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The United Airlines Holdings pilots union has unanimously voted to authorize a strike vote, the union chair said in a letter to pilots on Friday. "You'll receive more communication regarding this impending strike vote in the coming days," the letter says. A spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) said it has not yet set a date for the strike vote. This action comes months after pilots at Delta ratified a contract that includes over $7b in cumulative increases in pay and benefits over four years. Industry officials say Delta's new contract has become a benchmark for contract negotiations in North America. "We have offered our pilots an industry leading deal and we're actively working with ALPA to reach an agreement," a United Airlines spokesperson said, adding that United flights will continue to operate as planned as the negotiation process continues. A move towards a strike vote is a bargaining tactic unions have been using in contract negotiations, and a strike mandate does not mean pilots will walk off the job.<br/>

Lufthansa is hoping the EC will water down its stance on competition as the German carrier formally begins the process of acquiring a stake in Italy’s ITA Airways. CEO Carsten Spohr said lawmakers in Brussels need to give the continent’s carriers permission to compete “in the global league.” “ITA was our priority, we’re now working on making this possible, taking it through European authorities and then we’ll look at the next possible steps of consolidation,” he said. “The EU Commission put itself somewhat into a corner,” added Spohr, whose group controls the national carriers in Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and seperately runs a regional airline in Italy. “I’m positive we will find a solution.” The continent’s biggest airlines are advancing consolidation. Italy agreed to sell 41% of ITA to Lufthansa for E325m, while British Airways-parent IAG has started its second attempt at seeking regulatory approval for taking over Spain’s Air Europa, which would add to its portfolio of airlines spread across the UK, Spain and Ireland. <br/>

Lufthansa's CE Carsten Spohr said on Sunday it was too soon to discuss the German airline group's potential interest in taking over Portugal's TAP as the Portuguese government is still debating the privatisation process. Portugal wants to keep a strategic stake in state-owned airline TAP and will not offer all its capital in the upcoming privatisation, the country's secretary of state for finance, Joao Nuno Mendes, said on Friday. "There's still discussion in Portugal how that privatisation will take place and it's not supposed to be 100 percent privatisation," Spohr told journalists at the annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association in Istanbul. At least three major global carriers, Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and British Airways-owner IAG, have shown an interest. Lufthansa said last month that it was taking a 41% stake in Italian carrier ITA Airways in the latest major consolidation in the aviation sector in Europe. Spohr noted that the deal was still contingent on the European Commission's approval, but said that once it was signed off, ITA Airways would be incorporated into the Lufthansa group's global sales contracts to help it grow its revenue. He added that a number of planes were still grounded due to supply chain issues - at least 10 across the group - and that initial deliveries of the Boeing 777X were expected in early 2025.<br/>

Portugal wants to keep a strategic stake in state-owned airline TAP and will not offer all its capital in the upcoming privatisation, the secretary of state for finance, Joao Nuno Mendes, said on Friday. The government in April mandated state holding company Parpublica to pick two independent assessors to value TAP ahead of its privatisation, which could be launched in July according to Finance Minister Fernando Medina. At least three major global carriers, Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and British Airways-owner IAG, have shown an interest. Mendes told a parliamentary committee the government wanted "the process to be conducted on terms that are compatible with maintaining a public stake of a strategic nature in the company". "The government is not open to selling the entire capital of TAP," Mendes said, without providing further details. The airline is under a Brussels-approved rescue plan worth E3.2b. The plan includes a downsizing of TAP's fleet, cutting thousands of jobs and reducing wages for most workers.<br/>

Air France-KLM is looking to replace a set of aging widebody aircraft, seeking to pick up more fuel-efficient units from Airbus SE and Boeing Co. that can serve surging long-haul travel demand. The airline group is shopping for replacements for Airbus A330 jets that average 20 years and a batch of two-decade old Boeing 777s, CEO Ben Smith said in an interview at the IATA annual general meeting in Istanbul. The carrier has already retired its fleet of Boeing 747s and A380s and has added more modern 787 Dreamliners and Airbus’s A350 aircraft. Part of the evaluation process includes the new reality of having to circumnavigate Russian airspace following the invasion of Ukraine. That detour can add several hours to a flight and changes the requirements for the aircraft, Smith said. “A plane that is optimized at 15 hours and one that’s optimized at 12 is not necessarily the same, so this of course now plays into the evaluation, where a year and a half ago would not have been the case,” Smith said. Any fleet replacements are likely to happen in or after 2025 because no slots are available any sooner, Smith said. Airlines across the world are snapping up widebody jets as long-haul travel rebounds and stretches out waiting lists for newer, more fuel efficient jets. Smith reiterated that the airline group remains interested in Portuguese carrier TAP, highlighting the airline’s “interesting geographical positioning” and its close ties with South America and Brazil in particular. Still, the group is weighing any move on TAP, for which the Portuguese government has begun evaluating options, “with great caution and no emotion,” Smith said. “It’s interesting under the right conditions,” Smith said.<br/>

Turkish Airlines and Icelandair have signed a codeshare agreement, enabling seamless connections to their customers and expand the number of destinations on both carriers’ networks. Icelandair passengers in North America and Iceland can connect eastbound via Turkish Airlines’ network to Istanbul; and Turkish Airlines’ worldwide passengers will be able to connect via Icelandair’s network to Iceland and Canada. The agreement was signed at IATA’s AGM in Istanbul earlier Sunday. It greatly increases both Airlines’ offerings for convenient connections where customers can travel with a single ticket that their luggage can be checked through all the way to the final destination. Commenting on the agreement Turkish Airlines CEO Bilal Ekşi said: “We are happy to sign this codeshare agreement with Icelandair. With this agreement we aim to enhance the travel options offered to our passengers through our networks. We are also pleased to know that this partnership with Icelandair will bring a remarkable benefit to both airlines from a commercial perspective.”<br/>

All Nippon Airways and El Al Israel Airlines will join forces on flights between Japan and Israel in the first international tie-up by a major Japanese air carrier of the post-COVID era, Nikkei has learned. The two airlines have agreed on the terms of the deal, which includes code-sharing and cross-honoring rewards miles, and will soon make their partnership official, people familiar with the matter said. Code-sharing on flights between Japan and Tel Aviv is expected to begin as early as the spring of 2024 in Japan. The move shows how airlines are coming out of a defensive crouch to try to capture resurgent global demand for travel. El Al started direct service between Tel Aviv and the Tokyo area's Narita Airport in March 2023. Before COVID-19, visitors from Israel to Japan had increased for eight straight years through 2019. In 2019, there were about 44,000 -- double the number in 2015. El Al is not a member of any global airline alliance, such as the Star Alliance to which ANA belongs. The ANA Holdings unit, whose main domestic rival is Japan Airlines, seeks to encourage Israeli visitors to Japan to use its domestic network through its partnership with El Al. Japan-Israel exchanges are deepening. A bilateral investment pact entered into force in 2017, and the two countries decided in 2022 to launch a joint study group on the possibility of an economic partnership agreement. Israel is home to high-tech companies in semiconductors, autonomous driving and other sectors. Hundreds of global companies have established R&D hubs in Israel.<br/>