Eurowings Europe to open Palma de Mallorca base in 2Q2017

Lufthansa issues €600mn bonds, saves €200mn in staff costs

Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l) launched an offering of senior unsecured convertible bonds on November 10 for EUR525 million euros (USD618 million) due in November 2025, before raising it to EUR600 million (USD706 million) later in the day due to high demand and altering the conditions in its favour.

The bonds, which have a denomination of EUR100,000 (USD118,000) each, have a coupon rate that Lufthansa lowered from between 2.25% and 2.75% per annum to between 2% and 2.25%, payable semi-annually in arrears. The transaction, it said, was more than six times oversubscribed.

“The company thereby further strengthens its liquidity,” it declared in the statement announcing the bonds, adding that it plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes.

The bonds will be convertible into new or existing shares. Lufthansa also adjusted the initial conversion price, from between 30% and 35% above the reference share price to 40%.

The company claimed it still had EUR10.1 billion (USD11.9 billion) in cash at its disposal as of September 30, including the stabilisation measures that have been...

Eurowings defers A320neo deliveries

Lufthansa Group to downsize fleet by 100 aircraft

Lufthansa Group will reduce its post-COVID-19 fleet by 100 aircraft from the current 760, Chief Executive Carsten Spohr is expected to announce during a virtual annual general shareholders' meeting set for May 5.

Pre-prepared remarks distributed by the holding did not reveal any further details about the planned cuts save only that all group units will be affected.

"All of the airlines in the Lufthansa Group will be downsized. Older, less environmentally friendly aircraft will be phased out of the fleet earlier than originally planned," Spohr added.

He said that Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l) will "temporarily decommission" all seventeen A340-600s. Ten A320-200s will be retired by Eurowings (EW, Düsseldorf Int'l), while "the ongoing restructuring programmes at Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna) and Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National) will be intensified. Both airlines will also reduce the size of their fleet within this context."

Earlier in April, Lufthansa announced the retirement of six A380-800s, seven A340-600s, five B747-400s, and eleven A320-200s, although the total number was...

Lufthansa Group confirms germanwings' closure

Lufthansa Group has confirmed it will indeed shutter its germanwings (4U, Cologne/Bonn) AOC as part of a set of measures aimed at cutting costs across the group's various airlines.

Following a board meeting on Tuesday, April 7, the German holding said only that germanwings' flight operations would be discontinued to consolidate the number of AOCs Eurowings (EW, Düsseldorf Int'l) uses into one.

"The implementation of Eurowings' objective of bundling flight operations into only one unit, which was defined before the crisis, will now be accelerated," it said in a statement. "Germanwings' flight operations will be discontinued. All options resulting from this are to be discussed with the respective unions."

Trade unions and worker associations such as VC, UFO, Verdi, IGL/TGL and ACA had jointly appealed to management to safeguard germanwings jobs earlier on Monday.

According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, germanwings operates twenty-two A319-100s and six A320-200s all for Eurowings (EW, Düsseldorf Int'l) and all of which will be added to Eurowings' AOC. As Lufthansa group's...