The owner of Lot has pulled out of a deal to buy German rival Condor, casting the future of the charter airline into doubt again. Condor has been struggling since its former parent, Thomas Cook, went into administration last year but was given a lifeline in January when PGL, Lot’s parent group, offered to buy it. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but as part of the takeover PGL had promised to repay a E380m bridging loan granted by German authorities last September to give Condor a chance to find a buyer. PGL said it had informed Condor Monday that it was abandoning the takeover — which would have created an airline with about 20m customers and 140 aircraft — but declined to give further details. The collapse of the deal renews questions about Condor’s future. <br/>
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Airports of Thailand has denied claims that it is interested in acquiring a stake in financially-struggling THAI, saying that the company itself is struggling with a sharp drop in revenue with the Covid-19 pandemic having brought the global travel industry to a halt. Passenger numbers across 6 AoT-run airports are expected to decrease by more than 50m this year, "and we believe our revenue will drop by 30-40%", AoT president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn said Monday. Since CAAT banned all international flights from landing in Thailand at the start of this month, the number of foreign travellers has dwindled to 300-400 a day, Nitinai added. "In light of this tough situation, the company has no plans to invest in THAI," he said. <br/>
US airlines have mortgaged gates, flight paths and just about any asset they could find in the back of a hangar to weather the coronavirus crisis. Now, they are considering selling miles in bulk to their credit-card partners to raise cash. United Airlines and Delta Air Lines and their respective credit-card partners, JPMorgan Chase and American Express have discussed unloading miles ahead of schedule and for less than the lenders would ordinarily pay, according to people familiar with the matter. The conversations might not result in any deals, but they show just how desperate airlines have become in the weeks since the coronavirus pandemic sent the US economy into hibernation. “If airlines start seriously talking about mileage presales, we’ll know things are particularly dire,” a Stifel airline analyst said. <br/>
Major Japanese carriers have shrunk domestic schedules after the country entered a state of emergency to try and halt the spread of Covid-19. This applies to Tokyo, Osaka, and 5 other prefectures, and was effective April 8. It takes the form of a request rather than an order, but gives authorities more power to encourage people to stay home and businesses to close. JAL said April it 10 was stepping up cuts to its domestic network over the next couple of weeks. ANA said April 9 it was changing flight frequencies for certain cities, affecting a total of 1,523 flights serving 56 routes. A scan of the schedules indicates frequencies on ANA’s domestic routes affected are roughly halved. In a separate update Monday, ANA said it will extend cuts to most of its international services into the first 2 weeks of May. <br/>