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Lufthansa mulls further fleet cuts, including all A380s

Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l) is contemplating cutting its fleet beyond the 100 aircraft announced earlier this year in a move that could see all A380-800s and B747-400s permanently phased-out, Bloomberg has reported citing internal sources.

Besides the A380s and the B747-400s, the German carrier would also potentially retire the bulk of its A340-300s and some narrowbody aircraft. The details of the proposed cuts have yet to be firmed.

According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, net of the cuts announced earlier this year, Lufthansa still has eight A380-800s which it tentatively plans to return to service going forward. The airline also owns seventeen A340-300s and thirteen B747-400s.

However, Lufthansa was not looking to retire all of its quadjets, as it would keep both the B747-8s (of which it currently operates 19) and at least some of the A340-600s (twelve). In August, the carrier said in an internal memo that the outright retirement of all of its quadjet aircraft was also on the table.

According to sources, a...

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UK's Stobart Group confirms talks to sell Stobart Air

Stobart Group has confirmed it is considering selling its Ireland-based production carrier Stobart Air (RE, Dublin Int'l) and that it is in talks with "a number" of interested parties.

Last week, The Irish Independent newspaper said the UK-based infrastructure, aviation, and energy firm was in "advanced" talks with Irish lessor Falko Regional Aircraft and that a deal could see Stobart Air and Falko's Irish ACMI/production carrier CityJet (WX, Dublin Int'l) being paired up. However, sources closes to the talks said the sale, which was valued at around EUR20 million euro (USD23.7 million), was contingent on Stobart renewing its Aer Lingus Regional franchise contract with Aer Lingus (EI, Dublin Int'l) ahead of its expiration in 2022. It is recalled that in May, IAG International Airlines Group boss Willie Walsh said that other carriers had expressed an interest in assuming Stobart's role.

"Our AGM statement on July 30, 2020 stated that we had commenced early discussions with potential partners around the long-term future of Stobart Air," Stobart Group said in a...