Germany's Lufthansa and Italian rival ITA will offer to cede 11 pairs of slots a day at Milan's Linate airport in order to secure the EU's green light for their proposed tie-up, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported on Sunday. The German carrier is looking to acquire a 41% stake in state-owned ITA - Alitalia's successor - but has so far failed to persuade EU competition regulators to clear the bid. On Friday, the Italian economy minister said the two airlines would propose further remedies after Lufthansa's latest proposals were rejected by the Commission as insufficient. "We have developed a comprehensive, constructive solution to address the competition concerns raised by the authority regarding the relevant routes and the situation at Milan Linate airport," a spokesperson for Lufthansa said on Sunday, adding that the company can't comment on the details of the process. Lufthansa Group remains confident that the EU Commission will approve the agreed stake in ITA, the spokesperson said. The carriers are willing to give up 22 flights, to and from the Milan airport - where ITA is seen to have a dominant position - and are already in advanced negotiations with Easyjet to take those slots, the report added, citing four EU sources. By giving up the slots, currently held by Lufthansa, the new combined entity would not increase its total market share but this would remain between 60-62%, Corriere added.<br/>
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Air China announced plans to buy 100 Comac C919 airliners, a major boost to the home-grown planemaker seeking to disrupt the commercial aircraft duopoly locked down by Airbus and Boeing. The agreement has a value of $10.8b, based on the list price for the C919. Deliveries will start this year and run through 2031, Air China said in a filing. The Beijing-based airline, one of China’s three biggest carriers, had previously already ordered a handful of C919s. The move highlights how China is muscling into the lucrative market for larger commercial airliners, which for decades has been evenly shared by Airbus and Boeing. While the C919, which is similar in size to the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 family of jets, isn’t yet certified to fly passengers outside of China, industry experts expect the model to grab market share in the next decade, particularly as Airbus and Boeing are sold out for years on their most popular models. Air China currently has a fleet of almost 500 airplanes, including 212 A320-family and 127 737 series, according to data from tracker Planespotters.net. Airbus has been particularly successful with its A320 in Asia’s biggest economy, helped by the fact that it has a final assembly line in the country. China typically orders planes in large quantities, often during state visits, and then distributes them among the national carriers. Boeing’s position in China has been difficult in recent years. Deliveries of the 737 were suspended in the wake of two deadly crashes involving the model in 2018 and 2019, and only resumed earlier in 2024. Political tensions between Beijing and Washington have also complicated orders for the US company. And the crisis of confidence in the wake of a near-catastrophic accident in January has further absorbed Boeing’s attention, forcing the company to significantly slow down output of its most important jet.<br/>
Strong travel demand and cost controls helped ANA Holdings, the parent of All Nippon Airways, power to a record operating profit its latest financial year. ANA’s highlights in the 12 months to 31 March included the capture of inbound demand from Asia and North America, which also saw “higher-for-longer” yields. Domestically, ANA was able to capture strong demand for leisure travel, while low-cost unit Peach expanded its international routes, resulting in record revenues and operating profitability. “Passenger demand continues to recover despite concerns about geopolitical risks such as the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East region and the implications for the airline industry,” says ANA. “Against the backdrop of factors such as the change in the status of Covid-19 to a category 5 infectious disease in Japan, both international and domestic passenger services performed well, supported by strong demand for inbound travel to Japan and domestic leisure demand, leading to significantly higher operating revenue compared to the previous fiscal year.” For the 2023 financial year ANA saw a consolidated operating profit of Y208b ($1.3b), doubling from a year earlier. Revenue rose 20.4% to Y2.1t, as net profits nearly doubled to Y157b. Mainline carrier ANA’s international passenger revenue jumped 68% to Y728b, as the number of international passengers carried rose 69.4% to 7.1m. International ASKs rose 48.5% as RPKs rose 56%, while ANA’s international passenger load factor rose 3.7 percentage points to 77.3%. ANA’s domestic passenger revenue rose 21.8% to Y654b, as the number of domestic passengers rose 18% to 40m. Domestic ASKs rose 8.7% as domestic RPKs rose 18.2%. ANA’s domestic passenger load factor rose 5.7 percentage points to 70.2%.<br/>
Police in India arrested a man at the New Delhi international airport on April 25 for impersonating a Singapore Airlines (SIA) pilot, after he was found walking around the airport dressed in full pilot gear. In a fashion not dissimilar to the semi-fictional Hollywood film Catch Me If You Can starring Leonardo DiCaprio, in which the main character goes on the run in multiple guises including that of a doctor and a commercial pilot, Sangeet Singh, 24, was spotted by security officials, Indian media reported. He was wearing a navy pilot’s uniform and had a fake SIA ID card around his neck that gave him access to in-flight operations. Upon questioning and inspection by officials from the Central Industrial Security Force, a federal agency, Singh’s ID was found to be bogus. He had made the fake ID with an online app, Business Card Maker, and bought the uniform from Pilot 18, an aviation accessories store in Delhi, Press Trust India reported, citing a police official. He also lied to his family that he was employed by SIA as a pilot. Initial investigations revealed that Singh had completed a one-year aviation hospitality course in 2020 at an institution in Mumbai. The native of northern state Uttar Pradesh has been charged with cheating and forgery under India’s penal code. Investigations are ongoing, local police said. “So glad he got caught,” Singapore’s High Commissioner to India Simon Wong posted on X along with a photo of Singh.<br/>
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has been ordered to pay two of its passengers 200,000 rupees (S$3,300) plus other costs after they filed a complaint concerning recliner seats on a flight from Hyderabad to Singapore. Ravi Gupta, director-general of police in India’s Telangana state, was travelling with his wife on May 23, 2023, in business class, but found that their seats could not recline electronically. Gupta said the malfunction caused them inconvenience, and he had to stay awake throughout the almost four-hour flight despite paying 133,500 rupees in total for the plane tickets. He made a complaint to the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission-III in Hyderabad, which ordered SIA to return 97,500 rupees to the couple, along with an interest charge of 12% from the date of complaint. The airline would also have to bear the cost of 100,000 rupees for the duo’s “mental agony and physical suffering”, along with paying 10,000 rupees to cover the cost for the complaint. The total sum amounts to around $3,580. The airline had offered the couple 10,000 KrisFlyer miles each, but they declined the offer. They had purchased Business Z class seats. The Z class fare is flexible and refundable. The seats in business class are supposed to be able to recline automatically via electronic buttons. In their complaint, the couple claimed that they felt as if they were economy-class passengers, except they had extra legroom, reported the Deccan Chronicle.<br/>