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Deutsche Lufthansa has picked JPMorgan Chase & Co. to advise on the disposal of a minority stake in its aircraft-maintenance division, according to people familiar with the matter. Germany’s flagship carrier is working with the bank as it weighs a possible stake sale or initial public offering for the Technik business, the people said. Technik could be valued at E3.5b to E5b in any deal, they said. Deliberations are ongoing and no firm decisions have been made about whether to pursue a sale or IPO, the people said. Lufthansa could appoint more advisers to work on any transaction, they said. Proceeds from any disposal could be used to help Lufthansa repay a chunk of the E9b in state aid it has received to help it through the Covid-19 pandemic. <br/>

Lufthansa is putting on more flights for business travellers in September and October, the CE of the German airline said Wednesday. “We are now seeing very clearly that business travellers are coming back,” Carsten Spohr said, adding Lufthansa had increased capacity on domestic flights by 30% in September and would increase it by another 15% in October. Lufthansa will reintroduce the hourly frequency of flights between Frankfurt and Hamburg and Frankfurt and Berlin in the mornings and evenings, times popular with business travellers. “In Europe, we are already flying 60 percent of our programme again,” Spohr said. Business travel is seen only returning gradually after it collapsed during the coronavirus pandemic as many companies have slashed their travel budgets and have got used to holding meetings online.<br/>

South African Airways will need a more modern fleet to be competitive on routes outside its home continent following the Covid-19 crisis, according to interim CEO Thomas Kgokolo. The state-owned airline, poised to resume flights after emerging from bankruptcy proceedings, used to generate revenue on trips to cities such as London and Frankfurt, but its aging Airbus SE planes have prohibitive operating costs, he said in a panel discussion on Wednesday. “If we get the right fleet for those particular trips we should be able to minimize costs and become competitive,” Kgokolo said. SAA is set to restart trips on Sept. 23 about 18 months after the fleet was grounded at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Flights are set to operate from Johannesburg to Cape Town, plus African capitals Accra, Kinshasa, Harare, Lusaka and Maputo. The carrier sees high demand on routes to cities elsewhere on the continent, Kgokolo said, as fewer competitors operate those trips. Early booking figures indicate planes may be as much as 75% full, he said.<br/>

India’s largest conglomerate the Tata Group has submitted a financial bid for state-run Air India as the government tries to sell the money-losing carrier after two failed attempts. The bid was entered Wednesday by Tata Sons, the group holding company, which controls Jaguar Land Rover and owns a majority stake in AirAsia India, according to a Tata spokesperson. The bid has boosted prospects for the sale after the government sweetened the deal by allowing suitors to decide how much of the carrier’s debt they want to take on. The rules before that deterred bidders by requiring them to assume $3.3b of debt. SpiceJet owner Ajay Singh has also bid for Air India in his personal capacity, according to people familiar with the matter. A group of Air India employees, who had partnered with a Seychelles-based fund, was disqualified from the bidding process in March. Proceeds from Air India’s sale will be a critical source of revenue to plug the government’s widening budget deficit and as it looks to spur the pandemic-hit economy.<br/>

Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran says vaccination and testing will be part of any future travel, but the airline is yet to confirm any policy or restrictions for when borders reopen. Foran said Aotearoa's national carrier is currently in negotiations with staff about vaccinations as the global total of COVID-19 deaths surpasses 4.6m. "We are getting some good responses back and we will conclude consultation towards the middle of next week, and then we will have a look at what we have learned and make a decision from there," Foran said. He said there is "overwhelming support" from staff to get the COVID-19 vaccine with around 85 percent of frontline workers already fully vaccinated, and just over 90 percent having had one dose so far. Foran says the airline's first destinations are likely to be to places with high rates of vaccination, but travel won't be as simple as it was during the 2021 quarantine-free trans-Tasman bubble. "It feels like the Tasman bubble as we knew it, where you know didn't require any pre-departure testing or vaccination, it's going to be very difficult to replicate and it's more likely that with most countries you're probably going to need some degree of vaccination and some degree of testing," he said.<br/>

Air New Zealand said Thursday it was studying how it could use low-carbon technologies like electric, hybrid or hydrogen powered planes to dramatically reduce emissions from shorter and regional flights as soon as 2030. The airline signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus SE to research the impact hydrogen planes would have on Air New Zealand's network, operations and infrastructure. Airbus said it is hoping to bring a hydrogen plane to market by 2035 - a goal some industry officials and analysts believe to be ambitious. This agreement brings us a step closer to "seeing low carbon solutions in place for our shorter domestic and regional flights in the next decade," said Air NZ CE Greg Foran. Airbus has already struck similar hydrogen study deals with easyJet and SAS in Europe as airlines around the world look to meet ambitious emissions targets in line with government commitments. The European manufacturer said the agreement with Air NZ would help it gather feedback on airlines' expectations and preferences for configuration and performance for zero-emissions planes. "We are also talking to several airlines on similar studies," said a Airbus spokesperson.<br/>