Lufthansa is in contact with Norwegian Air Shuttle, which is also the subject of bid interest from BA owner IAG, as the German airline looks to get involved in an expected wave of deals in the sector, its CEO told a newspaper. Shares in Norwegian Air jumped more than 10% on Monday following the comments by Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr to Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung. “In Europe, everyone is talking to everyone. There’s a new wave of consolidation approaching. That means we are also in contact with Norwegian,” Spohr was quoted as saying. Asked whether Norwegian would fit with the Lufthansa group, Spohr said: “Takeovers are always a question of strategic value, the price and anti-trust. There are no easy answers.” Norwegian reiterated on Monday that it had been approached by potential buyers and investors following an announcement in April that IAG had taken a 4.6% stake in the carrier. Its CE Bjoern Kjos confirmed to Norwegian public broadcaster NRK later on Monday that Lufthansa has been in touch with Norwegian Air’s advisors, and he had personally exchanged text messages with Lufthansa’s boss. Kjos declined to comment on the contact, adding that he personally thought that it was “a bit too early” to sell the company. “There are no negotiations or in-depth talks and it is open whether anything will come of it,” said a source with knowledge of the contact between Lufthansa and Norwegian. Strategically speaking, Norwegian would fit well with Eurowings, Lufthansa’s low-cost brand, the source added.<br/>
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SAS will switch its current Stockholm Arlanda-Hong Kong route to Copenhagen from Oct 28. SAS said June 14 that the route from the Swedish capital to Hong Kong had faced profitability problems since its launch three years ago. “However, thanks to a new airport slot, SAS will now be able to offer a more attractive timetable with in-demand night flights to and from Hong Kong. To be able to exploit the new airport slot and offer a night flight to Scandinavia from Hong Kong, the route needs to be flown from Copenhagen for operational reasons. Obviously, it’s sad that we’re moving from Stockholm, but in this case, Copenhagen offers better long-term opportunities,” SAS EVP-commercial Karl Sandlund said. SAS will operate the Copenhagen-Hong Kong route 5X-weekly. The carrier said that flying from Copenhagen offered a large catchment area and operational advantages.<br/>
Japan's two largest airlines have changed "Taiwan" to "China Taiwan" on their Chinese-language websites, officials said Tuesday, a move likely to please Beijing but anger the self-ruled island. The change was made on Jun 12 and is meant to accommodate customers, Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) said. The description remains "Taiwan" on their websites in Japanese and other languages. Both carriers said they had not received any protest from Taiwan so far, though Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported Taiwan's foreign ministry would lodge a complaint with the airlines through Japan's de-facto diplomatic mission in Taipei. A spokesman at ANA said the change was intended to make the description "easy to understand and acceptable for customers when they use our websites." "We do not mean any particular group of customers here but mean all customers," he said without elaborating further. The Chinese Civil Aviation Administration sent a notice to 36 foreign airlines in April, asking them to comply with Beijing's standard of referring to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as Chinese territories. Japan's ties with China are improving after years of acrimony over historical and territorial issues.<br/>