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German airline Lufthansa on Wednesday said it had reached an agreement with union Verdi on a pay raise for its 25,000 ground staff after weeks of wage dispute and strikes that have left thousands of passengers stranded across Germany. "We have an agreement and I am very pleased about that," Michael Niggemann, Human Resources Director at Deutsche Lufthansa AG told journalists in Frankfurt. "We have found a good compromise .. for our employees with substantial salary increases over the term," Niggemann added, without providing further details on the agreement. The union has been demanding 12.5% pay increase for approximately 25,000 employees for twelve months, in addition to an inflation compensation bonus of 3,000 euros. Lufthansa offered around a 10% pay increase for 28-months in addition to an inflation bonus. Verdi negotiator Marvin Reschinsky said the union was very satisfied with the result of the arbitration process and that it would discuss further details with Lufthansa on Thursday with the aim of putting their agreement on paper and having employees vote on it by the end of the day.<br/>

ITA Airways sees no plan B alternative to a proposed merger with Lufthansa which has the full backing of the Italian government and the German airline, ITA's chairman said on Wednesday. Lufthansa is seeking to buy a 41% stake in state-owned ITA, which officially replaced loss-making Alitalia in 2021, but the deal is facing hurdles as European regulators warn it could harm competition and push up prices. "On the part of the Treasury and Lufthansa there is a strong commitment to studying solutions ... There is no plan B because we strongly believe in plan A," Chairman Antonino Turicchi told reporters at ITA headquarters in Rome's Fiumicino airport. Lufthansa is planning to buy the stake in ITA from the Italian Treasury for E325m. Following the EU antitrust warning this week both parties said they would come up with remedies to get the deal off the ground. The deadline for remedies is April 26, while the EU has until June 6 to decide whether to clear or block the deal. Turicchi said the deadline might be postponed until the end of June. "We strongly believe in this marriage, this is our guiding star ... I feel like a bride-to-be and I'm waiting for prince charming," Turicchi joked with reporters, declining to speculate on alternatives to the Lufthansa deal.<br/>

European acquisition targets ITA Airways and TAP Air Portugal both flagged improved financial results for 2023, as the Italian carrier reached break-even a year earlier than expected and the Portuguese airline posted record profits. Italy and Portugal have both begun the process of selling off their respective national carriers. Italy’s finance ministry has agreed a deal to sell a 41% stake in ITA to Lufthansa, while Portugal’s government last year set in motion plans for the reprivatisation of TAP. Both processes have hit turbulence, however. European regulators have yet to be convinced that remedies so far proposed by Lufthansa address their competition concerns, while TAP’s privatisation has been delayed by the collapse of Antonio Costa’s government late last year. ITA Airways, which succeeded Alitalia as Italy’s flag carrier in October 2021, recorded a E70m ($76m) EBITDA profit for 2023 and says it reached operating break-even a year earlier than forecast. While the airline remains loss-making, posting a net loss of E5m for 2023, ITA says this performance is also ahead of expectations. ITA made a net loss of E486m in 2022. The carrier’s improved financial performance was based on a sharp pick-up in its passenger business as strong demand continued post-pandemic. ITA passenger revenues climbed around two-thirds to E2.2b as it increased passenger numbers 47% to around 15m. That drove a 53% rise in total revenues to E2.4b. TAP posted a net profit of E177m last year – almost trebling the E65m in made in 2022. That outstripped its previous profit high of 2017 and was achieved despite the airline slipping to a Q4 net loss of E25m. The airline’s recurring EBIT increased from E268m to E347m, marking a profit margin of 9% Full-year revenue climbed just over a fifth to E4.2b in 2023, as passenger levels rose from almost 14m to just under 16m. That remains short of the 17.1m TAP flew in 2019 “2023’s strong results confirm TAP’s recovery path in recent years,” says TAP CE Luis Rodrigues. <br/>

Scandinavian carrier SAS’s parent company, SAS AB, has formally filed for re-organisation in Sweden, a measure previously indicated during SAS’s proceedings under US Chapter 11 protection. Successful completion of this re-organisation is a condition for the airline’s Chapter 11 plan, which recently secured US bankruptcy court approval. The company requires clearance from the Stockholm district court to open the re-organisation proceedings. Known as ‘foretagsrekonstruktion’, the Swedish process is an option for viable businesses experiencing short-term financial problems. If the application is accepted the court appoints a reconstructor, to draw up a re-organisation plan, and determines timelines for creditors’ meetings. According to the Swedish court service Sveriges Domstolar a re-organisation is typically conducted over three months, with an option to extend for three months at a time. Only SAS AB is covered by the re-organisation application. Neither the airline nor any other subsidiaries are part of it. “SAS’s operations and flight schedule will remain unaffected by the re-organisation proceeding,” says the carrier. “SAS will continue to serve its customers in the ordinary course throughout this process.”<br/>

Austrian Airlines flight crew are staging industrial action tomorrow, Thursday March 28, and on Friday March 29, over a pay dispute, resulting in the cancellation of 400 flights affecting 50.000 passengers. Over the impacted two-day period, Austrian was to operate 24 flights from Vienna to cities within the former Yugoslavia, including six flights to Belgrade, four to Sarajevo and Zagreb, three to Pristina and Skopje, two to Podgorica, and one each to Dubrovnik and Split. As a result of the industrial action, all twelve flights from Vienna to cities in the former Yugoslavia have been cancelled on Thursday. Story has more details of cancelled flights. <br/>

Air New Zealand is hoping to replace more than 9m single-use cups from its flights with reusable ones. It trialled an option for its water and hot beverage service on six domestic flights on Tuesday and Wednesday. Stuff Travel was on board two of the flights to see the prototype black plastic cups, larger than the current single-use cups at 330ml, handed out for the water. For hot drinks, the same cup but with a heatproof rubber surround so it’s not so hot on your hands. Inflight service manager Victoria Clark asked passengers over the loudspeaker for a show of hands, who would support a move to reusable cups. About 80% of the near-full NZ405 Auckland to Wellington flight raised their hands. In a text message sent to passengers a day before their flight, people were encouraged to bring their own reusable cup. On flight NZ405 on Wednesday morning about 20 people had followed that advice, but there were only four people on flight NZ412 from Wellington to Auckland. The flight was less full but almost all of them raised their hand in support of the initiative.<br/>