United Airlines will cancel its daily flights to Tel Aviv in Israel through June 5, the carrier said on Wednesday. "We continue to closely monitor the situation and will make decisions on upcoming flights with a focus on the safety of our customers and crews," United said in a statement. The carrier also added that its second daily Tel Aviv flight would be canceled through June 19.<br/>
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Italy's economy minister said on Wednesday he was confident of a green light from the EC to Lufthansa's purchase of a stake in Italy's ITA Airways. The German airline is looking to buy a 41% stake in state-owned ITA - Alitalia's successor - but has so far failed to persuade the Commission, the EU's antitrust regulator, to clear the bid. "I am confident, otherwise I would not do this job... Let's hope the referee will not make any mistakes," Giancarlo Giorgetti said, referring to EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, when answering a question on whether she would give her approval to the airlines' tie-up.<br/>
Kazakhstan and Egypt have agreed to increase the total number of permitted flights between the countries from 14 to 48 per week, as well as the permitted points from 2 to 3 for each side, Trend reports. The aviation authorities of the countries reached the corresponding agreements during bilateral negotiations. The agreements also increased the number of designated carriers. Thus, the Kazakh side, in addition to the existing carriers Air Astana and SCAT, appointed the Fly Aystan airline to operate regular flights between the countries. The Egyptian side, in turn, appointed Red Sea and Nile Air to the existing carriers EgyptAir, EgyptAir Cargo, and Air Cairo. According to the agreements, the airlines of the two countries can enter into commercial agreements between themselves at the same time.<br/>
Air India was once so renowned for its service that Singapore’s founding statesman Lee Kuan Yew used the airline as a blueprint for launching the city-state’s own flag carrier in the early 1970s. In recent decades, India’s national airline came to be seen as a cautionary tale of decline as it racked up billions of dollars in losses and battled a reputation for tardiness and poor service. When the Tata Group bought the company in October 2021, returning control to the wealthy Tata family after decades of state ownership, CEO Natarajan Chandrasekaran laid out a clear objective: “To build a world-class airline”. Tasked with leading this mission is Air India CEO Campbell Wilson, who was recruited from Singapore’s low-cost airline Scoot in 2022 to turn around the carrier, founded in 1932 by French-Indian aviator entrepreneur JRD Tata. “Standards have slipped considerably over the years,” Wilson told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview. But Wilson is adamant that “the journey to restoring Air India to its former glory is well under way” under a five-year turnaround plan unveiled last year.<br/>