Air France pilots okay Boost plans, cabin crew opposed

Greenpeace threatens Brussels Airlines state aid lawsuit

Greenpeace may take legal action against Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National) in the same way it proceeded to do earlier this month against KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL, Amsterdam Schiphol), saying it “does not exclude” a challenge in the courts against Belgian state aid handed to the carrier.

Greenpeace has initiated summary proceedings in the Netherlands in an effort to force the Dutch government to scrap financial aid to KLM because not enough “environmental conditions” had been attached to the deal.

In Belgium, “the case is being studied, and it is not impossible that we will follow the Dutch example,” the NGO told the newspaper La Libre Belgique on September 24.

In July, after months of talks, the national carrier secured EUR460 million euros (USD539 million) in assistance, consisting of a EUR290 million (USD340 million) loan from the Belgian government and EUR170 million (USD199 million) in fresh capital from parent Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l).

The activist group has argued that, unlike similar bailouts for Austrian Airlines or Air France...

Air France-KLM must cut costs, Dutch warn; Paris responds

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...

Poland's SprintAir to add in-house ATR72-500 freighter