Lufthansa raised E1b in a corporate bond sale on Wednesday, boosting its finances after a state bail-out due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lufthansa, which was hit hard by the ensuing tourism crisis, had already issued a bond in February to repay part of last year’s E9b bailout from state lender KfW. “The repeated successful placement of a corporate bond again confirms our access to a variety of advantageous financing instruments,” finance chief Remco Steenbergen said. The company said it issued three and eight-year bonds, confirming an earlier Reuters report that cited a memo from a lead manager on the deal, becoming the latest of several major airlines to tap the debt markets. The tranche with a term until 2024 bears interest of 2.0% per year, while it’s 3.5% for the tranche maturing in 2029, Lufthansa said. The shorter-dated tranche received demand of over E900m and the longer one 1b, according to the memo.<br/>
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Lufthansa Cargo is increasing its capacity in view of rising e-commerce demand by permanently converting two Airbus A321 passenger aircraft to freighters. The two narrowbodies will be fitted with large cargo doors, and the floor of the main deck will be strengthened as part of the conversion, allowing cargo containers to be carried in the main deck as well as the belly, says the airline. “Initially,the conversion of two Airbus aircraft is planned,” adds Lufthansa Cargo. The two A321s are set to start freight operations in Europe at the beginning of 2022, marking the first time the carrier is using short-haul aircraft purely for freight within Europe. The jets will be operated by regional unit Lufthansa CityLine for Lufthansa Cargo, and based in Frankfurt. Lufthansa Cargo cites expected demand from the e-commerce sector as one of the reasons behind the move. The airline notes that cross-border e-commerce shipments are forecast to rise around 20% per year for the next five years.<br/>
Travellers have long derided the facilities at United’s Washington Dulles hub. The center of its hub, Concourse C/D, opened as “temporary” facilities in the mid-1980s and have improved little in the decades since. That may be about to change if a proposal for a new regional facility at Dulles airport moves forward. Airport operator the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) is seeking environmental approval for a potential new three-storey, roughly 535,000-sq.-ft. concourse connected to the existing AeroTrain station for Concourse C. While the proposed facility would not replace Concourse C/D, it would replace the Concourse A regional gates that opened in 1999. “The proposed [concourse] is needed to accommodate the changing fleet mix at the airport and to address the operational and passenger level of service concerns in the Concourse A regional aircraft gates,” MWAA said in a letter to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality on June 8. “The existing Concourse A regional aircraft gates … are functionally obsolete.” The plan remains is conceptual at this point. MWAA spokesperson Robert Yingling said the operator is “studying potential concepts for future facilities” at Dulles. However, the project is far enough along for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to review its possible environmental impacts. The agency lists the project as under review on its website with a public comment period that ended on July 7.<br/>