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Lufthansa has said that it will be left with 10,000 excess staff as it becomes a permanently smaller airline due to Covid-19, in one of the starkest signs of the industry’s woes since the outbreak began. In a webcast to employees on Friday, CE Carsten Spohr said the carrier, which has already furloughed almost 90,000 of its 135,000 employees, was unlikely to experience pre-crisis levels of demand until 2023. “We expect yields to be 10% lower and the load factor on our aircraft to be 10% lower,” he said, adding that the company would do what it could to preserve jobs. “After the crisis, we will have to spend over a billion euros a year to repay loans.” The airline, which is seeking state aid in Germany, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland, also said it would be likely to rid itself of 100 aircraft as it concentrated on operating fewer, larger planes. Earlier this week, unions representing Lufthansa employees appealed to Angela Merkel’s government, calling for state aid to be contingent on maintaining jobs. But on Friday, Spohr implied that the airline’s workforce would have to shrink. “This pandemic will not be over until there is a vaccine available worldwide,” he said. “We were the first industry to be affected by this global crisis and aviation will be one of the last to leave it.” <br/>

Lufthansa spent the last two decades forging a business empire that stretched across the wealthiest countries of continental Europe. Forced into retreat by the coronavirus crisis, it’s now bogged down by ties to four governments as it seeks a multi-billion euro bailout. The airline warned late Thursday that it’s running low on cash and won’t be able to survive without state aid from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium. Each of those countries contributed former national carriers to the sprawling airline group, and negotiations are ongoing for an aid package that could total E10b, according to people familiar with the matter. The talks are snared on how much the German carrier will receive from each country, and how much sway politicians will have in the airline after the cash is handed over, the people said. Chancellor Angela Merkel, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier, Transportation Minister Andreas Scheuer and Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr will hold crisis talks on a rescue package at the beginning of next week. The German government views Lufthansa as a systemically important airline and won’t allow it to fail, a government official said on Friday.<br/>

South African Airways’ employees were given another week to negotiate on job losses, and if no solution is found to the stricken airline’s financial woes, they’ll be expected to sign a retrenchment agreement. The staff of 4,800 were originally given until Sunday to accept retrenchment packages or face the consquences of the airline being liquidated -- in which severance packages couldn’t be guaranteed. Talks were held Saturday between unions, the Department of Public Enterprises and the administrators, where it was decided that no application for liquidation would be made and the retrenchment process and severance offer to employees be suspended until May 1, according to a statement by the Department of Public Enterprises. The South African government placed South African Airways into a voluntary business-rescue process to try and save the cash-strapped carrier in December. Since then, the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the airline’s troubles and the government has refused to fund it further.<br/>

Singapore Airlines said it will cancel most flights until the end of June. About 96% of scheduled flights will be cancelled, and the airline will fly only to 15 cities in that period, it said in a statement on its website. They include six Southeast Asian cities, Tokyo, London and Los Angeles. Singapore confirmed an additional 618 coronavirus cases on Saturday, bringing the total to more than 12,600. A majority of the cases has occurred in dormitories that house foreign laborers.<br/>

United on Friday became the first large US airline to require flight attendants to wear face masks, joining discounter Frontier Airlines as airlines ramp up efforts to protect workers and passengers during the coronavirus pandemic. Airline unions, which have demanded increased protections as the coronavirus crisis claimed more lives, including airline and airport employees, applauded the move. Flight attendant and pilot union leaders and consumer advocates, including FlyersRights, said much more needs to be done on the health front to help stop the spread of the virus and reassure travelers that it's safe to board a plane. "In order for travel demand to return, people have to have confidence in flying," Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, said. "That means we have to take steps right now to contain the virus." The Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots, was more blunt in a memo to its members this week after a coronavirus safety alert it considered lacking. “This is not time for words like ‘should,’ ‘may,’ and ‘recommend.’ This is the time for ‘must,’ ‘shall,’ and ‘mandate,’ ” the union said. "In order to instill confidence in air travel today and tomorrow and protect the airlines’ role as a national security asset, we must have government mandates … during this period of threat and recovery.” High on the union and consumer groups' wish list: requiring that passengers wear face masks.<br/>

Hyderabad International Airport Sunday got connected to African markets with the touchdown of the maiden cargo flight of Ethiopian Airlines here from Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. This new direct connection between Hyderabad and Ethiopia throws open new opportunities to reach out to the markets in Africa and beyond leveraging the robust cargo network of the airlines. Expected to be operating one frequency per week, Ethiopian Airlines will be operating Boeing 777-300 aircraft with a capacity of 50 MT per flight. With the latest addition of Ethiopian Airlines, the Hyderabad International Airport is now handling 12 freighters weekly along with some special cargo charters, which are connecting Hyderabad to all major international destinations in the US, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Far East -- moving emergency supplies.<br/>