Airline COVID-19 capacity, network, staff cuts for 23-29MAR

The Belgian government and Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l) have reportedly agreed, after months of back-and-forth, on the terms of a EUR460 million euro (USD bailout) for Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National), which do not include the state taking any stake in the carrier, public broadcaster VRT has reported.

According to the terms of the agreement, the Belgian government will loan the airline EUR290 million repayable by 2026. Lufthansa, for its part, committed to recapitalise its Belgian subsidiary with EUR170 million, of which EUR70 million will be earmarked for restructuring of the airline.

In return for its contribution to the rescue, the Belgian government secured a commitment by Lufthansa to keep Brussels National as one of its hubs and develop the airport. In addition, the German parent pledged to retain the brand of Brussels Airlines and its corporate headquarters in Belgium.

The deal still requires approvals by the full Belgian cabinet and the board of Lufthansa. It has yet to be made public.

The agreement was reached just days after the Belgian...

Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l) has applied for an Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) for its new leisure subsidiary Ocean (Frankfurt Int'l), although the newly-incorporated unit will not operate under its own brand.

"The idea is to develop a new product line in the quality leisure segment based on the Edelweiss Air (WK, Zurich) business model," Lufthansa told Cirium.

While Lufthansa has confirmed that it is in the process of simplifying its leisure-focused operations under a single AOC, it did not provide further details about Ocean. In a 2019 presentation, the airline outlined its plan to launch a leisure unit with 11 unspecified aircraft based out of Frankfurt Int'l, Düsseldorf Int'l (four each), and Munich (three), with a projected launch date of 2022.

Currently, Lufthansa's leisure-heavy routes are operated by the mainline under its own brand, by Lufthansa CityLine (CL, Munich) operating for Lufthansa, by Eurowings (EW, Düsseldorf Int'l) under its own brand, and by Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National) operating on behalf...

Slovenia's cargo specialist Solinair (SP, Ljubljana) is pondering launching a passenger subsidiary, Air Slovenia (Ljubljana), with a fleet of five DHC-8-Q400 turboprops connecting Ljubljana with key gateways in the region, General Director Janez Jelenc said during a V2 conference in Slovenia discussing the future of the market after the collapse of Adria Airways (JP, Ljubljana).

Jelenc said that the airline also evaluated the CRJ900 and ATR72 as potential aircraft for the start-up but concluded that the De Havilland Aircraft of Canada turboprops offered the best economics. Air Slovenia would initially operate to Lufthansa Group hubs at Brussels National, Frankfurt Int'l, Munich, and Zurich airports, where the airline would hope to establish a commercial parntership with Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l), Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National), and Swiss (LX, Zurich). In addition, Air Slovenia is also evaluating potential flights to Tirana, Amsterdam Schiphol, Skopje, and Pristina.

In order to launch the project, Solinair would...

Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l) will reduce its planned investment in fleet renewal by half through 2023, taking delivery of a maximum of 80 aircraft for the entire group as it seeks to repay public loans as quickly as possible.

The new measure comes on top of a previously announced reduction of the group's current fleet size by around 100 units. Lufthansa did not provide a guideline about the planned net fleet size changes in the coming years.

According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, Lufthansa has sixty-one A320-200neo, thirty-five A321-200neo, and twenty-seven A350-900s on firm order from Airbus. Orders for twenty B777-9s and twenty B787-9s are assigned to Lufthansa Group, while Lufthansa Cargo (LH, Frankfurt Int'l) has two B777-200Fs on firm order. Subsidiary Swiss (LX, Zurich) has firm orders for one A220-300, sixteen A320neo, and eight A321neo.

The German airline said that while the recently approved EUR9 billion euro (USD10.1 billion) bailout has secured the group's financing for the time being,...