Lufthansa forecast only slightly higher profits for 2016 as it reported adjusted earnings for 2015 up 55%. The forecast came despite lower fuel prices, with a warning of cut-price competition and falling average fares as the airline group ramps up its Eurowings budget business. Lufthansa reported 2015 adjusted earnings before interest and tax of E1.8b, up 55% from the previous year. Total revenue for the year was E32.1b, up 6.8% from 2014. Like rivals Air France-KLM and IAG, Lufthansa benefitted from low oil prices and strong travel demand in 2015, enabling it to restore dividend payments to shareholders. Lufthansa forecast a significant decline this year in yields due also to the expansion of Eurowings on long-haul routes. CFO Simone Menne said she could not see yields in Europe improving any time soon. <br/>
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Austrian Airlines has posted an operating profit (EBIT) of E54m (US$61.1m) in 2015, up from E17m the year prior, the airline stated Thursday. Revenues for the airline increased 3.2% to E2.2b, that it said came from its core business. This comes despite a reduction in the number of passengers of 3%, down to about 10.8m for the year. AUA said this due a planned reduction in capacity in European routes, particularly to Russia and Ukraine. The airline also announced plans to hire 70 more pilots and 400 flight attendants by 2017. AUA CE Kay Kratky said that E1m of every E4m the company earns has come from new routes, with those to North America developing particularly well. In addition, routes to Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Havana are to be added in the current year. <br/>
A battle among brothers for control of one of Taiwan's biggest conglomerates boiled over into the public domain last week when EVA Airways ejected its chairman. Now investors in a rising star among Asian airlines fear they, too, may get burned. Chang Kuo-Wei was ousted at a March 11 board meeting called by his 3 older brothers, according to an EVA spokesman and Chang's lawyer. No reason for the move was given when EVA announced it later that day. At stake for the Chang family is control of shipping and transport giant Evergreen Group, whose founder and patriarch Chang Yung-fa died in January. For institutions invested in EVA, like the Vanguard Group and BlackRock, the question is simpler: will the US$2b airline stick to long-haul expansion plans and record new jet orders mapped out by its former boss? <br/>
Even as it is apparently nearing a contract deal after 5 years of fruitless contract talks with United, the Association of Flight Attendants is facing a raid by a start-up union that wants to represent the carrier's 24,000 flight attendants. United is the centrepiece of the AFA, which has 60,000 members at 17 airlines. AFA has often seemed to punch above its weight in Washington. But the 2010 merger between United and Continental has been stressful for the union, which has had trouble unifying the two groups, which generally have different priorities and still work under separate contracts. Now, "we are seeking to replace the AFA with an independent, transparent, more democratic union," said Todd Magnus, a flight attendant with 30 years seniority who is interim president of the United Flight Attendants Association. <br/>