Lufthansa Airlines canceled virtually all its flights in and out of Frankfurt and Munich on Wednesday, leaving more than 130,000 travelers scrambling, after around 3,000 employees walked off the job to protest for better wages. As of Wednesday evening in Germany, the airline said it had slashed 678 flights to and from Frankfurt and 345 flights to and from its Munich hub over the previous 48 hours. “Looking ahead to the coming weekend, the start of the vacation season in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, Lufthansa is working flat out to return flight operations to normal as quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement. The airline added that although it would try to rebook passengers on alternative flights, “the capacities available for this are very limited.” The protest is scheduled to end at 6 a.m. Thursday local time, according to Dennis Dacke, an official for the United Services Trade Union, known as ver.di. Starting at 3:45 a.m. Wednesday, ground services personnel, customer service agents, airport check-in agents and other “nonflying” Lufthansa employees who belong to ver.di walked off their jobs in Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin and other locations, he said. If a Lufthansa agent picked up the phone to help someone rebook a flight, the agent was likely outside Germany, he added. “Salaries are not high enough to account for inflation,” Dacke said as explanation for the protest. The union is pushing for 9.5% pay increases for ground staff and a minimum wage of E13 an hour, or about $13 at current exchange rates, for logistics personnel. Lufthansa outlined pay increases that it had already offered during “previously constructive collective bargaining” and lamented the impact on passengers “during the peak travel season.” Flight attendants and pilots, who have their own unions, did not participate in the protest.<br/>
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Germany's state Economic Stabilisation Fund (ESF) has cut its stake in Deutsche Lufthansa to less than 10%, the Federal Finance Agency said on Wednesday, citing stabler conditions at the group. The ESF took a 20% holding in Lufthansa as part of a government bailout to keep the airline afloat through the COVID-19 pandemic, and had previously reduced the share to 14.1%. The further reduction came "against the backdrop of Lufthansa's stable corporate development", the agency said. "The ESF will sell its remaining shares by October 2023 at the latest." The head of the agency, Jutta Doenges, added: "By falling below a shareholding of 10%, we have entered the home stretch to end the stabilisation measure for Lufthansa." The largest Lufthansa shareholder is now Hamburg billionaire Klaus-Michael Kuehne, with more than 15%. \<br/>
SAS is seeking authorisation to continue with aircraft deliveries with a filing to a US bankruptcy court setting out justification for the acquisition. The Scandinavian operator has been under US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since 5 July. Airbus is due to deliver an A320neo – MSN10937 – to the carrier on 3 August. SAS has a pre-delivery payment facility with Carlyle Aviation Management, and the carrier has been negotiating terms with Carlyle for acquire the aircraft. The airline’s legal representatives have laid out, in a filing to the court, the justification for proceeding with delivery of the A320neo, one of 10 linked to the Carlyle facility. “[SAS has] determined to purchase all 10 aircraft subject to their [pre-delivery payment] facility with Carlyle,” the filing says, adding that SAS believes it needs all 10 to fulfil its long-term fleet plan and “maximise [its] going concern value”. “Having evaluated their potential alternatives, [SAS has] concluded [it is] unable to acquire similar aircraft from other sources on more favourable terms,” the filing states. The benefits, it says, of making the $10.58m delivery payment necessary to receive the “highly-desirable” aircraft “greatly exceed” the cost. SAS intends to enter a sale-and-leaseback transaction for the A320neo agreed last year with Standard Chartered Bank. The filing says SAS is intending to deploy the aircraft in August and use it to operate up to 50 flights weekly during the busy summer season – flights which would otherwise not take place, with a revenue impact from losing the aircraft amounting to as much as $5m per week. “Finding a suitable replacement aircraft may take between three to six months,” it states, while SAS would also risk losing committed sale-and-leaseback financing from Standard Chartered.<br/>
After more than three decades of suspension, Thai Airways International will restart commercial flights to Saudi Arabia next month on the back of improving relations between Thailand and the Middle East country. THAI chief commercial officer Nond Kalinta said on Tuesday that the first flight in 32 years will depart for Jeddah on Aug 19. The carrier will operate four flights a week to Jeddah, with flight TG503 departing Bangkok at 6.45pm on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and the return flight, TG504, departing Jeddah at 12.40am local time on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Monday. The route to Saudi Arabia was suspended 32 years ago due to sour relations between the two countries. The resumption of the route took place after Thailand and Saudi Arabia restored full diplomatic relations in January. Acting chief executive officer Suvadhana Sibunruang said the flights would promote tourism and other business opportunities for the two countries. The return of the airline's commercial flights to Saudi Arabia was slightly delayed from its original date set for May. Saudi Arabian Airlines touched down in Thailand for the first time in 32 years on Feb 28 when a flight from Riyadh landed at Suvarnabhumi airport. Although the two countries had no commercial air links for more than three decades, Saudi Arabia allowed charter flights for Thai pilgrims to the Haj.<br/>