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Turkey has floated proposals that would require its airlines to ax foreign pilots and cabin crew before dismissing local workers as the coronavirus crisis shatters travel demand and destroys jobs. The Ankara-based Directorate General of Civil Aviation, or SHGM, has written to 10 operators including flag-carrier Turkish Airlines seeking their opinions on the plan. The localization drive comes as airlines worldwide cut tens of thousands of jobs amid a slump in flights that’s expected to last for years. Turkish carriers had previously recruited large numbers of expatriates amid a travel boom, with the proportion of overseas crew reaching 11%, the SHGM said in the letter. “If needed, the recruitment of foreign staff should be reduced and that of our citizens, and their income, should be protected,” the Hava-Sen labor group, which has 1,500 airline members, told the SHGM on May 29. Turkish Airlines didn’t respond to emailed questions, while Pegasus CEO Mehmet Nane played down the impact for his carrier, saying by phone that only around 100 of its 6,000 staff are from overseas. Turkish Airlines had already clashed with unions over proposals to halve pilot wages and cut salaries for other staff to help shore up its finances after the virus grounded global fleets. The carrier serves more countries than any other using the super-hub model developed by Mideast giant Emirates. <br/>

EU competition enforcers approved on Friday a E290m Belgian aid package for Lufthansa's Belgian unit, saying the support will help it ride out the coronavirus pandemic. The measure consists of a E287m loan, which is linked to Brussels Airlines' liquidity needs in the foreseeable future, and around E3m in equity injection which comes with a dividend and bonus ban and a cap on management pay. "The aid measure is necessary, appropriate and proportionate to remedy a serious disturbance in the economy of a member state," the EC said.<br/>

Lufthansa Group has disclosed it paid more than E2.3b in ticket refunds to almost 5.4m customers so far this year. The airline group did not break down the figures for its individual subsidiaries, but says it has paid around 92% of Lufthansa mainline customers who became eligible for refunds during the January-June period. Lufthansa Group says its aim is to pay out all customers, who were eligible for refunds during the first six months, by the end of August. A total 1.4m refund requests are still pending. The airline says it “worked hard to increase its reimbursement capacities significantly” and that processes were adapted to speed reimbursements. Furloughed employees from other departments were “activated” to help with the effort, Lufthansa says.<br/>

German pilot union Vereinigung Cockpit sees Lufthansa’s in-house flight academy in Bremen under threat as the ministry of defence in Berlin evaluates a termination of its training contract with the school. The union says that the ministry is preparing a transfer of its transport pilot training requirements to Rostock airport. Rostock is the location of another training facility of Lufthansa Group-owned European Flight Academy – an operation covering multiple sites, including the Bremen campus, used to train pilots across the airline group, according to EFA’s website. Vereinigung Cockpit says that the Bremen campus operates under a collective labour agreement while the Rostock does not. The Bremen campus has trained pilots for Lufthansa’s mainline since the 1950s, the union says, noting that the co-operation with the Bundeswehr has existed for more than 50 years. If income from military training were to be lost, Bremen’s unit costs would increase and “large” parts of the school activities would be in jeopardy, the union asserts.<br/>

For five months, Copa Airlines barely flew, operating a smattering of humanitarian and cargo flights. Panama’s national government demanded it, barring any airline from flying international flights. Copa, which has just one domestic route, is back in business, but only in a small way. Thanks to Panama Government Executive Decree No. 300, Copa is launching limited flights to New York, San Jose, Costa Rica, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Quito and Guayaquil in Ecuador. Assuming it goes OK, the government should allow more flights next month. Only Panamanian citizens will be able to get off in Panama City, but passengers can transfer at the airline’s hub at Tocumen International Airport to make connections between North and South America. (At least among the countries that are open; several South American countries have not opened their borders to all travelers.) If Copa has effectively not flown for five months, shouldn’t it be in dire financial straits? Not exactly. Despite flying only 86 cargo and humanitarian operations in the second quarter, Copa actually did all right, compared to other airlines. The company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, posted a net loss of $386m, or $114.6m excluding special items, such as costs from permanently grounding certain fleet types. “Though clearly a brutal quarter, Copa was one of the few airlines to exceed our expectations both mathematically and otherwise,” Hunter Keay, an analyst at Wolfe Research, wrote in a report. Story has more. <br/>

German Efromovich, a majority shareholder of Avianca Holdings, said on Friday he is innocent of alleged corruption under investigation by Brazilian prosecutors and hopes to win back control of the Colombian airline.<br/>Efromovich and his brother, Jose, were placed under house arrest in Brazil earlier this week as part of the country’s massive Car Wash corruption probe. Protesting his innocence in a virtual press conference, Efromovich said he remained a willing investor in Avianca, as the air carrier undergoes a Chapter 11 restructuring in the United States after filing for bankruptcy protection in May. Brazilian prosecutors have accused the brothers of laundering money and bribing public officials in order to land ship-building contracts with Transpetro, the logistics unit of Brazilian oil company Petrobras. The accusations are unrelated to Avianca. “The documents speak for themselves and this will fall by gravity, because of its own weight,” Efromovich said of the accusations against him. He said Brazilian investigators have been induced to implicate him in the case, but did not elaborate.<br/>

Despite recent government actions aimed at preventing Air India from carrying coronavirus-positive passengers into Hong Kong, a review by the Post has found that direct flights only account for part of the issue, with connecting flights from other locales also bringing in several cases from India. At least 44 cases imported from India have emerged since stricter public health restrictions were imposed on high-risk countries. Nineteen of the cases can be traced to a single August 14 flight operated by India’s national airline, triggering a two-week ban on Air India flights to the city by Hong Kong authorities. Five other cases were linked to an Air India flight from Delhi on August 11, and eight more were on another flight from Delhi a week before that. But a review of the official data also found another six Covid-19 cases imported from India could be traced to Singapore Airlines flight 890 on August 5. A further analysis of travel patterns found six more such cases travelled to Hong Kong via Singapore, Doha and Kuala Lumpur in late July and the first 19 days of August, indicating the problem is not limited to direct flights from India. The number of cases linked to these flights has slowly ticked up as passengers test positive during the city’s mandatory 14-day quarantine period. An aviation specialist and a health expert have said the revelations raise questions on why only Air India had been singled out, and whether it was necessary to strengthen preflight testing requirements.<br/>