Lufthansa and Ryanair-backed Laudamotion settled a dispute over leasing contracts, avoiding a London court hearing that was scheduled for November, both airlines said Tuesday. Lufthansa said in July it wanted to end an agreement to lease planes to Laudamotion, claiming the Austrian leisure airline had failed to meet payments. A London court was scheduled to start proceedings in the case next month, as Laudamotion rejected the allegations. To resolve the row, the Austrian group would return the 9 aircraft, which it leased from Lufthansa, during the first half of 2019, Laudamotion and Lufthansa said. "On that basis the parties have settled the litigation between them," they said. "The matter will not therefore be heard by the High Court in London in Nov 2018." <br/>
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A THAI Boeing 747-400 carrying 97 passengers and 18 crew members from Guangzhou slid off a runway while landing at Suvarnabhumi in heavy rain late Monday. There were no injuries. Pratana Patanasiri, THAI VP for aviation safety, said flight TG679 departed from Guangzhou at 8.58pm local time and arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport at 10.48pm. It was landing in heavy rain and slid off a runway. When the plane finally came to a stop, slides were deployed and passengers and crew members were evacuated and moved safely to the passenger terminal. Passengers were served with food and beverages while waiting for their baggage, Pratana said. The airline and authorities are investigating. Media reported the plane blocked Runway 19R and it was closed pending its removal. <br/>
After several months of major traffic gains, United Airlines continued to see a surge in traffic in September, according to the carrier’s ops report for the month released late Monday. The traffic surge was particularly pronounced on both the domestic and trans-Atlantic fronts. United said domestic traffic grew 9% year over year, with regional domestic traffic climbing a whopping 13.5% year over year. Mainline traffic grew a healthy 8% year over year. The growth, of course, has been spurred by United’s aggressive expansion of its route network to more second- and third-tier markets via regional flights. Internationally, United’s traffic climbed 3.8%, with the growth largely a result of a huge increase in trans-Atlantic traffic, up 11.2% year over year. <br/>
United Airlines will focus on making its second daily Singapore-San Francisco route work before adding frequencies or considering other non-stop US destinations from the Southeast Asian country. The carrier’s second daily direct frequency on San Francisco-Singapore starts Oct 27. The new route replaces the carrier’s existing Los Angeles-Singapore frequency, and adds to its existing direct service on San Francisco-Singapore. United use Boeing 787-9s on the route. Lawrence Chin, country manager Singapore for the carrier, says San Francisco is a better option for United than Los Angeles give the size of United’s hub there. “Connectivity is very important,” he says. “As far as we are concerned, San Francisco is the largest hub for United to the Asia-Pacific, and its connectivity is better than in LA." <br/>
Air India is likely to hire professionals from the private sector to fill the positions of functional directors, in what will be a first for the carrier. Aviation minister Suresh Prabhu has asked his ministry to look at hiring people from the private sector at the airline. The posts of director-personnel and director-commercial at Air India are vacant and to fill these, the aviation ministry had earlier moved a proposal to the Public Enterprises Selection Board, the govt head-hunter for top positions at state-run companies. But it withdrew the proposal following Prabhu’s direction, said a senior aviation ministry official, who did not want to be named. Even though Air India has had a chairmen and COO from the private sector, this would be the first time it will be hiring functional directors from outside the govt. <br/>
EgyptAir is trying to shift the blame to a local advertising agency for a bizarre article in its in-flight magazine purportedly based on an interview with actress Drew Barrymore. The airline said Monday it has an agreement with Al-Ahram advertising agency, which edits articles and interviews for the Egyptian carrier's in-flight magazine, Horus. According to EgyptAir, the agency is "totally responsible" for the magazine's editorial content. US press reports have quoted Barrymore's representatives as denying any such interview took place, with some suggesting the author must have based her article on misinterpretations of a press conference. The Al-Ahram agency said a representative of the actress contacted Tekla about the interview to say that the American actress never spoke to Horus. <br/>