Deutsche Lufthansa returned to a normal flight schedule on Thursday, offering only a short respite ahead of a planned strike that threatens to hobble operations at major airports across Germany. The one-day walkout called by labor union Verdi is set to take place Friday at seven airports, including the country’s largest in Frankfurt and Munich. The action is another blow to Lufthansa, which had to ground its entire fleet Wednesday after workers damaged a set of cables that crippled its IT systems. The warning strikes come amid slow progress in talks over pay and conditions for security and other ground staff. Verdi is seeking a significant boost to wages for workers hit by higher energy prices and record inflation. Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s largest, expects the walkout to leave only emergency operations able to continue on Friday. More than 1,000 takeoffs and landings had been planned, and the airport would normally have served between 120,000 and 130,000 passengers that day. Airlines will likely cancel most flights, they said. Munich Airport said it had applied to the regional government to close commercial operations on Friday, with exceptions for emergencies and the ongoing Munich Security Conference. The strikes, however, are bound to complicate travel for delegates attending the annual gathering of defense and foreign-policy makers. There will be no regular passenger flights at the airport, with more than 700 departures and arrivals canceled, a spokesperson said. The Stuttgart airport also said no flights would be possible on Friday, while Hamburg, Hanover, Dortmund, and Bremen warned that service would be disrupted. Frankfurt and Munich are both Lufthansa hubs, promising more trouble for Europe’s biggest airline by fleet size. On Wednesday, workers had accidentally drilled through four cables buried some 16 feet below ground in a suburb close to the Frankfurt airport, bringing down the carrier’s IT systems and grounding hundreds of flights.<br/>
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Air India could almost double what already stands to be the biggest aircraft order in commercial aviation history as it tries to emerge from decades of mismanagement and challenge local rivals and international giants like Emirates and Qatar Airways. In addition to the record order for 470 planes from Airbus SE and Boeing Co. announced Tuesday, the carrier has options to buy another 370 jets, Chief Commercial and Transformation Officer Nipun Aggarwal wrote in a LinkedIn post late Wednesday. That number hadn’t been disclosed before. The previous biggest order was a 460-plane deal by American Airlines in 2011. Air India has also signed long-term engine maintenance deals with CFM International SA, Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc, and GE Aerospace Inc, Aggarwal said. Founded by Tata Group in the 1930s before being taken over by the state and eventually bought by Tata again last year, Air India holds lucrative landing and parking slots at most major airports around the globe. It can fly nonstop to a range of destinations, bypassing Middle Eastern hubs. The aim is for the blockbuster order to put it among the world’s top carriers. “This order is also a testament to the tremendous economic potential unleashed by the Air India privatization,” Aggarwal wrote. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with both French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Joe Biden when Air India formally signed the deals this week, underscoring the political significance of the order. Tata’s takeover of Air India was the most high-profile privatization under Modi’s leadership, during which he pledged that the government would stay out of business and end years of taxpayer-funded bailouts. <br/>
The CEO of ANA - All Nippon Airways (NH, Tokyo Haneda) has formally axed the airline's order for up to twenty-five M90s after the manufacturer, Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation, decided to permanently shut down the SpaceJet program earlier this month. Outlining ANA Holdings' medium-term management plan on February 15, ANA Group President Koji Shibata called the outcome "disappointing" but said owing to ongoing production delays, contingency fleet plans had been put into place some time ago. The firm order for fifteen M90s with options for ten more for ANA subsidiary ANA Wings dated back to 2008. As early as 2017, as scheduled deliveries failed to appear, ANA began bringing in alternative aircraft, including three DHC-8-Q400s that year and four B737-800s after that. "As a launch customer and an airline operator, it is very disappointing," said Shibata about the Mitsubishi decision. Shibata also provided an update on aircraft orders and delivery timelines. He says it will take until around 2030 for fleet numbers to restore to pre-pandemic levels (around 300 aircraft across the ANA Group) and that there will be a greater emphasis on small and medium-sized jets than previously. The Group's current fleet of seventy-nine B787 types will increase to 104 by 2030 with the delivery of fifteen B787-10s and nine B787-9s (which includes exercising options to take five aircraft). Shibata is sticking to a 2025 timeline for the first of eighteen B777-9s to be delivered. In terms of smaller aircraft, a firm order for twenty B737-8s stands with deliveries also set to start in 2025. That contract includes options for an additional ten B737-8s, which ANA hasn't yet committed to but Shibata said with the SpaceJet's demise, it was time to start thinking about the next round of aircraft orders. "We will need to secure alternative aircraft after 2025," he said. "I think it's time to start selecting the next aircraft."<br/>