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Lufthansa’s first flight from Berlin to the US in over 16 years took off Wednesday, although a slow start to sales shows the difficulties involved in trying to replace the gaps left by insolvent rival Air Berlin. Air Berlin carried out its last flight at the end of last month, leaving a gap in the market for long-haul flights from the German capital in particular. “Of course bookings are slow at this stage,” Lufthansa board member Harry Hohmeister said Wednesday. He said that usually Lufthansa would give 12 months notice of a new long-haul route, or 8 months at a minimum, but in this case it had only 6 weeks to sell tickets ahead of the first flight. Lufthansa has traditionally shied away from long-haul flights from Berlin, instead flying intercontinental routes from its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. <br/>

SIA says it is working to cut bureaucracy within the organisation, as part of its transformation programme. SIA Group CE Goh Choon Phong says this is part of making the group leaner. An example is a new approval process, implemented Nov 1, which requires no more than three levels of clearance "to get the final go ahead". Previously, he says some decisions could require up to 8 levels of approvals. He adds that SIA's transformation programme features over 60 initiatives across its business. These include a group-wide network review, a new revenue management system, leveraging data to optimise fuel uplift, and setting up a new customer experience division for to focus on "customer journey". The 3-year transformation programme is aimed at better positioning the group for future growth. <br/>