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A United Airlines passenger was taken into custody Thursday morning at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after opening an aircraft door and walking out onto the wing of the plane while it was taxiing. "A male subject was onboard a plane that was approaching the gate when he pulled the emergency exit and walked out onto the wing of the plane," according to a statement from the Chicago Police Department. "The subject then slid down the wing and onto the airfield," police added. The incident occurred on United Airlines flight 2478 coming from San Diego. United Airlines said ground crew stopped the individual outside the aircraft. When the plane arrived at the gate, all passengers deplaned safely, according to a statement from the airline. "CPD arrived and placed him into custody. Charges are pending," police said.<br/>

Lufthansa is looking to return to an operating profit this quarter as demand for travel rises with the easing of COVID-19 curbs and the airline raises ticket prices to offset higher costs. The group, which owns the German airlines Lufthansa and Eurowings as well as Swiss, Austrian and Brussels Airlines, doubled sales in Q1 as more people started travelling again after two years of lockdowns and travel restrictions, although an overall first-quarter operating loss was bigger than analysts had expected. “As the pandemic subsides, families, friends and business partners around the world are travelling to meet each other again. And I think the world is also coming to realize how important friendly personal contacts are,” CE Carsten Spohr told a news conference. The airline reported that Q1 revenue doubled from a year earlier to E5.36b, exceeding analysts’ average forecast for sales of E5.12b, though it was not able to reduce losses as much as expected due to skyrocketing fuel prices amid Russia’s war in Ukraine. Lufthansa’s adjusted loss before interest and taxes (EBIT) narrowed to E591m in Q1, from a loss of E1.05b for the same period of 2021. Analysts had on average expected the loss to narrow to E558m according to a company-provided consensus. However, the airline hopes to be able to pass some of the rising costs to customers with flight ticket price hikes. “I don’t see any problem with price increases affecting demand. Over the last six months, we have already pushed through a couple of price hikes. I think it’s four already along the way,” finance chief Remco Steenbergen told the conference.<br/>

Lufthansa said Thursday that ticket prices could rise as the cost of energy soars following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Increases in the prices for jet fuel were "too high to be offset by additional cost reductions", group CFO Remco Steenbergen told a press conference. Higher energy costs meant "ticket prices will have to rise", Steenbergen said. The carrier had already "pushed through a couple of price hikes" that have been "accepted" by business and leisure travellers alike, he added. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said the airline was projecting a record summer for tourist activity, with the latest data showing passenger numbers bouncing back from the coronavirus pandemic. Spohr said the number of passengers on Lufthansa flights had "more than quadrupled" in Q1 to 13m, from 3m in 2021, when travel restrictions in many markets were more severe. "New bookings are increasing from week to week," he told a press conference. "We are expecting strong growth in the summer and probably more holiday-makers than ever before," Spohr said. For business travel, the group is expecting traffic to reach "around 70 percent" of its pre-coronavirus level by the end of the year, it said. In all, Lufthansa expects to offer "around 75%" of its pre-crisis capacity over the year. The figure would be higher in the summer for popular tourist destinations, reaching 95% on short-haul routes in Europe and 85 on transatlantic services, the group said.<br/>

Lufthansa and its partner MSC have been looking at financial data opened up by state-owned ITA Airways to see if the Italian airline would make a good strategic acquisition, the German carrier’s chief executive said on Thursday. Prospective bidders for ITA Airways have had access to its finance data room for about 72 hours, CE Carsten Spohr told a news conference. The Italian government wants to clinch an ITA privatisation deal by mid-June, sources told Reuters in March. “When it comes to investments, we are only interested in restructured airlines, and we believe ITA is one of them. We are now checking the information available in the data room to confirm that this is the case,” the Lufthansa CEO said. Spohr said Italy was already Lufthansa’s most important market in Europe, and globally its second largest after the United States, as it is the biggest intercontinental carrier for both Italians and people travelling to the country from abroad. “The purchasing power there is high,” he said, adding that the exchange of goods between Germany and the Italian region of Lombardy was equivalent to that of Germany and Japan. He said a hub in southern Europe would make a good addition to Lufthansa’s existing strong network in the north. ITA started flying in October, after replacing Italy’s 75-year-old carrier Alitalia which was finally grounded after years of losses and failed rescue attempts. In January, shipping group MSC expressed interest in buying a majority stake in ITA with Lufthansa. The partners asked for exclusive talks but Rome chose an open procedure.<br/>

Europe’s biggest airlines are growing increasingly confident that the easing of coronavirus restrictions will kick off a summer boom as a surge in bookings spurs them to lift capacity. Lufthansa and Air France-KLM are less certain about prospects going deeper into the year, with the German company saying Thursday that fuel prices are tough to predict and that it’s not clear how far increasing household costs will weigh on demand. Both carriers reported a strong start to 2022 after the impact from the omicron variant of Covid-19 quickly faded. Lufthansa said that demand has “recovered faster and stronger than expected in recent weeks,” while Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith said that corporate and premium sales have begun to revive, following an already strong upward trend in leisure demand. European airlines are adding seats and flights as the dropping of travel curbs opens up markets after two years of upheaval, with Lufthansa planning to deploy 2022 capacity equal to 75% of the 2019 level, up from 70% previously. At the same time a jump in costs for everything from fuel to staff is pressuring margins, pushing carriers to raise fares—something that might not be sustainable as household budgets come under pressure.<br/>

Pent-up demand for air travel is “enormous” but the aviation industry faces a “major operational challenge” this summer as rising passenger numbers coincide with staff shortages at airports and other stakeholders, Lufthansa Group chief executive Carsten Spohr has warned. Speaking to analysts on a 5 May Q1 earnings call, Spohr said that demand was rising sharply and bookings last week had exceeded 2019 levels for the first time. However, partners including airports and ground handling providers are “struggling with significant staff shortages” which look set to run into the busy summer travel period. “We are looking for solutions but I’m sure we are not going to find all the solutions by the summer,” says Spohr. Despite these operational challenges, Spohr says the German airline group is “looking ahead with confidence”, and “it is now time to put this [Covid-19] crisis behind us”. Lufthansa Group expects its airlines to operate about 75% of pre-pandemic capacity this year, although this is “subject to the development of the Ukraine war”. Capacity growth will not be affected by aircraft delivery delays from Boeing, says Spohr, noting that “we haven’t pushed ourselves to our operational limits” and the group still has “14 [Airbus] A380s sitting in Spain”. The A380s were placed in storage early in the pandemic and Lufthansa had signalled that the type would not return to service. However, Boeing last month announced that it was delaying first delivery of its 777-9 – for which Lufthansa has 20 firm orders – by up to two years. Spohr’s mention of the 14 parked A380s suggests the airline’s stance on the type could be changing.<br/>

Swiss saw the biggest Q1 operating result improvement of all Lufthansa Group carriers and is targeting breakeven this year, as it rides a wave of strong demand after a challenging couple of years. The Zurich-based carrier’s Q1 operating loss improved by more than 75% to SFr47.4m ($48.1m). By contrast, adjusted EBIT losses at Lufthansa Airlines and Brussels Airlines improved by 14% and 11%, respectively, while Austrian Airlines and Eurowings saw their losses worsen by 5% and 14%, respectively. Swiss attributes the results to strong demand for air travel and better cost structures as a result of its restructuring. The airline says it remains committed to achieving a breakeven earnings result for full-year 2022. “The substantial year-on-year improvement that we have achieved in our first-quarter results and our positive cash flow give us confidence, and help us confirm our commitment to posting a ‘black zero’ earnings result for 2022 as a whole,” says Swiss chief financial officer Markus Binkert. The airline generated a positive cash flow of more than SFr200m in the three month period ended 31 March. Swiss’ revenue more than doubled in Q1 to almost SFr712m, although the carrier says its results were “burdened” by rising fuel costs and a temporary weakening of demand when Russia invaded Ukraine in February.<br/>