Lufthansa is preparing for more drastic cutbacks in its global workforce and airline fleet than it previously planned, after a hoped-for recovery of air traffic fizzled out. Recent rules that forced travellers into quarantine have had a catastrophic effect on bookings, CEO Carsten Spohr told staff at a meeting on Tuesday, according to people in attendance. For October, seat reservations stand at less than 10% of year-ago levels, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing comments that weren’t publicly made. A surge in European virus cases has forced Europe’s biggest airline to tear up its recovery plan and pare back its ambitions to cope with the deteriorating outlook. Lufthansa, which accepted a E9b German bailout in early June, now expects a recovery of air traffic to take until the middle of the decade. It’s not clear when -- if at all -- revenue will recover to its 2019 record, given a decline in business travel that’s hit Lufthansa hard, the CEO said, according to the people. Spohr said Tuesday that he’s working on measures that will go beyond the existing plan to cut Lufthansa’s fleet by about 100 jets and shed the equivalent of 22,000 full-time positions. He said the earlier program won’t be enough, according to the people. While Lufthansa had planned to lift capacity gradually to about half of normal levels by December -- a forecast included in investor presentations as recently as last week -- the CEO now said he’d probably be satisfied if Lufthansa can offer 25% of year-ago seats, according to the people. At the moment, traffic stands at less than 20% of last year, the people said.<br/>
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Avianca Holdings Tuesday said it had appealed a court order that last week banned Colombia’s government from providing the troubled airline with a $370m loan to finance part of its bankruptcy restructuring. The airline, which filed for bankruptcy in May due to the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on travel, said that without the loan, keeping the company afloat would become “untenable.” The loan is part of a $2b financing package that is key to the carrier exiting bankruptcy protection. The Colombian government’s slice of the package had been questioned in a Colombian court under the argument that Avianca’s guarantees on the loan were insufficient.<br/>
Air NZ is planning to make 385 cabin crew jobs redundant due to low international passenger numbers and further reductions to its international network. An internal email sent to Air NZ crew Wednesday said over the past month there had been “significant continual decline” in the number of passengers booking international travel as other carriers resumed international services and charges for managed isolation and quarantine were introduced. The national carrier last week told crew it was de-scheduling a number of flights on its international wide body network, including reducing the number of Auckland-Los Angeles passenger flights from daily to three times a week, and stopping passenger services from San Francisco. “Unfortunately the reduced schedule means we have a reduction in the number of crew we need for our wide body fleet,” the email said. “We are now in a situation where we need to consider the size of our team in relation to both the immediate and medium to long term demand. “In the foreseeable future, we have around 385 more wide body cabin crew in the business than we have work for.” The network reduction was in place for six months but uncertainty was expected to continue for longer. Wednesday’s email said the business had asked staff to make “significant personal sacrifices” as part of the cost-cutting programme. “Sadly with the continually changing situation, these sacrifices are not going to be enough.”<br/>
Singapore Airlines has let go of about half of its cadet pilots and cabin crew trainees as it continues to downsize its workforce. The rest will have to leave after their training is completed. The Straits Times understands that there are more than 400 at various stages of training. Those who had to abort their training are mainly foreigners. A spokesman for the airline said of the decision to allow the rest to continue: "SIA is committed to supporting them through their training programme." It takes over two years and costs about $250,000 to train one pilot. The programme for cabin crew lasts less than three months. However, the airline will not be able to keep them after that due to the "current surplus in staff numbers", he said. Retained cadet pilots who need to complete the overseas segment of their training will be put on no-pay leave until SIA is able to safely resume this segment of the training programme, he added. "Cadet pilots will be released after they have completed their basic training programme, which includes the overseas segment, due to the current surplus in staff numbers." SIA will be open to hiring them should there be a demand for cabin crew or junior pilots when the demand for air travel returns to pre-Covid levels, the airline added.<br/>
Families of Boeing 737 MAX crash victims are urging US lawmakers to ensure the planemaker is held accountable for accidents that together killed 346 people by blocking a key legal defense, according to a letter sent on Tuesday. Boeing is facing around 100 lawsuits by families of 157 victims of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crash and has argued that because the aircraft was certified by the US FAA, it is immune from liability, court filings show. But families say manufacturers should not be allowed to "hide behind" FAA certification when a certified airplane turns out to be defective. "No amount of regulation should shield Boeing and other manufacturers from responsibility when airplanes crash and kill innocent people," they wrote in the letter to bipartisan leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee. Boeing spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: "Boeing has offered to work with the victims’ families to schedule mediations to discuss settlement of claims on terms that fairly compensate them and are committed to this mediation process." However, some families are pursuing a jury trial, which would give liability lawyers greater access to Boeing's internal records and expose the company to deeper scrutiny over its relations with the FAA. The 737 MAX crash in Ethiopia occurred just five months after a similar disaster on a Lion Air flight in Indonesia. It triggered a global grounding of the aircraft, which has been parked for 18 months. "Accountability is the best way to encourage the design and manufacture of safe airplanes—so this does not happen again," said the families of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302. The letter comes ahead of a Senate Commerce Committee vote on Wednesday on sweeping reforms to how the FAA certifies new aircraft.<br/>