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Germany plans to sell up to a quarter of its 20% stake in Lufthansa over the coming weeks, the German finance agency said on Monday, citing positive developments at the bailed-out airline. Lufthansa shares fell as much as 4.9% to E8.81 in early trade after the announcement. The state’s 20% stake was acquired for E300m ($353.67m) as part of a bailout for the German carrier as the company and the entire aviation sector took a battering from the coronavirus crisis. Lufthansa had received a E6b package from Germany’s economic stabilisation fund (WSF), which was set up to help companies to ride out the pandemic. The WSF has said it would sell the complete stake, which is currently worth more than E1b, before the end of 2023. Lufthansa plans to issue new shares, probably before the Sept. 26 parliamentary elections, to help it to return bailout money to taxpayers.<br/>

Turkey on Monday evacuated civilians and its citizens from Kabul on a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul, after the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital, in what some passengers described as a tense journey from the turmoil-hit country. Thousands of civilians desperate to flee Afghanistan packed Kabul airport on Monday, prompting the US military temporarily to suspend evacuations as the United States came under mounting criticism at home over its pullout. Dogan Ozluk, a visiting lecturer at the University of Kabul, said passengers had spent the night at the airport before being brought on the evacuation flight on Monday, while others said they had to wait up three hours on the plane as troops cleared the runway of civilians. "We were scared that the plane would not take off and that we would have to return to chaos," said Senol Celik, a Turkish diplomatic mission staff member. "We were scared of course, but we were sad for the people there," he said. State broadcaster TRT Haber said 324 people had been brought to Istanbul from Kabul on the evacuation flight.<br/>

HSBC has widened its loss estimates for China’s three largest state-owned carriers, while forecasting a full domestic travel recovery by 2023. The ‘Big Three’ — comprising Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines — are now forecast to report a cumulative full-year loss of CNY24b ($3.7b) for 2021. This compares to HSBC’s earlier forecast of CNY12b. “This reflects our cautious view on a recovery in international travel, lower domestic pax and yield, and cost pressures partially offset by strong cargo,” HSBC states. The HSBC Global Research report, dated 12 August, comes as China battles a resurgence in coronavirus infections from the more contagious Delta variant. The bank notes that the latest wave — the fifth major infection wave in the Chinese mainland — “has disrupted the domestic summer peak season travel”, and affected domestic recovery momentum. Still, HSBC believes that the Chinese authorities will move in to swiftly contain the latest outbreak — as they have on previous occasions — and this will allow a “sharp recovery” on the domestic front. “Increased vaccination rates will also likely render any future outbreaks less painful than the past,” they add. <br/>

Thai Airways narrowed its half-yearly operating loss — as cost-cutting measures appear to bear some fruit. For the six months ended 30 June, revenue plunged 75% to Bt10.2b, led by a steep decline — nearly 94% year on year — in passenger revenue. Thai notes that passenger traffic during the period plummeted 95% year on year, with regular flights suspended since the middle of 2020 during the pandemic. During the period, Thai and its subsidiaries carried around 720,000 passengers, a 84% decline year on year. Capacity fell 81% while traffic plunged 95%. Freight revenue fell 24%, as a lack of scheduled passenger flights drastically reduced available bellyhold capacity. Costs for the half-year fell 58% year on year to Bt24.6 billion, with fuel costs falling the sharpest due to a lack of flying activity. Non-fuel expenses declined nearly 54%, led by cuts in variable costs including flight service, crew, as well as maintenance expenses. The carrier swung to a net profit of Bt11.1b, helped by a reversal of impairment loss on 34 aircraft. Thai discloses that aircraft impairmenr losses were cut due to “the reduction in the value of the new right of use by the conditions in the letter of intent resulting in reverse the impairment loss”.<br/>

When travel resumes, passengers on Singapore Airlines (SIA) flights might notice new choices on the food menu - Boon Tong Kee's chicken rice, Song Fa bak kut teh or Kok Kee wonton noodle, among others. In collaboration with leading Singaporean hawker brands, SIA is featuring these hawker dishes on rotation on some of its flights from next month. Also on the slate are Bismillah Biryani Restaurant's chicken dum biryani, Qiu Lian ban mian and Beach Road prawn noodle. The dishes, however, will be available only for First Class and Business Class passengers on selected flights departing from Singapore. There are plans to work with other famous local hawker brands in the coming months, SIA said on Monday. Yeoh Phee Teik, SIA's senior VP of customer experience, said: " As Singapore's national carrier, we are proud to work closely with and support several of the country's leading brands to showcase the best of Singapore to our customers. As travel gradually resumes, our customers from around the world can enjoy even more uniquely Singaporean experiences when they fly with Singapore Airlines." Singapore's hawker culture was successfully inscribed to the Unesco intangible heritage list last December, and SIA said that the initiative is a celebration of that. It is part of the airline's efforts to increase the Singaporean flavour of its offerings. <br/>