The Teamsters union, which represents more than 10,000 United Airlines maintenance technicians, said on Wednesday it will resume negotiations with the carrier this week.<br/>
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The European Commission told Lufthansa on Wednesday it would order the German flag carrier to reinstate charter airline Condor's access to Lufthansa's short-haul network to feed Condor's Frankfurt-New York route. The expected interim measure is part of the Commission's investigation into the joint venture between Lufthansa, United, and Air Canada, which the EU executive believes may restrict competition for Frankfurt-New York flights. The Commission said Lufthansa should reinstate arrangements agreed in June 2024 that provided feeder traffic to Condor to and from Frankfurt, but ceased to apply in December. Without the arrangements, Condor might be forced to exit the Frankfurt-New York route, the Commission said. Condor said it welcomed the Commission's stance. Lufthansa said it did not share the Commission's view and was examining the latest announcement. It said a German court had ruled in December that Lufthansa did not have to continue the special agreements with Condor. It added Condor could, like other airlines, make bookings on its feeder flights at standard international conditions.<br/>
Turkish Airlines will resume its flights to Damascus, Syria, next week after a halt of more than a decade, officials said Wednesday following a visit by a delegation of Syria’s new, Turkey-backed rulers. The CEO of Turkey’s national carrier, Bilal Eksi, said there would be three flights a week, starting on Jan. 23. “We are returning to Damascus,” Eksi said in a post on the social media platform X. His announcement followed a visit earlier in the day by Syria’s new foreign minister, Asaad al-Shibani, who held talks with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other top officials In the Turkish capital, Ankara. Al-Shibani is part of Syria’s new, de facto authorities under Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, an Islamist group behind the lightning insurgency that ousted President Bashar Assad in December and ended his family’s decades-long rule. From 2011 until Assad’s downfall, Syria’s uprising and civil war killed an estimated 500,000 people. The new rulers in Syria are eager to establish diplomatic ties with regional and global governments. Speaking alongside al-Shibani at a news conference, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan alluded to plans to reopen Turkey’s Consulate in the Syrian city of Aleppo. Turkey already announced last month it would reopen its embassy in Damascus after a 12-year closure.<br/>
Major affiliates under South Korea’s Hanjin Group, including Korean Air Lines Co., Hanjin KAL, and Asiana Airlines Inc., carried out their regular executive reshuffle on Wednesday. Woo Kee-hong, President and CEO of Korean Air, who led the Asiana Airlines merger, was promoted to Vice Chairman while retaining his CEO role. This marks the reinstatement of the Vice Chairman position at Korean Air after a six-year gap following former Vice Chairman Seok Tae-soo’s resignation in 2019. While there was speculation about Choi Jung-ho, Vice President and head of the Asiana merger task force, being promoted to CEO, Woo maintained the role and was also promoted. Woo, who joined Korean Air in 1987, played a pivotal role in the Asiana acquisition process, which began in late 2020 and culminated in a successful merger after over four years of negotiations. He is also credited with guiding Korean Air to make profit during the Covid-19 pandemic through effective cost management. Asiana Airlines promoted 15 executives, including Song Bo-young, a senior managing director and passenger service expert who joined Korean Air in 1988. Song, now Vice President and CEO-designate of Asiana, will oversee the airline’s restructuring and preparations for the integrated airline’s launch in about two years. Meanwhile, Asiana’s low-cost carrier affiliates, Air Busan Co. and Air Seoul, appointed Jeong Byeong-seop and Kim Joong-ho as respective CEOs without promotions.<br/>
Singapore Airlines (SIA) and its low-cost arm Scoot carried a total of 3.6m passengers in December, a monthly record for the SIA group. This was up 7.1% from 2023, based on the group’s monthly operation update, released after the market closed on Jan 15. In particular, SIA carried 2.4m passengers in December, up 9.6% from 2.2m in the year-ago period. Scoot’s passengers stood at 1.1m, up 2.3%. For the whole of 2024, the group ferried 39m passengers, 12.7% more than the 34.6m in 2023. The two carriers’ passenger traffic, which measures the demand for an airline’s service and is derived by multiplying the number of paying passengers by the distance they travelled, was up 6% in December on the year. Passenger capacity, measured by multiplying the number of seats available on a flight by the distance flown, grew 7.1% in December on the year.<br/>
Singapore Airlines (SIA) will add an extra three weekly flights to Brisbane this year, restoring its pre-COVID capacity to the Queensland capital. The carrier will fly four times per day to Brisbane starting 16 June, increasing its weekly services from 25 to 28, following high demand particularly during recent peak seasons. The new services, SQ265/266, will operate on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday from Brisbane to Singapore using A350-900 medium-haul aircraft, leaving Singapore early in the morning and returning in the evening. “Travel demand has been strong as Brisbane continues to grow as a major gateway and Queensland gains significance as a global destination for business and leisure,” said SIA’s regional vice president South West Pacific, Louis Arul. “Singapore Airlines is pleased to offer more options for travellers to Singapore and connect to over 110 cities globally via Singapore Changi Airport.” Gert-Jan de Graaf, CEO of Brisbane Airport, has welcomed SIA’s move, which comes after the carrier last year brought forward its planned expansion to 25 flights per week from November to August.<br/>
Passengers on one Air New Zealand route on Thursday afternoon will be stepping on board an aircraft that is being described as a “milestone” for the airline. ZK-MZG recently completed an epic 20,000km journey to become the national carrier’s 30th ATR aircraft. The ATR 72-600 arrived into New Zealand on December 29 after a week-long trek from the manufacturing site in Toulouse, France. The plane had to make stops in Heraklion (Crete), Riyadh, Oman, Hyderabad, Kuala Lumpur, Denpasar, Darwin, and Brisbane before landing in Christchurch. The first journey with passengers is a little shorter - a quick hop to Invercargill. Air NZ’s general manager of strategy, networks, and fleet, Baden Smith, called the arrival of the 30th ATR a “milestone”. “The addition of this aircraft will provide vital support for our turboprop fleet helping provide maintenance flexibility and helping maintain the reliability of our services for regional customers,” said Smith. He described the ATR as a “fantastic aircraft” that is the “backbone” of the airline’s domestic network. “It performs exceptionally well in New Zealand’s unique operating conditions with its fuel efficiency, reliability, and ability to access smaller airports. The aircraft's versatility ensures we can maintain a robust and resilient service, connecting our communities across the motu efficiently.” ZK-MZG is the first of the airline’s ATR fleet to use the Pratt & Whitney PW127XT engine, which is designed to deliver an estimated 3% fuel savings compared to its predecessor.<br/>