Italy's ITA Airways is heading for a full-year profit and is in good financial shape for a planned tie-up with Lufthansa which can yield significant synergies, the Italian carrier's chairman Antonino Turicchi said in a newspaper interview on Wednesday. Lufthansa said last week it had submitted a package of remedies to the European Commission required to secure EU antitrust approval to take a minority stake in state-owned ITA, bringing it a step closer to closing the deal. Turicchi told daily Il Messaggero that the company's earnings before interest and tax stood at E40m at the end of October and would close the year in positive territory, and it had cash reserves of over E550m. "We have shown with facts that we are a competitive and profitable company," Turicchi said. Core profit, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) stood at E309m at the end of October, Turicchi said, an increase of 213m compared with the same period last year. He estimated synergies from the tie up with Lufthansa of E300-400m through 2027, and said the company could increase its workforce in 2025 if market trends remain positive as he expected.<br/>
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LOT Polish Airlines is on track to smash is pre-pandemic passenger records as it aims to hit a whopping 10.5m travelers by the end of the year. At the end of October, the airline had already transported over 9m passengers and is now confident of breaking its 2019 record of 10m passengers. LOT spokesman Krzysztof Moczulski said: “This year will be record-breaking,” adding that final figures will be available in December. The carrier’s fleet is also expanding, with 86 aircraft expected by the end of 2024, including 11 new additions such as the fuel-efficient Boeing 737 MAX-8 and the latest Embraer 195-E2 jets. LOT currently serves 81 destinations, with plans to increase to 83 by the end of the year. This year saw the launch of nine new routes, including Athens, Riyadh and Lisbon, with flights to Tenerife commencing next week. “Routes to tourist-oriented destinations like Larnaca and Athens have seen excellent seat occupancy, and we expect Tenerife to replicate this success,” Moczulski said.<br/>
The European Union has concluded the passenger service-related remedial commitments offered by Korean flagship carriers Korean Air and Asiana Airlines for their proposed merger have been fulfilled, according to the EU's executive body Thursday. Korean Air has divested four European passenger flight routes to low-cost carrier T'way Air as part of a conditional approval for the merger offered from the European Commission (EC) in February. Korean Air has also agreed to sell Asiana's cargo business to Air Incheon as part of remedies. In a statement sent to Yonhap News Agency, Lea Zuber, EC spokesperson for competition, said the commission concluded Friday (Brussels time) that T'way Air "has fulfilled the completion condition for the passenger commitments set out in the conditional approval decision." The conclusion was reached based on a report by a monitoring trustee, she said. A final EC approval for the Korean Air-Asiana merger deal, however, remains pending, according to the spokesperson, as the EC "is currently assessing" Air Incheon's proposed purchase of Asiana's cargo business division. "The closing of the transaction between Korean Air and Asiana Airlines remains conditional upon the commission's approval of a suitable buyer for the cargo divestiture business," the spokesperson said. "We cannot prejudge its timing or outcome." On the passenger route transfer to T'way Air, the EC concluded that the budget carrier has met the requirements of operating "a certain number of services on each of the four remedy routes," connecting Incheon, Korea's main gateway, with Frankfurt, Paris, Rome and Barcelona, for a certain period of time.<br/>
An Air India flight from Paris to New Delhi was diverted due to smog in Delhi and the pilots’ inability to perform low-visibility landings, according to reports. The flight AI-2022 departed from Paris at 10pm on Sunday and was originally set to arrive in New Delhi at 10.35am on Monday. However, it was diverted to Jaipur – in the neighbouring state of Rajasthan – that morning due to smog in the capital, as the pilots were not certified for low-visibility landings, according to the sources. The situation worsened when the pilots refused to continue flying, citing fatigue and Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) regulations which lay down guidelines on rest and specify how many hours a pilot can fly in a year, NDTV reported. Air India did not issue an official statement, but sources quoted by the outlet indicated that arranging an alternative flight would have taken more time than transporting the passengers to Delhi by bus. The airline sent passengers to the national capital by bus from Jaipur angering travellers, including those with infants. “Shameful and pathetic management from @airindia today as flight #AI2022 from CDG-DEL diverted to JAI. Pax stranded at JAI asked to spend 5 hrs inside the aircraft and then to take a bus from JAI to DEL. My wife and two months old is suffering and I am helpless,” Vishal P, a passenger on the flight wrote on X.<br/>