Lufthansa will cut 20% of managerial positions and accept no more than 80 planes from its current order book as it slashes spending to be able to repay as much as E9b in government aid. The German national carrier will also eliminate 1,000 administrative positions in a second round of cost cutting amid a slump in travel demand caused by the coronavirus. The airline’s plan to scale back on deliveries will reduce spending on new jets by half, according to a Tuesday statement. Lufthansa said in April it will reduce the size of its fleet, which stood at 763 planes last year, by 100 and close the low-cost Germanwings unit. The carrier will now accelerate the process of turning its namesake airline into a separate entity. The company reiterated that it has 22,000 surplus full-time positions but will avoid firing staff wherever possible.<br/>
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Five more US air carriers including Delta and United will take out loans under the CARES Act stimulus package, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Tuesday. The decision means most major US air carriers have agreed to accept financing from the $2.2t measure passed in late March to blunt the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. "We welcome the news that Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines have now also signed letters of intent," Mnuchin said. While carriers were initially hesitant to take the money for fear of draconian conditions, Treasury announced last week that American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Sky West Airlines and Spirit Airlines agreed to the government's terms. Treasury did not specify the amount each airline was receiving, saying only that it required borrowers to provide warrants, which are financial instruments that can be converted into shares, or other forms of debt or equity. Borrowers must also comply with conditions like maintaining employment and not paying employees above set levels, along with temporarily suspending the payment of dividends and share buybacks.<br/>
United has warned of booking declines and potential furloughs due to new travel restrictions in an internal presentation to the carrier’s employees, a person with knowledge of the matter said. United’s reservations for travel within the coming month quickly began to slide after New York, New Jersey and Connecticut said last month they would require people arriving from hot-spot states to quarantine for 14 days, the airline said. The slump was most pronounced at United’s Newark hub, where near-term net bookings were just about 16% of year-ago levels as of July 1. Earlier this month, United said it was adding nearly 25,000 domestic and international flights in August, tripling the number it flew in June, while standing ready to shift plans if recent spikes in COVID-19 cases hurt demand.<br/>
Asiana Airlines said Tuesday it will resume flights to Nanjing next week upon approval from China. Asiana plans to begin offering one flight a week on the Incheon-Nanjing route Sunday. The carrier has served one flight a week on the Incheon-Changchun route, a company spokesman said. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has been in consultations with its Chinese counterpart to increase the number of flights that has sharply decreased due to the new coronavirus outbreak. With the resumption of flights to Nanjing, there will be four routes to China available beginning Sunday, the spokesman said. Currently, two other Korean carriers -- Korean Air Lines and Jeju Air -- offer a flight per week on the Incheon-Shenyang route and the Incheon-Weihai route, respectively. China's aviation authorities have made airlines offer one flight a week since late March to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic through incoming passengers.<br/>
The Egyptian Embassy in Berlin announced Tuesday the resumption of EgyptAir flights from and to Egypt after a nearly four-month hiatus over the novel coronavirus pandemic. The embassy said the carrier has already resumed flights from Berlin and Frankfurt airports on July 1. The embassy called on expats willing to return to Egypt on board EgyptAir flights to contact the airline's offices in Berlin and Frankfurt to get information about travel procedures. Last month, Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Manar Enaba said that Egypt will gradually resume international flights at all its airports with countries that have reopened their airports as of July 1.<br/>