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A United Airlines flight heading from Houston to Amsterdam was diverted to Chicago after an unruly business class passenger interrupted the flight, reportedly because his first meal choice was unavailable. The flight took off at 4.20pm local time in Houston on Sunday, and was in Chicago airspace two hours into the flight. Flight tracking website Flightradar24 showed that the plane circled Chicago’s O’Hare airport as it had to use up fuel, known as dumping fuel, or it would have been too heavy to land. Aviation insider XJonNYC posted internal United communications on Twitter that reported a “disruptive [passenger] on board” and a threat level of one, the lowest level of threat. In another tweet, he reported that the passenger seemed to be enraged over meal choice. In a statement to the Guardian, United said: “United flight 20 from George Bush Intercontinental Airport to Amsterdam diverted to O’Hare International Airport and landed safely following a passenger disturbance. Law enforcement met the aircraft at the gate and escorted the passenger off the plane. The aircraft then continued to Amsterdam.” According to Flightrader24, the flight ended up landing just over three hours after its scheduled arrival, touching down at about 12.30pm local time in Amsterdam. The typical total flight time for the trip is nine hours and 30 minutes. While it is unclear exactly what meal the unruly passenger had gotten upset over, business class passengers on United are typically offered a full three-course meal in addition to more food throughout the flight.<br/>

Portugal’s state-owned airline TAP carried 7.58m passengers in the first half of this year, a 30% increase from a year ago but still slightly below pre-pandemic levels even as tourist numbers have already exceeded those seen in 2019. Still, the state-owned carrier, which the government plans to partially privatise, said on Monday that intercontinental routes to Brazil, North America and Africa carried 2.17m passengers in the period, 14.7% more than in the first half of 2019. That, it said, “demonstrated the solid recovery of the company”, although the total passenger traffic fell 4% shy of the same period in 2019 as the airline’s flights within Europe, including mainland Portugal and islands - carried fewer passengers. TAP is undergoing a restructuring under a Brussels-approved E3.2b rescue plan, but the government wants to launch its privatisation as early as this month while intending to keep a strategic stake. At least three major global carriers - IAG, Lufthansa, and Air France-KLM - have so far shown interest in TAP. The Portuguese airline reported a net loss of E57.4m in the first quarter of this year, which represented more than a 50% drop from the loss in the previous year’s period, due to increasing passenger numbers. <br/>

Polish flag-carrier LOT’s new chief executive, Michal Fijol, says he is “cautiously optimistic” about the airline’s prospects following its return to profitability last year. The carrier turned in a net profit of zl113.7m ($28m) for 2022 – compared with the previous full-year loss of nearly zl1.33b – on revenues of zl8.67b. Fijol says the results give reason to believe that LOT can repay its state-aid liabilities and accomplish “ambitious development assumptions”. “LOT is profitable, LOT is hospitable, and LOT is punctual,” he adds. According to LOT’s full-year financial statement, some zl389m of the 2021 loss will be covered through supplementary capital while the remaining zl937m will be covered by “future years’ profits”, including the profit generated in 2022. The airline transported nearly 8m passengers last year with a load factor of over 80%, but the number of seats offered remains 27% down on the pre-crisis level of 2019. LOT says the economic turbulence following the pandemic and the Ukrainian conflict have generated double-digit inflation not recorded in Poland for over two decades. It adds that the conflict has a “negative impact” on perceptions of Poland as an attractive tourist destination while the closure of nearby airspace over Russia, Belarus and Ukraine “significantly changes” the economics of individual routes and connections. Eleven connections operated by LOT have been cancelled while the duration of some long-haul flights to Asia has been lengthened by more than 2h. LOT says it has opted to develop its charter operations “significantly” to help counter the impact, and look for alternative routes on which to deploy the fleet. <br/>

Deutsche Bank has captured one of Europe’s largest and most lucrative co-branded credit card contracts, as Germany’s biggest lender tries to make good on its ambition to grow its payments business. Deutsche will from 2025 run the German credit card business of Lufthansa’s frequent-flyer loyalty programme, known as Miles & More. The deal is expected to more than double the bank’s annual volume of credit card transactions. In recent years, the German lender has singled out digital payments and cash management as a high “strategic priority”. Stable and low-risk with little regulatory capital required, Deutsche regards the business as one that can balance the more erratic and capital-intensive investment banking and bond trading operations. Ole Matthiessen, Deutsche’s head of cash management, said the deal, which also involves Mastercard as the provider of the technology and the network, will see the number of credit cards it issues rise by a quarter. Industry experts estimate that Deutsche will make about E100m in annual revenue from the deal. The bank declined to comment on the revenues the agreement would bring, but the importance of the deal was underlined by the fact that chief executive Christian Sewing led the pitch for the contract. Miles & More members are typically affluent and frequent flyers, with 20% of them Deutsche clients. They spend “five times more than the average German credit card user”, said Johann-Philipp Bruns, managing director at Miles & More. Miles & More charges credit card users an annual fee of up to E138. In return, customers collect one mile for every E2 spent on the card — with the issuing bank receiving a fraction of every euro. Miles & More users can swap their miles for Lufthansa flights or for products ranging from wine to designer furniture. Deutsche replaces the programme’s longstanding partner, DKB, an online retail bank owned by state-backed lender BayernLB.<br/>