star

Lufthansa and Air France were briefly hit by computer problems preventing them from boarding passengers on Thursday evening, airport and airline staff said Thursday. A gate agent at Frankfurt airport, Lufthansa's main hub, had announced the airline was having "a computer system breakdown worldwide," preventing passengers from getting on planes, but shortly afterwards was able to resume boarding, a reporter at the scene said. The airline said on its Twitter account the systems were back up and running after a global outage. Twitter users spoke of similar boarding delays at Air France, although they were also quickly resolved. A spokesman for Air France said it was due to a problem with a system from travel technology group Amadeus. Amadeus confirmed its Altea system had experienced some technical issues, which resulted in flight delays and problems in the booking process. "All systems are now working normally and the situation is fully recovered. We regret any inconvenience caused to customers and travelers," it said.<br/>

Executives of Thai Airways International and its two affiliated airlines, Nok Air and THAI Smile, will meet this month to come up with a joint management and strategic plan which the airline says holds the key to its future in the region. The move is part of aviation business synergy efforts between the three airlines to compete efficiently in the industry. Flt Lt Montree Jumrieng, THAI's executive VP for corporate strategy and sustainable development, said the idea is to create joint management for the three carriers. The cooperation would include flight routes and shared resources, such as marketing campaigns, ground services, parking bays, and aircraft maintenance services, he said. The approach would help ensure the effective management of operation costs, he said. The carrier's wholly owned airline THAI Smile would serve passengers flying to both Indochina and domestic destinations. Nok Air, which is 39% owned by THAI, will focus on short-haul domestic flights. "In the future, the three airlines would form an aviation network," said Flt Lt Montree, adding the trio are required to deliver transiting passengers to each other. <br/>