Lufthansa's failure to salvage Niki may slow expansion of the carrier and its budget unit Eurowings, but it is still expected to benefit from the resulting drop in competition in the short term. Lufthansa dropped a bid for Niki, saying it was unlikely to be approved by the EC due to competition concerns. Niki's collapse is likely to be a boon for carriers serving similar markets, including Lufthansa, TUIFly and Condor. "Whilst from a Lufthansa perspective they would have preferred to acquire Niki their core object of strengthening the German market remains intact," aviation consultant John Strickland said. Even before it put in its bid, some at the top of Lufthansa had queried whether it was worth bidding for Air Berlin operations, because the airline would likely benefit from its demise anyway, according to one person familiar with the matter <br/>
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SIA’s CE said that surplus capacity in the industry remains a challenge and the carrier’s focus continues to be on delivering cost-efficient services. The group is in the midst of a review to fend off intensifying competition from Middle Eastern carriers at the premium end and low-cost operators at the budget end. The transformation may include job cuts, the company said in June, and 2 months later it offered its cabin crew 3 months of voluntary unpaid leave. “As we change the way we work the new processes, as new technologies are introduced, some jobs our staff is performing will no longer be required,” CE Goh Choon Phong said Thursday. “Our people fully understand the need for transformation.” The airline said profit almost tripled in the quarter through September, aided by an increase in passenger and cargo traffic. <br/>
Management at Turkish Airlines are evaluating whether to separate AnadoluJet, the carrier’s low-cost brand, into an independent company that can more effectively compete with rivals like Pegasus Airlines in Ankara. “Today, AnadoluJet is the brand name of Turkish Airlines. It is a dedicated group but it is not a company,” THY CE Bilal Ekşi said. “We are discussing [whether] to separate AnadoluJet as a company. It is under discussion and the decision is not yet given, but the board has requested us to make the evaluation.” Ekşi says the outcome should be known by the end of this year, at which point plans will also be made for AnadoluJet’s fleet development. About 32 Boeing 737-800s are currently flown on behalf of AnadoluJet by THY and its subsidiary SunExpress. <br/>