Lufthansa reported a Q1 loss because of rising fuel costs, highlighting industry woes that prompted the airline to cut its growth plans last month. The adjusted loss before interest and taxes was E336m (US$380m), the carrier said Monday after the market closed. That compared with earnings of E52m a year earlier. The downturn was particularly stark because of strong results for the beginning of last year following the collapse of Air Berlin, it said. The loss comes after Lufthansa opted to pare planned capacity increases this summer to bolster fare prices and focus on profitability. The European airline industry is coming off a tough year, with bad weather and air-traffic-control strikes among the factors hurting profit. Ryanair has warned that depressed fares will continue for the rest of the year. <br/>
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Embattled South Korean conglomerate Kumho Industrial will sell its 33% stake in Asiana Airlines as it seeks to shore up its finances. The sale decision was made by Kumho’s board Monday, a stock exchange disclosure states, but no timeline for the sale nor the likely price have been set. Kumho Industrial is the holding company of the Kumho Asiana Group, which has been seeking around US$441m in emergency loans from Korea Development Bank, its largest creditor. The sale of the Asiana stake is part of a wider self-rescue plan for the heavily indebted conglomerate. A meeting of creditors is expected to be called soon to approve the plan. It is not clear which parties could acquire the cornerstone stake in Asiana, but several reports point to other Korean industrial conglomerates as likely bidders. <br/>
United Airlines says it is cancelling flights through "early July" because of the Boeing 737 Max grounding. The airline joins other US carriers — American and Southwest — that have canceled 737 Max flights to avoid disruption as people book flights for the upcoming travel season. "We've used spare aircraft and other creative solutions to help our customers...get where they are going," a United spokesman said Monday. "But, it's harder to make those changes at the peak of the busy summer travel season." United said the initial decision to take the planes out of service affected "roughly 40 flights a day" at the time. The company doesn't fly any Max 8 jets, the type of plane that was involved in both of the fatal incidents. But it does have 14 Max 9s, which are a slightly longer version of the Max 8. <br/>
United Airlines plans to begin nonstop flights between Newark, New Jersey, and Cape Town, South Africa, in December. The new route, which requires govt approvals, will be the first nonstop flight between North America and Cape Town and marks United's return to Africa after a 3-year absence. Travellers headed to Cape Town from the US on any airline today have to make a stop, typically in Europe on US carriers or elsewhere in Africa on African carriers. United says its new nonstop flight, on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, will shave hours off travellers' trips to and from Cape Town. The southbound flight is scheduled for 14½ hours, the return about 16 hours. Patrick Quayle, United's VP of international network, said the airline is adding Cape Town because it's the largest unserved destination between North America and Africa. <br/>
SIA and Garuda Indonesia have started codesharing on each other’s flights between Singapore and Jakarta, 5 years after the pair last expanded their codeshare agreements. With the April 15 announcement, both carriers will now place their code on each other’s flights to 3 Indonesian destinations — the other two are Denpasar (Bali) and Surabaya. The two airlines started codesharing 2010, starting with Bali, before expanding to services between Singapore and Surabaya in 2014. SIA and Garuda operate 175 weekly scheduled services between both countries. Garuda Indonesia director of commercial Pikri Ilham Kurniansyah says Singapore remains an “important market” for the carrier. “South-east Asia is a very important region for Garuda Indonesia, while Singapore in particular is a key growth market,” he adds. <br/>