Audio from the flight deck voice recorder of EgyptAir MS804 indicates an attempt to put out a fire on board the aircraft before it crashed into the Mediterranean, according to people on the investigation committee. The Airbus A320 crashed into the eastern Mediterranean en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19. All 66 people on board were killed. The cause of the crash remains unknown. Earlier analysis of the plane's flight data recorder showed there had been smoke in the lavatory and avionics bay while recovered wreckage from the jet's front section showed signs of high temperature damage and soot. The voice recorder, taken to Cairo this week after being repaired at laboratories belonging to France's BEA aircraft accident agency, could further indicate that a fire took hold of the plane in its final moments. The recordings usually capture pilot conversations and any cockpit alarms, as well as clues such as engine noise.<br/>
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Asiana obtained government approval to launch its second low-cost airline. The company, which owns a 46% stake in low-cost carrier Air Busan, got approval to launch Air Seoul from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation, the ministry said Tuesday. The new airline will be based at Incheon International Airport, near the capital. A spokeswoman for Air Seoul said it will first operate on domestic routes, beginning Monday, and will branch out to international routes in October, serving China, Japan and Malaysia. Asiana is the latest major carrier to set up a low-cost subsidiary to better compete against an influx of budget airlines in international markets. Low-cost travel now accounts for more than a quarter of the region’s traffic, and Asiana CE Kim Soo-cheon has said that “a growing challenge from low-cost carriers is a stark reality facing almost all full-service airlines around the world.” Asiana’s launch of a second low cost carrier comes as it is quickly losing ground on its short-haul routes to budget carriers.<br/>
Lufthansa on Tuesday unveiled the details of a wide-ranging deal on pay and working conditions for its cabin staff, including a no-strike agreement and job guarantees until 2021. Bringing to an end a long and bitter industrial dispute that hit thousands of passengers, Lufthansa and the cabin crews' union UFO said that both sides had accepted a "comprehensive agreement" drawn up during months of arbitration. The talks had been mediated by Matthias Platzeck, the former Social Democrat president of the regional state of Brandenburg. The deal covered issues ranging from pension rights, pay increases, a long-term no-strike agreement and job guarantees until 2021, the two sides said in a joint statement. Lufthansa's personnel chief Bettina Volkens said that with Platzeck's support, the airline and the union had "managed to reach a solution at the bargaining table out of the public eye. "It was a struggle to reach an agreement in which it was necessary for both sides to make cutbacks from their original position. The current compromise demonstrates that the effort was worthwhile," she said. UFO's chief negotiator Nicoley Baublies said Platzeck "managed very neatly to bring our diverging interests together in the best possible way: Lufthansa has achieved economic and political security without taking anything away from individual employees at any point."<br/>
A new system introduced by SIA will allow selected customers to bid for upgrades to the seats they have booked, the national carrier announced in a notice to members of its loyalty club Krisflyer on Wednesday. Invitations to bid on the new system, mySQupgrade, "are made at Singapore Airlines’ sole discretion based on certain criteria and combination of factors, which are dynamic" and invited customers will receive an email seven days before departure, the national carrier said on its website. The system will initially allow invited customers booked to travel in Economy Class to bid for seats in Premium Economy Class, but the company said it plans to gradually introduce this function across the network. Passengers who receive invitations can bid for upgrades on their eligible flights online, within an assigned minimum and maximum bid value for that flight, and change their bids up to 50 hours prior to the departure of the flight. The bid values shown are for each passenger but apply to all passengers in the relevant booking, SIA said.<br/>
Lufthansa said a drop in prices for handling air cargo is reaching “landslide” proportions as carriers exacerbate a capacity glut by adding planes. “At the moment we have great problems in air freight, in Germany as well as across Europe,” Peter Gerber, who heads Lufthansa’s cargo operations, said Monday. “Global growth has slowed, and global trade no longer grows faster than economic activity. Persian Gulf carriers keep adding capacity although it does not pay off, and capacity growth currently is three times greater than demand growth.” Lufthansa is restructuring freight operations, cutting as many as 800 jobs in an effort to reduce costs. The efforts follow two consecutive quarters of operating losses at the cargo unit, the first time that has happened since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2009. Declines in average per-kilogram prices for air freight have been accelerating and now amount to a drop of 15 to 20%, Gerber said. The German carrier plans to offer new services including air freight shipments for private consumers, and enter into more partnerships. Lufthansa is also speaking with large air-freight customers including Amazon.com Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd about possibly serving them directly, instead of the current practice of doing most business with them through forwarding agents. If those ideas materialize, such services could “change the industry,” Gerber said.<br/>