Lufthansa has offered concessions to try to allay competition concerns about its plan to buy Air Berlin assets, EU antitrust regulators said Friday. The EC, concerned about Lufthansa’s potential dominance in Germany as a result of the plan, extended its deadline for a decision on the deal to Dec. 21 from Dec. 7. It did not provide details of Lufthansa’s concessions. A source familiar with the matter said Thursday that the airline was willing to cede slots belonging to Air Berlin businesses Niki and LG Walter. Air Berlin filed for insolvency in August and was subsequently carved up, with Lufthansa buying Niki and LGW, plus some short-haul planes, for E210m to expand its Eurowings budget brand. Berlin pledged a E150m loan to prevent Air Berlin’s planes from immediately being grounded. But the deal has come under fire from airlines and consumer groups who fear it will give Lufthansa dominance of German domestic routes and in Austria. Lufthansa was expected to have to offer significant remedies as the Commission determined Lufthansa, Niki and LGW’s activities overlapped on more than 100 routes. On around half of those routes, the combined market share would be above 60%, while on some routes Lufthansa would also have a monopoly. Austria’s government in August said it stood ready to provide bridge loans to keep Niki operating, but the status of that promise is unclear after parliamentary elections in October, which are set to bring a change in government.<br/>
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The government will not separately sell the international and domestic operations of Air India and interested parties will have to bid for them together. Bids will be sought for AI's domestic and international operations as an "integrated airline", Union minister of state for aviation Jayant Sinha said Friday. Interested parties will be allowed to bid separately for subsidiaries of AI. The national carrier has five subsidiaries — low-cost airline AI Express; ground-handling arm AI Air Transport Service; maintenance, repair and overhaul arm AI Engineering Services; regional operator Alliance Air; and Hotel Corporation of India, which runs Centaur hotels. "We have so far received formal expression of interest (EoI) from IndiGo for AI's airline arm. For the groundhandling and MRO subsidiaries, a few others have done the same," Sinha said. Some players, including Tatas, have informally indicated interest in AI's airline operations. IndiGo's EoI was for the "international airline operations of AI and AI Express. Alternatively, it is equally interested in acquiring all of the airline operations of AI and AI Express". <br/>
Air Canada has added a third Australian destination to its international network with the airline’s inaugural nonstop flight to Melbourne touching down on Sunday. Flight AC37, operated by Boeing 787-9 C-FRTW, landed at Melbourne Tullamarine at about 0930 on Sunday, after a near 16-hour journey from Vancouver. After about two hours on the ground, and some festivities and speeches at the boarding gate, the 787-9 took off as the reciprocal AC38 bound for Vancouver. Melbourne joins Air Canada’s nonstop Vancouver-Sydney flight with Boeing 777-200LRs (or occasionally 777-300ERs during peak periods) and Brisbane-Vancouver service served with 787s that commenced in June Air Canada president for passenger airlines Benjamin Smith said the new Melbourne flights offered travellers more options for travel between Australia and North America.<br/>
Air NZ opens its all-new Perth Airport lounge this week, adding a fourth classy lounge to its Australian network. The lounge will share a similar design to its east coast siblings in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, which in turn draw from the contemporary look of the Kiwi carrier's flagship lounge in Auckland. In addition to serving as pre-flight digs for Air New Zealand's daily Boeing 787-9 flights to Auckland and a seasonal service to Christchurch, the lounge will also be open to eligible travellers on Star Alliance airlines out of Perth, such as South African Airways and Thai Airways. Fellow Star Alliance member Singapore Airlines will retain its own SilverKris lounge at Perth Airport. The Air New Zealand lounge will open to the public on Tuesday December 5, following a media preview and ribbon-cutting on the Monday afternoon prior.<br/>