Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said he’s ready to welcome large numbers of employees from insolvent competitor Air Berlin to build up his airline’s Eurowings unit, promoting his company as a safe haven for jobs -- albeit with concessions. “Those of you who have worked with Air Berlin crews know it: These are top people, and we’ll be very glad to get as many as we can over to us,” Spohr said at an internal staff meeting Thursday. “Of course we cannot hire these employees on Air Berlin terms, but on Eurowings terms, but we do want to be fair and take into account seniority and experience.” The comments are a clear sign to unions that Air Berlin employees could secure a future at Lufthansa, but only in exchange for curbs to their paychecks, as the companies begin talks on which assets of the collapsing carrier can shift to its larger rival. Lufthansa is interested in operating about half of Air Berlin’s 140-plane fleet, and the discount Eurowings brand, which is in the process of slashing costs per average seat kilometer by 30 percent by 2020, would be the new home for many of those aircraft and crews. Eurowings is already leasing three dozen planes from Air Berlin as part of an earlier effort to preserve the airline. Those aircraft are already part of the 75 that Lufthansa could gain permanently. Spohr has said for months that, before Lufthansa could take over more of the fleet, Air Berlin’s debt burden must be reduced and costs cut, while antitrust authorities would have to approve any deal.<br/>
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All eight South African Airways flights between Harare and Johannesburg were cancelled Saturday when the Zimbabwe government demanded a foreign operators permit, a day after an Air Zimbabwe plane was grounded in the South African city for similar reasons. The decisions to halt the flights came as Zimbabwe seeks diplomatic immunity in South Africa for President Robert Mugabe’s wife, Grace, after she was charged with assault in Johannesburg. The Wednesday request is being considered, officials said. On Friday, the state-owned Airports of South Africa blocked an evening Air Zimbabwe flight to Harare after authorities asked for the airline’s foreign operators permit. “They also imposed similar decisions on us yesterday and an Air Zimbabwe plane was grounded,” said Joram Gumbo, Zimbabwe’s transport minister, on Saturday. “We’ve also taken a similar decision, in line with international practices, but we hope that the issue will be resolved soon.” SAA has activated recovery plans with every effort being made to assist hundreds of stranded passengers, spokesman Tlali Tlali said by text message. He said the costs of the canceled flights couldn’t yet be calculated. The dispute led to cancellation of flights by Johannesburg-based Comair Ltd. South Africa Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi plans to meet with aviation agencies soon to discuss the grounding of the Zimbabwe flight, which failed to comply with rules for producing the foreign operating permit, his office said. The grounding of planes is a “diplomatic impasse” over the assault charges against Grace Mugabe, the Democratic Alliance, a South African opposition party, said in an emailed statement. “It seems that tensions between Zimbabwe and South Africa are mounting. The Minister of Finance Malusi Gigaba must urgently and publicly address these concerning incidents and confirm that the SAA passengers and crew in Zimbabwe are safe.” Comair, which operates between South Africa and Zimbabwe under a franchise agreement with British Airways, also stopped its Saturday flights.<br/>
Canadian investigators have disclosed that a passenger's electrical power bank was the source of a fire in the cabin of a Lufthansa Airbus A380 operating to Houston. The aircraft – transporting 510 occupants – had been cruising in Canadian airspace, some 260nm north-east of Montreal, when the crew was alerted to "heavy" electrical smoke and fire beneath seat 10C, says Transportation Safety Board of Canada. Its incident bulleting on the 2 August incident states that a passenger power bank – a battery-powered portable device for providing electrical supply – was the source, and was "stuck in the seat mechanism". Three fire extinguishers were used by the cabin crew to smother the fire. No emergency was declared, and the aircraft (D-AIMI) has since been returned to service following seat repair.<br/>