Singapore Airlines this week unveiled its highest-end offering in the US: first-class suites that feature a bed, a swivel chair, 32-inch touch screen and a desk adorned with an orchid. They are each 50 square feet, and there are two bathrooms for the six passengers. It’s a bet that travelers are willing to shell out for luxurious cabins after two years of Covid pandemic lockdowns that devastated travel demand. Other airlines are taking similar steps with revamped cabins. They were able to do some upgrades faster during the pandemic when they didn’t need as many planes. A roundtrip ticket in one of the Singapore Airlines suites from New York to Singapore, with a stop in Frankfurt, Germany, is listed on the company’s website at $17,143.37, including tax, for early May. One of the 78 new business-class seats on the A380 that convert into 6½-foot beds on the same dates are $6,362.87. Both cabins are on the upper deck of the superjumbo plane. Passenger demand for both upper-deck cabins has been strong, said Joey Seow, Singapore Airlines’ regional vice president for the Americas. Business-class seats on the planes are selling out before the 343 economy seats, a reversal of a pre-pandemic trend, he said. “Normally, people would choose to go for economy class because it’s cheaper,” Seow said aboard the A380 before it departed for Frankfurt on Monday evening. “We see that more and more people are prepared to pay for that space.” Story has more.<br/>
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Europe’s leading airlines renewed calls for state support and legislation to help them decarbonize, arguing that government backing is vital to keep the region competitive during the costly transition to cleaner energy. The heads of Lufthansa, British Airways owner IAG, EasyJet and Ryanair rattled off a list of familiar requests at the first gathering of the Airlines for Europe industry lobby since the early days of the Covid pandemic, a crisis now superseded by the conflict in Ukraine. The demands include more support for so-called sustainable aviation fuel, the controversial Corsia carbon-offset scheme, and the Single European Sky project to simplify air-traffic control, cutting fuel burn and emissions by up to 15%. Action on the wish-list will serve the higher purpose of keeping the cost of flying affordable, and is vital to enhancing competitiveness as the war in Russia and resulting spike in energy costs expose Europe’s vulnerability to outside forces, Lufthansa Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr said. “As Europeans, we’re not able to defend ourselves anymore, we’re not able to provide our own energy anymore,” he said on a panel. “Let’s at least make sure we can connect ourselves.” Air-traffic control caused 90% of delays at Ryanair in the past year, lengthening flights and boosting emissions, CEO Michael O’Leary said, adding: “We cannot at a time when oil prices are at record highs continue to waste fuel.”<br/>
Lufthansa is open to all options on a possible equity stake in Italy’s ITA Airways if its potential bid led by shipping group MSC is successful, CEO Carsten Spohr said on Thursday. “All options are open,” he told reporters when asked whether Lufthansa envisaged taking an equity stake. Lufthansa would be an ideal partner in Alitalia’s successor, he added. Lufthansa has teamed up with MSC to express an interest in ITA and expects to be given access to its books in June after the Italian government detailed ways to sell the slimmed down airline. Earlier in March, Spohr said Lufthansa had no plans to take a majority stake in ITA.<br/>
Scandinavian operator SAS’s negotiations with cockpit crew representatives over its latest transformation plan have already encountered friction, with pilot union Svensk Pilotforening walking out of talks barely after they began. SAS has initiated a long-term plan, ‘SAS Forward’, in a bid to generate SKr7.5b ($800m) in cost savings. The company warns that it is “in a more severe situation than ever” and that it needs to secure a competitive position. “It’s worrisome that the pilot unions – after the second day of negotiations – chose to walk out of the negotiation room,” it states. “By doing so, they are putting the entire company at stake, including thousands of colleagues’ jobs and careers.” Among the measures within SAS Forward are changes to the network, fleet and product. The carrier has established new operating platforms, SAS Link and SAS Connect, based respectively on Embraer and Airbus models, as part of its effort to cut the cost base. But the pilots’ union argues that the company, having slashed the number of cockpit crew in 2020 as the pandemic emerged, is demanding excessive concessions in terms of increased working hours and salary reductions. Svensk Pilotforening president Martin Lindgren believes SAS is using unfair “fire and rehire” recruitment processes, setting up its own employment agencies for taking on SAS Link and SAS Connect pilots.<br/>