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Lufthansa said it needs to double operations from current levels if it’s to stem losses, delivering a stark assessment of the challenge facing carriers as European governments limit flights with a new wave of coronavirus lockdowns. Capacity deployment must increase from 25% of year-ago levels at the moment to about 50% in order to meet a goal of returning to positive operating cash flow some time next year, Lufthansa said Thursday. Europe’s biggest airline probably won’t hit that level until the second half of 2021, meaning it must step up efforts to cut cash burn to avoid an equity raise before next summer, Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Daniel Roeska said in a note. Lufthansa is clinging to cash and savings targets as the latest flight curbs force carriers across the region to reassess plans for a winter low season that generally produces losses even in normal times. CEO Carsten Spohr said his company needs to use an “inevitable restructuring” to boost efficiencies in order to ride out the crisis. “We are now at the beginning of a winter that will be hard and challenging for our industry,” Spohr said in the release. Lufthansa said it’s making progress toward some of its targets, predicting that the operating cash drain will be limited to about E350m a month this quarter. It had planned to trim the figure to no less than E400m for the winter.<br/>

Canada is finally close to an aid package for airlines that will likely offer low-interest loans to carriers versus taking outright stakes, three sources say, eight months after the COVID-19 pandemic decimated air travel. "We're running out of runway on this," said a government source, citing concerns about the viability of both airlines and airports. Several countries, including the US and Australia, have offered billions in direct emergency support to their airlines. But Canada - the world's second largest country by area and one heavily dependent on airline travel to connect remote regions - has not. Although Air Canada and WestJet, the two main carriers, and transport unions have been pleading for help for months as passenger demand cratered, Canada's finance ministry initially resisted the idea of providing specific sectoral aid, said two of the sources. Under pressure from some key ministers, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is now looking at how to specifically help the airlines because it became clear the airline sector would not bounce back in the fall, the first source said. Air Canada and WestJet have already cut many routes, especially to smaller airports. "Discussions are ongoing, they're positive," said the first source, adding that the focus now is on "making sure the sector and those regional routes are protected and the airports remain operational."<br/>

Embattled Thai Airways has put up its entire Boeing 747 and its 777-200/300 fleet up for sale, as it aims to raise cash amid a long-drawn business rehabilitation process. The carrier disclosed on its aircraft trading website that 34 aircraft from its fleet will be put up for sale. Of these, 10 are 747-400s, six are 777-200s and another six are 777-300s. The other aircraft include six Airbus A340-600s, which the carrier has not operated since 2015, and another three A340-500s, which it flew until 2012. Two 737-400s and one A300-600 round up the list of aircraft on sale. Thai states that the aircraft offered for sale are on an “as-is, where-is” condition, with most expected deliveries to take place during Q2 of next year. The 10 747s are powered by GE CF6 engines and were manufactured between 1993 and 2003. They remain in storage, according to Cirium fleets data. The 777-200s were built between 1996 and 1998, and are powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 875 engines. Thai’s 777-300s are fitted with R-R Trent 890s and were built between 1998 and 2000.<br/>

Money owed to aircraft lessors and some creditors of South African Airways is not covered by a 10.5b rand ($665m) government bailout, SAA’s administrators said. South Africa’s government allocated the latest cash injection for SAA in last month’s mid-term budget, but says it will not put further money into the airline. SAA’s administrators said on Thursday that 1.7b rand owed to lessors and 600m rand which it owes to creditors from before the airline went into administration nearly a year ago would not be covered. That could complicate government talks with prospective investors in SAA, which has not made a profit since 2011. They said the additional debts are “only payable from next year July and will be paid over a three-year period,” so the bailout money only covers “initial commitments”. The administrators forecast in June that SAA would lose more than 6 billion rand over the next three years. Some analysts expect greater losses given the damaging impact on air travel of the COVID-19 pandemic.<br/>

Turkish Airlines' recent agreement with Airbus to delay the delivery of new aircraft means the company will postpone raising $5b of financing until after 2024, the airline's CFO said Thursday. Murat Seker also said that the airline, which temporarily halted nearly all of its passenger flights as a result of the coronavirus crisis, was close to a similar delivery deal with Boeing. The agreement with Airbus, which was announced last month, will extend the aircraft delivery timeline out as far as 2028, Seker said. Deliveries per year will be reduced to "reasonable levels" and some may be cancelled if the need arises, he said in a call with investors after Q3 results. Overall, the company has postponed $5 billion of financing needs for aircraft purchases until after 2024, he said. The airline posted a net loss of 946m lira ($112.24m) in Q3, compared to a profit of 3.71b lira a year ago, it said Wednesday. <br/>

Tourism New Zealand and Air New Zealand have revealed they're working on how a two-way travel bubble will work with Australia - which they expect to open within months. Tourism NZ's director of commercial René de Monchy said a travel bubble with all of Australia is expected in Q1 2021. He said that, as with everything else related to COVID-19, deadlines and launch dates for travel have been moving all the time. "There was a moment that we thought it was July, and then it was October, and then of course we had flare-ups in both countries flare-ups between then and now," de Monchy said. "But we have our plans ready and we can push play in a matter of days on a lot of that content. I think that's going to be one of the challenges - there is the possibility that if an announcement is made, there may not be a lot of notice." One of the main benefactors of a trans-Tasman bubble would of course be Air NZ, which also said it was "realistically looking at Q1 next year" as a start date for two-way travel between Australia and Aotearoa. "We were always of the view that Australia needed to open its domestic borders first, and then once that was happening, I think New Zealand would be next on the list," the airline's regional general manager for Australia Kathryn Robertson said. "We know the governments are talking, so that's good. The one-way bubble has definitely been a step in the right direction and we have seen pretty okay loads." The current one-way travel bubble has allowed Air NZ to become familiar with all the processes and protocols that will need to be in place should a bubble be announced.<br/>