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Austrian former racing driver Niki Lauda Sunday accused Lufthansa of trying to "destroy" the Niki airline which he founded. Niki -- formerly a unit of now bankrupt Air Berlin, and most recently operated by Lufthansa -- was grounded last Wednesday after applying to open insolvency proceedings. The move came after Lufthansa abandoned plans to buy Niki together with large parts of Air Berlin because of EU competition concerns. Lauda had said last week he was potentially interested in again acquiring the airline he sold to Air Berlin in 2011. But he has now charged that Lufthansa was effectively blocking the sale of Niki because it "wants to destroy" it, in comments to Bild am Sonntag newspaper. A Lufthansa spokesman denied the claim and told the newspaper the airline was in compliance with the rules. <br/>

An Airbus brought in by Air NZ to fly between Auckland and Sydney while Dreamliner engines are repaired has suffered problems of its own, delaying passengers about 18 hours. Air NZ leased 2 aircraft - with crew - from Portuguese company Hi Fly after 2 of its Boeing 787-9 fleet experienced engine troubles. The first replacement aircraft, an Airbus A340, arrived in Auckland Friday but its return flight from Sydney was thwarted by what Air NZ described as "an engineering issue". "Unfortunately due to curfew requirements at Sydney airport the service was cancelled, which also led to the cancellation of the return service NZ108 from Sydney to Auckland," the airline said. Air NZ said the issue with the chartered plane had been resolved and that it returned to service Sunday morning. <br/>