Lufthansa announced plans Thursday to cut costs at its Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Lufthansa Cargo businesses to revive profits but faces a fresh challenge to its efforts with a cabin crew strike this week. Lufthansa has reacted to competition from Ryanair and easyJet by cutting costs and announcing a turnaround plan in June for Eurowings, which it said on Thursday was paying off as it reported better-than-expected quarterly figures. Cabin crew launched a strike over pay and pensions that will result in the cancellation of 1,300 flights on Thursday and Friday and affect 180,000 passengers. Trade union UFO has called for the walkout on what amounts to one in five of the carrier’s planned 6,000 flights. One day of strike action would cost the company an estimated 10 to 20m euros, finance chief Ulrik Svensson said. Even rumours of a walkout would deter customers, he added. CE Carsten Spohr said he was prepared to enter into arbitration talks with all three unions that represent cabin staff, including UFO. Lufthansa and UFO have been at odds for months over the union’s legal status. UFO said it would talk to the airline this weekend and would not prolong the strike beyond Friday or extend it to other airlines in the group. Story has more details.<br/>
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Lufthansa has cancelled 1,300 flights after it lost a last-minute legal bid to halt a strike by cabin crew. The two-day action over pay and conditions began at midnight local time. About 180,000 passengers are set to face travel disruption. The UFO union said it would hit all Lufthansa flights from German airports. Flights by Lufthansa's other airlines including Eurowings, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, and Brussels Airlines are not affected, the airline said. Lufthansa has cancelled 700 flights on Thursday and 600 on Friday, amounting to about one-fifth of its planned flights over the 48-hour period. It said it regretted the inconvenience caused, adding: "We will do everything we can to minimise the impact of this massive strike on our customers." On Wednesday, a Frankfurt labour court rejected Lufthansa's application to prevent the strike, which is part of a long-running dispute at the airline. Lufthansa has said passengers travelling between German airports can exchange their tickets online for rail tickets. Other passengers will be offered alternative flights. The union's vice-president, Daniel Flohr, has warned that further strikes could come "at any time".<br/>
Lufthansa is only interested in investing in struggling Italian airline Alitalia, which is running out of cash and racing to find new funds, once it has been restructured, its chief executive said on Thursday. “The technical restructuring of taking elements out, people out needs to be done by the current ownership before we can see ourselves getting involved here,” Carsten Spohr told analysts after Lufthansa reported Q3 results. “We are interested to look at a restructured new Alitalia, if it makes sense to us and our shareholders, our staff and our customers due to the importance of the Italian market.” On Wednesday, Alitalia’s administrators said they had no preferred option between Delta and Lufthansa, the two groups talking with rail operator Ferrovie dello Stato about a rescue for the Italian carrier. Ferrovie, which is leading a state-orchestrated effort to rescue Alitalia, will have to choose between the two foreign carriers in the next weeks as the financial performance of Alitalia was deteriorating, the administrators said.<br/>
United will offer alternative flights to any passengers uncomfortable with flying on the Boeing 737 Max once the narrowbody returns to the skies. “We are going to make it very transparent to our customers [that their trip is on a Max],” chief executive Oscar Munoz said at an Aviation Club luncheon in London today. “If they are not happy, we will offer to rebook them, even if they take that decision at the gate.” He adds: “We don’t assume everybody will jump back on the aircraft.” United has been unable to operate its 14 Max 9 aircraft since the US Federal Aviation Administration and other regulators grounded the type in March following two fatal crashes. Munoz, who adds that the airline is “not in any particular hurry” to bring the re-engined narrowbody back to service, reiterated his pledge to fly on the first United Max service following re-certification, acknowledging that the grounding has damaged customer perceptions of the Max brand. United was due to increase its fleet of Max aircraft to 30 by the end of this year, with another 28 due in 2020.<br/>
A senior Air China executive lamented declining air passenger numbers between the US and China and a lack of progress in addressing bilateral civil aviation issues. Between 2010 and 2017, the number of Chinese visitors to the US ballooned from 735,000 to 3.2m, driven by a rapidly expanding Chinese middle class and a move by former US President Barack Obama to streamline applications for foreign tourist visas from affluent Chinese visitors. Total US spending by Chinese visitors grew from just over $5b in 2010 to over $35b in 2017. During those years, “a lot of money was spent. We bought a lot of airplanes and a lot of goodwill was generated,” Air China VP-North America Zhihang Chi said during a Nov. 7 speech at the International Aviation Club of Washington DC. “I don’t think anybody in this audience would dispute that this was a success story for both countries and an example of successful policymaking.” The growth trend reversed in 2018 for the first time in more than a decade, when total passengers from China to the US dropped to 3m. While some of the decline was the result of a slowing Chinese economy and depreciating yuan, Chi said the US-China trade war and souring of bilateral relations have contributed to the drop-off in air travel between the two countries. “On the bilateral front, there has been nothing but standstill. ... The US government issued 42% fewer non-immigrant visas to Chinese travellers last year from 2017 levels,” Chi said. “We also see more and more Chinese visitors being subjected to secondary screening at US airports.”<br/>
Singapore Airlines said travel demand to Hong Kong remains weak as months of protests and violent unrest have discouraged people from visiting the city. The airline cancelled some flights when there weren’t enough passengers or shifted the load to other services, CEO Goh Choon Phong said Wednesday. “The impact is probably stronger on the leisure side, because if you are going to Hong Kong for leisure you may actually look at alternatives,” Goh said. While it’s too early to say that travel demand to Hong Kong is recovering, “it has somewhat stabilized,” he said. Protests continue to rock parts of Hong Kong, particularly on weekends, and have occasionally spread to the airport, affecting operations there. Cathay Pacific Airways has lowered its earnings outlook, while Hong Kong Airlines is cutting operations, including its Los Angeles route. Virgin Australia Holdings said Wednesday it is suspending its Melbourne-Hong Kong route.<br/>
Azul has proposed to shareholders a joint venture with Portuguese flag carrier TAP Air Portugal as it looks to gain a greater foothold in the transatlantic travel market, the company says in its investor update on 7 November. While the two airlines have spoken of plans for a joint venture as early as 2017, they had yet to take steps to formalise the alliance. David Neeleman, Azul’s founder and chairman, says the company is excited to bring the collaboration between the two airlines into a new phase which will benefit both the airlines as well as its passengers across the vast South American country. Since Neeleman's Atlantic Gateway consortium took a share in TAP in 2015, the Portuguese airline has undergone a dramatic restructuring, including an extensive fleet renewal and network expansion across the Atlantic. TAP is currently the leading operator of scheduled services between Europe and South America. “TAP is going through the same kind of fleet transformation as we are,” Neeleman says. “We are really excited about our investment and the strategic value of the joint venture. There will be huge synergies, we will be able to coordinate schedules and fares, but also as an investment.”<br/>