Lufthansa shares surged after Europe’s biggest airline overcame most of the barriers to receiving a E9b bailout from the German government. The stock gained as much as 8.3% and was priced 6.6% higher at E9.75 as of 9:04 a.m. Tuesday, the first day of trading on the Frankfurt bourse since last week. Barriers to the rescue began to crumble late Friday, with Lufthansa agreeing to hand over operating slots at its main hubs to win European Union backing for the deal. Its supervisory board approved the compromise in a vote on Monday. Lufthansa is seeking emergency aid after the Covid-19 pandemic punctured a decades-long aviation boom, grounding flights and draining cash reserves. The company expects its fleet to be 100 aircraft smaller following the crisis, implying the loss of 10,000 jobs. While investors still need to vote on a package that will dilute their holdings at a meeting on June 25, analysts say they’re likely to grant their approval rather than see Lufthansa slide toward insolvency. Lufthansa will publish Q1 earnings on Wednesday.<br/>
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Air Canada said Tuesday it raised nearly C$1.6b through an offering of shares and convertible senior notes to strengthen its cash flow amid the coronavirus crisis. "This important financing will allow us to keep our strong relative position and better manage debt leverage and risk as government restrictions are lifted and the market recovers," CFO Michael Rousseau said. Rousseau said last month Air Canada was seeing fewer cancellations and an improvement in demand for air travel as lockdowns eased.<br/>
French-language media in Canada report that legacy carrier Air Canada is looking to exit its planned takeover of Transat, the parent company of Air Transat, as Canada’s biggest airline attempts to manage through the coronavirus crisis while preserving its liquidity. Neither Air Canada nor Transat would comment on the news reports, which first appeared in the French-language daily Journal de Montreal on 2 June. The story cites three sources that say Air Canada is lobbying the Canadian government to block the deal. Air Canada on 2 June denied that recent meetings with the government had anything to do with the Transat tie-up. “All meetings registered by Air Canada with government ministers relate to the impact of Covid-19, not the Transat acquisition,” a spokesperson says. When asked specifically about the merger, and the coronavirus’ effects on the company’s strategy regarding Transat, he adds, “There is no change to what we have said previously, which is we are awaiting the outcome of the regulatory review process.” Transat is the parent company of vacation specialist carrier Air Transat, the number three airline in Canada. <br/>
The impact of Alert Level 4 on Air NZ has been revealed with passenger numbers in April down 99% on the same month in 2019. In a monthly investor update posted to the New Zealand stock exchange on Wednesday Air New Zealand said it carried just 15,000 passengers during April when the country was in lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19. That's in contrast to April 2019 when Air NZ carried 1.43m passengers. During Alert Level 4, which lasted from March 26 to April 27, travel in New Zealand was not allowed unless it was for essential work, medical reasons, because of an emergency, or to give effect to a court order, along with a few other exceptions. International travel to and from New Zealand was also severely impacted with New Zealand's borders closed to everyone except returning New Zealand citizens and residents. In late March, as New Zealand approached Alert Level 4, Air NZ reduced its network capacity by 95%. For the financial year to date, which ends on June 30, Air NZ carried 13m passengers, down 12.5% on the 14.9m passengers it carried in the same period in 2019.<br/>
The rights issue of shares by SIA has been fully subscribed, though shareholders were less keen to participate in the rights issue of mandatory convertible bonds (MCBs), application results out Tuesday showed. At the close of the rights issue last Thursday, valid acceptances and excess applications were received for 2.13b rights shares, representing close to 120% of the 1.78b rights shares available under the rights issue. Controlling shareholder Temasek, which owns 55.5% of SIA, took up its full pro-rata entitlement of 986m rights shares. A total of 67m rights shares that were not validly taken up will be allotted to satisfy excess applications. SIA directors and substantial shareholders like Temasek will rank last in priority for the rounding of odd lots and the allotment of excess rights shares. The rights issue of MCBs was undersubscribed. <br/>
Turkish Airlines said Tuesday it will start direct flights from 16 cities in six European countries to 14 cities in Anatolia as of June 18, including new routes it had not flown to before. The airline said it will resume international flights from Istanbul on June 10, and the new flights on June 18 will specifically be to Anatolia, the Asian territory which makes up the vast majority of Turkey. The flights are planned with 16 cities in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, and Denmark, it said. <br/>