations of new takeoff and landing slots, a sound competitive environment has been ensured,” he claimed. The ministry has decided to let JAL off the leash at the end of the month. “It was a temporary and extraordinary measure,” a senior official said. But ANA Holdings is unhappy with the move and believes the market remains unbalanced. “We can’t say the competitive environment has been corrected,” ANA President Shinya Katanozaka has said.<br/>
BA will become one of the first airlines to replace its boarding gate staff with automated biometric technology as it tries to speed up the more humdrum parts of travel through London Heathrow. Passengers will be able to board their flights at Europe’s busiest airport without staff interaction, using a facial recognition system that can instantly and accurately authenticate identity to remove the need for manual checks. The British group is the latest airline to adopt new technology to ease the chore of flying as automated processes are introduced in airports around the world. “Our customers have told us that they want the ability to simplify and speed up their journeys through the airport,” said Troy Warfield, BA’s director of customer experience. BA has activated three biometric gates at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 this week, and will equip 36 gates with the technology by the end of the summer. The facial recognition system will initially serve domestic airline passengers after a successful trial last year, with a plan to expand to international flights later in the year, according to BA. “There is a general trend towards this sort of automation technology, but we will be one of the first to implement this at boarding,” BA said. The system captures a passenger’s face via cameras at the security check. When the person arrives at their boarding gate, a second set of cameras will authenticate their face with their boarding pass by matching the data captured at the earlier security screening.<br/>
The father of Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz said Friday his son loved life and wasn't suffering from depression on the day his plane crashed in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board, suggesting the official investigations were faulty. Guenter Lubitz said he was speaking publicly for the first time to challenge French and German authorities, who have concluded that his son slammed the Airbus A320 into a mountainside in order to kill himself. "In the six years before the crash we knew our son as someone who loved life," Guenter Lubitz told reporters in Berlin. "Our son wasn't depressed at the time of the crash." Other families who lost loved ones in the crash on March 24, 2015, have expressed anger at the news conference, on the second anniversary of the disaster. German prosecutors dismissed the suggestion that their investigation of the crash — which focused on possible negligence by third parties — had failed to examine all reasonable leads. Duesseldorf prosecutor Christoph Kumpa said that Lubitz had suffered from depression during his pilot's training, but that there was no indication this had persisted beyond 2009. "However, the investigation showed that from the period after the end of December 2014 symptoms were found that indicated that a new psychological illness had arisen at the time, which was diagnosed by specialist doctors in February and March 2015," Kumpa said. A review of Lubitz' tablet computer showed he had also searched for information on the cockpit door in the week before the crash. Investigators concluded that the co-pilot had locked the captain out of the cockpit before setting the plane to fly at the lowest possible altitude. "In the view of Duesseldorf prosecutors there can be no reasonable doubt that the co-pilot intentionally and voluntarily caused the crash for suspected suicidal reasons," said Kumpa. An aviation expert commissioned by Guenter Lubitz told reporters that authorities had failed to pursue several other possibilities in their investigation, including technical errors and hazardous weather conditions.<br/>
Cathay Pacific Airways has lost its glamorous and exclusive image because it is no longer a glamorous and exclusive business. “Arrive in better shape” was their old slogan. Today, it means “Lost in transit.” Their business model is irrevocably flawed in a changing world. An unexpected announcement of a HK$575m loss last year and a reversal of a HK$6b profit in the previous year suggests there is no turnaround on the horizon. Aviation fuel accounted for nearly 30% of total operating costs last year. Yet, near catastrophic bets on future fuel costs raise serious questions about management competence. We will probably never know how Cathay’s management erred to cause a huge US$1.8b loss in oil derivatives, even though they try to explain it with phlegmatic dignity. Derivatives salespeople are laughing all the way to the bank and surprised the senior management team still survives. The airline blames a slump in business travel, global conditions and the increasing competitiveness of mainland airlines. But all airlines operate in difficult conditions. Cathay management appears oblivious to reality, living in the fantasy profit world of Hong Kong’s protected cartels now beset by the cruel world.<br/>