Qantas and Air NZ have announced a codeshare agreement on 115 domestic routes in New Zealand and Australia. Under the agreement, Qantas will add its code on up to 30 routes on Air NZ's domestic network, and Air NZ on up to 85 Qantas domestic routes. “While the two airlines will continue to compete very strongly across all markets, Air NZ and Qantas are known for having a commitment to innovation, customer service excellence, operational performance and safety,” Air NZ CE Christopher Luxon said. Qantas CE Alan Joyce said the two national carriers had a lot of shared history, going back almost 80 years. The airlines said there is also the potential to explore areas of mutual interest, including research into biofuels, freight and ground-handling opportunities. <br/>
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Lufthansa will firm up details of its planned staff shake-up by the end of August, management board member Bettina Volkens told German weekly WirtschaftsWoche. "We are currently talking about that with labour representatives ... Details should be decided on at the end of August," the magazine quoted her as saying Friday. Lufthansa is seeking to take on staff with new skills to make itself fit for the digital age and is planning to make offers to 3,200 older administrative staff at its namesake brand to either undergo training, switch to another position internally or leave the company. "We are ruling out compulsory redundancies, but not voluntary ones," Volkens said. At the same time, Lufthansa is looking to bring in 200 new workers. <br/>
United Airlines can’t get a break when it comes to airline customer-satisfaction surveys. This week, J.D. Power released its 2018 North American Airline Satisfaction Study. And there United was — last on the list among the 5 carriers ranked in the traditional airlines category. United earned a score of 708 (out of a possible 1,000), well below the 775 that top-ranked Alaska Airlines notched. Delta Air Lines, known for its strong on-time performance, was second on the list with a 767, followed by Air Canada with a 734 and American Airlines with a 729. The 2018 J.D. Power survey measures passenger satisfaction among both business and leisure travellers and is based on responses from 11,508 passengers who flew on a major North American airline between March 2017 and March 2018. <br/>