Demand for Lufthansa flights is better than expected this year, with traffic from the United States and Asia developing well, the carrier's chief executive said Monday. Lufthansa will also look at any opportunities that arise in Italy depending on what happens with stricken carrier Alitalia, though it has no plans to buy the Italian airline, Carsten Spohr told journalists on the sidelines of an airline industry meeting in Mexico. "From an outlook perspective we are getting more optimistic every week regarding our demand situation, especially from the U.S. and from Asia," Spohr said. He said that should any Alitalia planes come up for sale, then Lufthansa would look at those and also suggested that Lufthansa could increase capacity via its Eurowings budget unit. Low-cost rivals Ryanair, easyJet and Vueling are also looking to replace capacity that could be lost depending on what happens with Alitalia, whose future is under review. "Eurowings is a pan-European model. If there's opportunities to bring Eurowings into Italy... that could be one option," Spohr said.<br/>
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US officials are concerned that explosives disguised as laptops could be directly detonated onboard an aircraft, the CE of United said Monday. Because there is little perceived risk of remotely detonating such a device, CEO Oscar Munoz said authorities believe there is less chance of them exploding in the hold of aircraft. Senior executives at the IATA's annual meeting said the risk of lithium batteries overheating on stowed laptops also presents a risk. "I think the greater risk is 40 or 50 laptops in the hold," said Malaysia Airlines CEO Peter Bellew. In March, the US government imposed restrictions on large electronic devices in aircraft cabins on flights from 10 airports, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey.<br/>
The Montreal-Beirut route is an elusive prize that Air Canada very much wants to win. Fueled by the lobbying of Montreal’s large Lebanese expatriate and immigrant population, Air Canada has been pursuing the regulatory requirements to begin operating the route, Air Canada CEO Calin Rovinescu said. “We started the regulatory process in 2003,” Rovinescu said. However, geopolitical events intervened, and the carrier itself did not have the right equipment to make the route viable. “We are now at the stage where it looks like we can put the pin in it,” he said. Part of the challenge of operating the route is ensuring right-level security screenings in Beirut, Rovinescu added. Air Canada is working with its Star Alliance partner Lufthansa, which operates in Beirut, to learn how to address these concerns. The route would not be viable without the advent of the Boeing 787, he said. The aircraft is the right size and offers operating costs that make the route feasible. Air Canada’s network has been “transformed” by the 787, he said. Several routes, including Montreal–Algiers, Algeria; Vancouver–Melbourne, Australia; and Vancouver–Taipei, Taiwan, would not have made commercial sense without the aircraft, Rovinescu said.<br/>