Lufthansa faces potential strikes during the busy summer travel season, adding a fresh headache for the German carrier just days after a profit warning sent the stock plunging. The UFO cabin-crew union will hold ballots on walkouts at Lufthansa’s Eurowings and Germanwings units after pay talks broke down amid a push for cost cuts, union officials said at a press conference in Frankfurt on Thursday. Strikes could start in July and be widened to include walkouts at the main Lufthansa airline. “Another summer of chaos looms if the company doesn’t change its approach,” union leader Sylvia De La Cruz said in Frankfurt. Industrial action at Eurowings would add to a list of problems facing Lufthansa. The airline’s shares slumped the most in three years on Monday after the company said it fears a European fare war will squeeze profits at least for the rest of the year, leading to a string of analyst downgrades. Lufthansa expects sales at Eurowings to fall this year and plans new cost-cutting measures at the unit, which CE Officer Carsten Spohr is trying to position as a rival to budget carriers Ryanair and EasyJet. The worsening performance at Eurowings comes months after Lufthansa said it would halt expansion of the airline amid a capacity glut.<br/>
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United said it had suspended flights from New Jersey's Newark airport to the Indian financial capital of Mumbai following a safety review after Iran shot down a high-altitude US surveillance drone. The downing of the unarmed Global Hawk aircraft, which can fly at up to 18,300 metres, was the latest of a series of incidents in the Gulf region, a critical artery for global oil supplies, that included explosive strikes on six oil tankers. "Given current events in Iran, we have conducted a thorough safety and security review of our India service through Iranian airspace and decided to suspend our service," United said on its website. Flight tracking data showed commercial aircraft were flying very close to the unpiloted Global Hawk at the time it was shot down, said OPSGROUP, which provides safety guidance to air operators. "The threat of a civil aircraft shoot down in southern Iran is real," it advised operators on Thursday. "Avoiding the Strait of Hormuz area is recommended – misidentification of aircraft is possible."<br/>
Flight attendants for Taiwan's Eva Airways announced a strike on Thursday, the official Central News Agency reported, after their union failed to reach an agreement with the company in pay negotiations. Last-ditch talks between the airline management and the union failed, and the latter announced that its members will start striking at 4pm. According to local media, flight attendants are demanding that those working in overseas destinations have their allowance raised from NT$90 (US$2.90) to NT$150 per flight. They are also reportedly unhappy over nine round-trip flights which they say often result in more than 12 hours of work. EVA flight attendants on those nine routes are currently required to work on both legs of each trip. It is not immediately clear how the strike will affect flights. Eva Airways said it was still assessing the situation and details were not immediately available. Taiwan's transport ministry said that it has asked multiple parties including rival carrier China Airlines, bus companies and the military to coordinate to minimise the impact. Airports across the island were also ordered to be ready to handle delayed passengers.<br/>