United Airlines said Tuesday that it is starting a $1.5b share buyback as the carrier reported higher-than-expected earnings for the busy summer travel season and forecast strong results for the last three months of the year. United expects to earn an adjusted $2.50 to $3.00 a share in the fourth quarter, compared to $2.00 a share a year earlier and the $2.68 analysts polled by LSEG estimated. Here is what United reported for the third quarter compared with what Wall Street expected, based on average estimates compiled by LSEG:<br/>Earnings per share: $3.33 adjusted vs. $3.17 expected<br/>Revenue: $14.84b vs. $14.78b expected<br/>The share buyback would be United’s first since before the Covid-19 pandemic. U.S. airlines received more than $50b in government aid during the pandemic travel slump that prohibited share repurchases and dividends, though airlines were still fighting for financial stability. “Like other leading airlines and companies, we are initiating a measured, strategic share repurchase program,” United CEO Scott Kirby said in a note to staff on Tuesday. “Importantly, my commitment to you is that investing in our people and our business will always be my top priority even while we institute this share repurchase program.”<br/>
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The Transportation Department fined Lufthansa $4m on Tuesday, after finding the airline had discriminated against 128 Jewish passengers traveling from New York to Hungary in 2022 by preventing them from making a connecting flight in Germany, according to an agency announcement. The passengers were en route to an annual memorial event to honor an Orthodox rabbi in Hungary. The Transportation Department said the fine was the largest it had levied for a civil rights violation, saying the German airline’s behavior constituted religious discrimination, violating multiple U.S. statutes. The agency’s investigation began after it received more than 40 complaints from Jewish passengers traveling from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to Budapest, via a scheduled stopover in Frankfurt, on May 3, 2022. The Transportation Department said Lufthansa did not allow the passengers to embark on their connecting flight because of the misbehavior of a small number of individuals on the first leg of their journey. Most of the affected passengers were Jewish men in traditional Orthodox attire, who were treated as a single entity and penalized for the actions of a few, the department said. The problem started when the captain of the first flight alerted Lufthansa security about some passengers not adhering to crew instructions, which were to wear face masks during the flight and not gather in the aisle or emergency exits. They were not considered security risks, however. As a result of this alert, a hold was placed on the tickets of more than 100 passengers heading to Budapest, all of whom were Jewish, the department found. However, no specific individuals were identified as having violated crew instructions, contradicting Lufthansa’s reasoning for the denied boarding, the announcement said. In a legal order filed on Tuesday, the department wrote that “the denial of transport in Frankfurt was a continuation of a pattern of discriminatory behavior that began on a flight that originated in the United States.”<br/>
An Air India flight made an emergency landing in Iqaluit Tuesday morning due to an online bomb threat. Flight AI127 was en route from New Delhi to Chicago, when it took the precautionary measure of landing at the Iqaluit airport, according to a written statement from Air India. Air India said it, and other Indian airlines, have been subject to a number of threats in recent days. "Though all have subsequently been found to be hoaxes, as a responsible airline operator, all threats are taken seriously," said the company. It said it's considering legal action against the "perpetrators of such threats to ensure that they are held accountable for the disruption and inconvenience caused to passengers" and to recover damages to the airline. Nunavut RCMP said all 211 passengers and crew disembarked the aircraft around 5:20 a.m. and were relocated to Iqaluit International Airport. As of Tuesday afternoon, dozens of pizzas had been delivered to the passengers, who had been expected to stay in Iqaluit overnight. However, on Tuesday evening, federal officials indicated that military resources would be used to help the stranded passengers get to Chicago. "Despite great efforts, the city of Iqaluit is not equipped to house these passengers," Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan said in a statement shared on X, the social media platform formerly called Twitter. In the statement, Sajjan said he'd consulted with Transport Minister Anita Anand and "approved a request" for Canadian Forces resources "to ease the pressure on Iqaluit and send passengers safely to their destination in Chicago."<br/>
Group passenger load factor (PLF) stood at 86.1% in September, with SIA’s and Scoot’s PLF at 85.7% and 87.3%, respectively. Passenger traffic for Singapore Airlines C6l (SIA) as a group rose 7.7% y-o-y to $12.5b for the month of September, while passenger capacity was up 9.7%. The group’s airlines, flag carrier SIA and its budget airline Scoot, carried a total of 3.1m passengers in Septembers, 7.9% higher y-o-y. Group passenger load factor (PLF) stood at 86.1% in September, with SIA’s and Scoot’s PLF at 85.7% and 87.3%, respectively. Meanwhile, cargo loads saw a 12.0% y-o-y increase, due to stronger demand resulting from new product launches.<br/>