A takeover of insolvent German airline Air Berlin as a whole to keep it operating will not be possible, German deputy economy minister Matthias Machnig said Saturday, pouring cold water on an airline investor's approach. "The model of Air Berlin as an independent airline has failed," he told German radio station rbb InfoRadio Saturday. Germany's Hans Rudolf Woehrl, who made a name for himself when he bought German airline Deutsche BA from British Airways for 1 euro, threw his hat in the ring for Air Berlin Friday and said he wanted to keep it flying after buying it. Talks on carving up Air Berlin, which said Tuesday it was filing for insolvency, started on Friday, with Lufthansa getting the first meetings ahead of other potential bidders. Earlier in the week, a source familiar with the matter said easyJet was among those in talks, and Thomas Cook's German airline Condor said it was ready to play "an active role" in Air Berlin's restructuring. Deputy Economy Minister Machnig said it would take several investors to offer Air Berlin and its employees a long-term future, reiterating that Lufthansa would not be the only buyer of the carrier's assets.<br/>
oneworld
LATAM Airlines Group, Latin America's largest airline, is still "very cautious" on the outlook for its key domestic Brazilian market, with demand volatile, a top executive of the company said on Friday. "We have seen some very positive weeks in terms of demand in Brazil," CFO Ramiro Alfonsin told investors on a conference call following the release of Q2 earnings. "But we're still very cautious because we've also seen that certain weeks are not very good," he added. "Internationally, we're doing very well but domestic in Brazil I would say we're cautious still on the second half of the year," he said. Alfonsin added the company had "some concerns" on Argentine domestic demand, without elaborating on the reasons. The company did not plan to change margin guidance of 6 to 8% at the current time, due to the cloudy Brazilian and Argentine outlook and one-off payments linked to an ongoing cost reduction plan, he said. Late Thursday, Santiago-based LATAM LTM.SN reported a larger-than-expected Q2 net loss, hurt by currency effects. However, investors were cheered by rising operating income and growth in its international operations.<br/>
Cathay Pacific Airways saw some rare analyst love this week, but it wasn’t enough to shift it from its unenviable position as the world’s least favored airline stock. The Hong Kong-based carrier’s biggest half-yearly loss in at least two decades saw some analysts boost their ratings on the shares this week -- on expectations things can only get better for the beleaguered Cathay. But despite improved recommendations from the likes of Goldman Sachs Group and Daiwa Securities Group, the shares still have the lowest ranking from analysts on the Bloomberg World Airlines Index -- a score that’s calculated based on the number of buy, neutral and sell ratings for a stock. With the consensus target price projecting a 5.1% stock decline over the next 12 months, the relief rally may prove short-lived.<br/>
British Airways and Scottish regional airline Loganair have concluded a new codeshare agreement, the two carriers have confirmed. The airlines said earlier this month they were working on a codeshare as part of a cooperative agreement that will take the place of Loganair’s current franchise operation on behalf of UK regional airline Flybe. The latter arrangement ends Sept. 1, after Loganair and Flybe were unable to agree a continuation of their agreement. The BA codeshare will enable customers from the Scottish Highlands and Islands to book directly onto services on British Airways’ global network at London’s Heathrow, Gatwick and City airports. Loganair customers will be able to connect onto British Airways’ domestic services at Inverness, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen with the facility to check-in hold baggage at their departure airport straight through to their destination. Loganair flights between the Highlands and Islands airports and Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness under the new codeshare agreement will be eligible for ticket discounts under an existing Scottish government scheme to cut the cost of transport links to some of the more remote airports in the country. <br/>
Growing up, Yewande Oteh dreamed of being married at her grandparents’ hotel in Montego Bay, Jamaica. But that dream crumbled in August 2015 when Oteh, who grew up in this Philadelphia suburb, took an American Airlines flight to the Caribbean island with her family — and her wedding dress. In a 31-page lawsuit, Oteh, who now lives in Boston, alleges a flight attendant “egregiously” destroyed her dress following a dispute over the gown aboard the commercial jet. “American Airlines and its personnel robbed all of us of this once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Cherry Hill lawyer Yvette Sterling said. She filed the suit in federal court in Camden, N.J., on behalf of Oteh, her daughter. Oteh’s problems began after a ticket agent at Philadelphia International Airport advised her to remove her gown from checked luggage and to hang it in a closet on the plane, according to the suit. A flight attendant, Melanie Masters, would not allow Oteh, then 31, to use the employee-only closet and told her to put the gown in an overhead bin, it says. Masters rejects the lawsuit's description of events. "It really didn't go like that at all," she said Wednesday. Piece has more details.<br/>