Air Berlin is aiming for a deal with either Thomas Cook’s Condor or easyJet on Friday for some of its remaining airline operations, it said on Thursday after agreeing to sell its maintenance unit to a consortium. “We are negotiating in parallel with easyJet and Condor. Our aim is to reach a deal with one of the two bidders on Friday,” a spokesman for the insolvent German airline said Thursday. The final Air Berlin-operated flight will take place on Friday, meaning the German airline is keen to clinch a deal before then. Lufthansa has already agreed to take on operations covering around 81 planes from Air Berlin. EasyJet has said it was interested in up to 25 planes, predominantly for operations from Berlin’s Tegel airport, where it does not yet fly from.<br/>
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Air Berlin will sell its maintenance unit to a consortium, saving at least 300 jobs, the insolvent German airline said Thursday. Family-owned Zeitfracht and maintenance group Nayak will sign the contract this week, it said. The purchase price was not disclosed. Zeitfracht is also buying Air Berlin’s cargo marketing unit. Around 550 maintenance employees who are not being taken on directly by the new owners will have access to a transfer company to help them find new work, Air Berlin said.<br/>
American Airlines reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday on higher demand for business and leisure travel, but shares fell nearly 5% on factors including higher operating expenses. CEO Doug Parker said on an earnings call that the airline would work with a US civil rights group that called on Tuesday for black travellers to avoid American because of what the group called a pattern of racially biased incidents. “Discrimination, exclusion and unconscious biases are enormous problems that no one has mastered,” Parker said. For the current quarter, American said it expects revenue per available seat mile, a closely watched metric that compares sales to flight capacity, to rise between 2.5 and 4.5% from a year ago. American’s solid Q3 report came even as operations were hit by severe hurricanes. Still, shares closed down 4.72% at $48.61. The airline’s Q3 operating expenses swelled by 5.3% to $9.6b, a sore spot for investors. Increasing costs for fuel and labor have caused expenses to spike across the industry. Earlier this year, American said it offered an unexpected mid-contract pay increase to its pilots and flight attendants, which will cost an additional $230m for 2017 and $350m for 2018 and 2019. The airline’s pretax margin, excluding special items, is forecast between 4.5 and 6.5% for the current quarter. American said it cancelled nearly 8,000 flights due to the hurricanes, reducing pretax earnings by about $75m. “Despite the significant operational challenges posed by three hurricanes, our team delivered solid financial results,” Parker said.<br/>
The CEO of American Airlines said Thursday he is looking forward to company representatives meeting with the NAACP to discuss the civil rights group's charge that carrier has a culture of racial insensitivity. The NAACP earlier this week warned African-Americans that if they fly on American, they may face discrimination or even safety issues. CEO Doug Parker said his first reaction to the NAACP's charge was, "How can that be true of us?" He described the airline as having "a diverse and open environment and organization." But he says he now sees a chance to improve the airline. "Once you get past that, this is a fantastic opportunity because we want to get better," Parker told reporters during a call to discuss the company's latest financial results. "If the NAACP wants to talk to us and wants to help us get better, we are excited about that." The NAACP issued a "travel advisory" and cited four recent incidents where African-American passengers, including an NAACP official, believed they were mistreated because of their race. Since the start of 2016, passengers flying on American have filed 29 complaints of racial discrimination with the federal government, the most against any U.S. carrier, followed by United Airlines with 17. Parker was asked if he is concerned that the controversy with the NAACP could hurt American's bookings. "We haven't seen anything, but that is not the point," he said. "The work we're doing ... is not about whether or not it has a financial impact on our company."<br/>
Qantas expects its underlying pre-tax profit for the six months to December 2017 to come in between A$900m and A$950m, aided by stronger unit revenues during Q1 of the 2018 fiscal year. The forecast, which was part of a trading update released by the Oneworld carrier, compares favourably with an underlying profit before tax of A$852m during the same period the year prior. Qantas also noted that its group revenue for the three months to 30 September increased 5.1% to A$4.19b. RASK increased by 3.1% overall, as domestic unit revenue grew 8% on a 2.7% fall in capacity. “The domestic market is healthy but remains very competitive,” says Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce. “The high rate of revenue growth we’ve seen so far this year is likely to slow when compared with what was a strong second half last year.” In response, the airline will reduce domestic capacity by 1% during the second half of the fiscal year as it continues to right size capacity in key markets. On the international front, the airline also reported a marginal 0.2% lift in international RASK during the first quarter, amid a larger increase in competitor capacity on routes from Australia. “There’s been a welcome easing of capacity growth in the international market but the indications are that it is likely to pick up pace again in the second half,” says Joyce. It expects that during H1, its international capacity will be up around 5%, and 3% in the second half as it continues to target strong-growing Asian markets.<br/>