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[loganair] 01/5/2020 17:46

Air France must reduce capacity on routes with rail alternatives, France‘s Minister for Finance Bruno le Maire said.

He explained this will mean if there is a rail alternative on a city pair with a duration of less than 2h30, these routes “will have to be drastically reduced and limited simply to transfers to a hub”.

2h30 by high speed train is the approximate equivalent of flying 50mins which would be flying London to Newcastle.

[loganair] 01/5/2020 17:01

Lufthansa aims for autumn restart ‘at the earliest’.

Lufthansa Group will remain grounded throughout the summer and does not expect a new market “balance”; to be found until 2023, chief executive Carsten Spohr will tell the company’s annual general meeting on 5 May.

Even in 2023, the carrier believes that passenger demand will be significantly below pre-Covid 19 levels.

Adapting to a significantly smaller market, Lufthansa will remove older, less environmentally sustainable aircraft, reducing the fleet by around 100 jets, and is negotiating with manufacturers to postpone deliveries of new equipment.

Such cuts will leave the group with around 10,000 excess staff, opening up the possibility of large-scale redundancies.

Fixed costs for staff, aircraft, fuel hedges and material mean that for operations alone the carrier is currently burning through around €1 million per hour.

Demand for cargo flights is the only bright spot, prompting Lufthansa to remove the seats from four Airbus A330s so that they can be used for freight operations.

[loganair] 01/5/2020 16:55

German Government to take 25.1% stake in Lufthansa - Der Spiegel

Lufthansa is negotiating a 10 billion euro bailout that would result in Germany taking a 25.1% stake in the airline, weekly paper Der Spiegel said on Friday.

Of that total, 5.5 billion euros would be in the form of non-voting capital, for which the German government wants a coupon of 9%, the paper said.

A further 3.5 billion euros in loans would be provided by state bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KFW), the paper said, adding that Belgium, Austria and Switzerland might contribute towards the bailout.

[loganair] 01/5/2020 16:52

BA has told pilots that they will need to sign new contracts on reduced terms, and that other staff will also be forced to accept reduced pay rates and working conditions.

In a memo to staff, Alex Cruz, the BA chief executive, said: “There is no ‘normal’ any longer.

“We do not know when countries will reopen their borders or when the lockdowns will lift, and so we have to reimagine and reshape our airline and create a new future for our people, our customers and the destinations we serve.”

[loganair] 01/5/2020 16:47

Ryanair said all of its flights will remain grounded until “at least July”.

[loganair] 01/5/2020 16:44

Norwegian Air bondholders reject debt conversion plan.

OSLO - Some of Norwegian Air’s bondholders have rejected a proposed debt-to-equity swap, the airline said on Friday, casting doubt on the plan seen as vital to help the indebted carrier survive the COVID-19 pandemic.

[m1k3y1] 01/5/2020 13:14

Nationalisation is a disaster .......UK GOV can offer commercial loans, on a favourable basis and then everyone benefits.

In addition, fewer job losses and as a result , fewer employees on Universal credit, jobseekers allowance etc etc .
UK GOV's focus should be about keeping people in employment, not increasing the jobless numbers.

[careful] 01/5/2020 13:13

A good point about the American system.
Private companies running healthcare for profit seems revolting.
Maybe care homes and nursing homes need to be nationalised.

That idea that Theresa May had to abandon was good.
The state provides care free, but after death up to £150k max gets taken off our estates.

Politics will not be the same when this pandemic is over, the next few budgets will be interesting.

[careful] 01/5/2020 12:36

Whether we like it or not there is widespread nationalisation taking place.
This pretence at a free capitalistic market that no longer exists.

HMG are being asked to nationalise losses whilst still leaving the profits to be privatised.

Branson's Virgin airline is an example.
He strips the cash out of it, loads I up with debt, then expects the taxpayer to bale him out.
He still hopes to retain ownership.

But full nationalisation is a disaster also.
Despite our love- in with the NHS, an annual cost of £200bn eye watering.
Nationalised industries must be made to be as efficient as private industry.

The present middle way is probably the optimum, provided that inefficient companies are not rewarded.

[loganair] 01/5/2020 12:18

Norwegian Air faces anxious wait to find out if it has a future today.

Norwegian Air faces an anxious wait to find out whether its bondholders have approved a critical rescue package, with the low-cost airline’s future in doubt if it is rejected.

A Norwegian spokesperson said that there was nothing to communicate on the outcome of the vote as yet.

[962962] 01/5/2020 12:14

m1k.cheers for that.just curious.As another point,and this could really get the sparks flying on here,what are your views on renationalisation.

[m1k3y1] 01/5/2020 12:02

962...I have a total figures breakdown but not just for LGW at the moment. I'll try and get them.

A lot of jobs at LGW were outsourced.

[962962] 01/5/2020 11:51

m1k.to you or anybody else reading this,who maybe able to answer What is the total workforce numbers at LGW.cabin crew/flight deck crew/engineers/pax staff everybody.

[loganair] 01/5/2020 11:48

British Airways franchise Comair does not expect to fly before October.

Comair operates as a British Airways franchise carrier on South African domestic services, as well as offering flights under its own low-cost Kulula brand.

It has not operated any flights since March 17, and in a statement the group said that government requirements meant “it is not anticipated that Comair will commence operating prior to October or November 2020”.

The airline said that “since the imposition of the lockdown, there has been no revenue generated by any of the business divisions”.

It added that measures taken so far had included a reduction in staff numbers, negotiations with the banking industry over securing bridging finance, and discussions with Boeing regarding the cancellation of its B737 Max 8 order (as well as the payment of compensation for the grounding of the Max fleet).

“Although the Company was experiencing financial headwinds prior to the Covid 19 outbreak, the five week lockdown has caused the situation to rapidly deteriorate to a point where the Company finds itself in a very difficult financial position"

The news comes as reports suggest South Africa’s flag carrier South African Airways could be liquidated within days.

[m1k3y1] 01/5/2020 11:47

962...yes we agree, I just feel for the employees who are pawns in this nasty game.

[962962] 01/5/2020 11:36

m1k.At last we agree,other than Walsh and Virgin.It's walsh and Branson.Totally,Totally agree with your comment on loan conditions,no gov shareholding or interference.But doubt they will get that.

[m1k3y1] 01/5/2020 11:28

962......I agree this is all about Walsh and Virgin but it is opportunistic and British Employees are paying the price.

O'leary is just jumping on the bandwagon. More opportunism. I wonder if he will take legal action against IAG for accepting Spanish GOV loans.
I see he is complaining about Air France, Lufthansa etc but no mention of BA as yet.

If IAG have taken bailouts from the Spanish GOV, it shows that they are open to accepting GOV help with the right conditions...i.e. no GOV shareholding, just commercial terms.

[loganair] 01/5/2020 11:14

Arai - Air France have nothing to do with Virgin Atlantic as the airline is 51% owned by the Virgin Group and 49% by Delta.

[coxypete] 01/5/2020 11:13

Spanish airlines Iberia and Vueling – part of London-listed International Airlines Group (IAG) – have signed five-year syndicated loans of EUR750m and EUR260m, respectively, with a group of banks.The financing is conditional on receiving guarantees from state-owned Instituto de Credito Oficial (ICO) within the legal framework set up by the Spanish government to mitigate the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.The loans will start amortising from 30 April 2023 and contain a number of non-financial covenants to protect the position of the banks, including restrictions on the upstream of cash to the rest of the IAG companies.

[loganair] 01/5/2020 11:12

At Madeira Airport there is a limit of two weekly flights operated by TAP and a maximum number of 100 passengers allowed to disembark, which must comply with 14 quarantine days apart from that all ports remain closed.

[arai] 01/5/2020 11:10

962962 - I take it you refer to Virgin who are really a mix of Delta and Virgin Group who all, let's face it are all struggling. Get the Covid sniffer dogs into the airports, that's one answer.

[loganair] 01/5/2020 11:06

Ryanair aims to conclude talks with Boeing on a new plane order in the next two weeks, but possible price cuts or cancellations related to an existing 737 MAX order are also part of the discussions.

“Pricing is part of the discussion, cancellations are part of the discussion.”

“We are facing the reality that we will be flying a lot less passengers in the next 12 months and over the next 2-4 years we’ll be flying a lot more passengers but at much lower prices and that is going to have to be reflected in lower aircraft costs,” O’Leary said.

The CEO said he believed the grounded MAX would be back flying by July or August and that he expected Ryanair to take its first deliveries of the plane by next summer.

“I would be very optimistic that we would have some MAXs next summer, the question is whether we will have 30 MAXs or 10. At this stage I am not quite sure.”