The Ufo labor union on Friday announced strikes from Monday to Wednesday this week at Germanwings, which operates on behalf of Lufthansa’s Eurowings brand, saying little progress has been achieved in talks with Lufthansa management on the strike.

Around 15% of flights at Eurowings needed to be canceled, a Lufthansa spokeswoman said on Monday.

“First 35 flights were canceled, then 54, now 170, meaning that Germanwings will only manage 7% of its original flight operations today,” a spokesman for Ufo said, speaking at the Cologne-Bonn airport.

“That should be a sign for the Lufthansa group. Your employees are really angry. You finally have to change something,” he added.

The majority of the canceled flights were domestic, according to the Eurowings website. Stranded passengers were offered train tickets to their destinations or given a seat on flights operated by other Lufthansa airlines.

Some passengers said that while they understood cabin crew’s grievances, the timing, in the middle of the holiday season, was problematic.

“I am from France and it is worse there. I am in favor of workers expressing themselves, but I am not sure if the time is right,” said Celine Guiakam, a passenger at Cologne-Bonn airport.

“There is no good time for strikes. Every strike and every delay is one too many and in so far we regret that it has to happen at all,” a spokesman for Eurowings said.

The deadlocked collective bargaining dispute for the 22,000 cabin employees concerns pay and working conditions among other issues.

Ufo held a strike for two days in November, resulting in the cancellation of one in five flights, affecting around 180,000 passengers and costing the airline 10-20 million euros ($22.39 million).

The post Lufthansa strike cancels 180 flights in Germany appeared first on Iran News Daily.

A spokesperson for Lufthansa has recently announced the German airline and its partner, Austrian Airlines, will continue to fly to Tehran “until further notice”, sources said on Thursday.

Turkish carriers will stick to their Iran servers even enjoying benefit from stopping flights by some Western airliners, Daily Sabah reported on Friday.

“Turkish carriers are expected to increase passenger numbers from Iran by 20 percent as of September,” the Turkish daily said.

Experts say the halt could be more advantages to Iran Air and private Iranian airliners if the country succeeds to draw further visitors from Europe.

British Airways said its last outbound flight from London to Tehran would be on September 22 and the last inbound flight from the Iranian capital would be on September 23. In a Separate statement, Air France said that it would suspend all its flights to the Islamic Republic on September 18.

The flagship airlines did not put the blame on the return of U.S. sanctions directly for their decisions but said that the route is “not commercially viable.”

Last month, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, a sister airline of Air France, also publicized that it would stop flights to Tehran due to “negative results and financial outlook.”

In response to the halt, Tehran’s ambassador to London, Hamid Baeidinejad, has called the British Airways decision as “regrettable.”

“Considering the high demand … the decision by the airliner is regrettable.”

Back in June, Mohammad Moheb-khodaei, a senior Iranian tourism official, said:  “The number of travelers from European countries cut by 24 percent in the first three months of the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21) from a year earlier.”

Business and leisure travel to Iran picked up in the wake of a 2015 Iran nuclear deal aka Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that saw some sanctions relaxed in return for Tehran agreeing to curb its nuclear program.

British Airways resumed direct flights to and from the Iranian capital in September 2016 after four years. Paris-Tehran services were resumed by Air France in January 2016 while KLM resumed flights between Amsterdam and Tehran in October 2016 following a three-year hiatus.

U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out from the JCPOA in May, re-imposing new sanctions on Iran’s economy. The first batch of the sanctions came into effect earlier this month while the second is expected to follow in November.

The post Lufthansa, Austrian and Turkish airlines continue flying to Tehran appeared first on Iran News Daily.

German carrier Lufthansa hopes to win EU approval Thursday to snap up a slice of bankrupt Air Berlin’s operations, after competition concerns forced it to scale back its bid for the homegrown rival.

Responding to signals that the European Commission was likely to veto its ambitious plans, the German behemoth last week ditched its bid to buy Air Berlin’s Austrian unit Niki, focusing instead on the acquisition of the failed airline’s smaller LGW subsidiary.

The more modest offer now on the table would see Lufthansa acquire the operations of LGW, a regional carrier employing some 500 people.

That includes taking over the roughly 30 planes flown by LGW but leased from other companies, a source familiar with the bid has told AFP.

Lufthansa already holds some of LGW’s coveted landing and takeoff slots and has agreed to give up others in order to secure the go-ahead from competition regulators.

“There’s a very strong, more than ninety percent chance that the Commission will give its green light on December 21,” a source close to the matter in Brussels told AFP.

The European Commission declined to comment, but earlier this month it already approved the purchase of Air Berlin’s operations at the German capital’s Tegel Airport by British low-cost carrier easyJet.

Under the deal, easyJet will spend some 40 million euros ($47 million) to enter into leases for up to 25 aircraft and take over slots in Berlin.

– Turbulence –

The latest bout of turbulence in Europe’s skies began in August when Air Berlin suddenly lost a cash lifeline from main shareholder Etihad Airways after years of losses, triggering bankruptcy proceedings.

But in the ensuing jostle to carve up Germany’s second-biggest airline, it was Lufthansa’s attempt to gobble up the lion’s share of the assets that most worried competition authorities.

Lufthansa — which already owns low-cost Eurowings as well as Swiss, Austrian and Brussels Airlines — initially set its sights on scooping up 81 aircraft from Air Berlin’s 140-strong fleet, including all of Niki’s planes plus its valuable slots.

But fearful of the dominant position that could give Lufthansa on some routes, the Commission said it had “deep competition concerns” about the Frankfurt-based carrier’s plans and the effect on ticket prices.

Lufthansa then announced last Wednesday that it was dropping its plan to buy Niki.

The shock move meant Niki lost the bridge financing that had kept it flying in anticipation of the Lufthansa acquisition, forcing it to file for insolvency.

Flights were grounded the next day, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

The European Commission said Lufthansa’s move was “regrettable”, but that its takeover bid posed “clear risks to Austrian, German and Swiss consumers and to effective competition”.

The Austrian carrier, whose roughly 20 planes serve resorts in southern Europe and north Africa, has since been scrambling to find a new investor.

Niki’s founder Niki Lauda, the Austrian former Formula One champion, has expressed interest, as have British travel firm Thomas Cook and Swiss company Privatair.

Scrapping Niki from the deal means Lufthansa will now spend far less than the 210 million euros it had originally earmarked — cash Air Berlin had been counting on to help pay back a 150-million-euro bridging loan from the German government that kept its planes flying until October.

– On the offensive –

Germany’s flagship carrier meanwhile looks set to easily shrug off the Niki setback as it remains focussed on expanding budget carrier Eurowings even without incorporating the Austrian airline.

As it steps up the battle against low-cost rivals Ryanair and easyJet, an expected hiring spree could see several thousand of Air Berlin’s 8,000 employees land jobs at Eurowings, although probably on less attractive terms.

And if no buyer is found for Niki, Lufthansa will be back in the running for its airport slots.

With its pockets bulging, Lufthansa is also eyeing a chunk of struggling Alitalia’s fleet, in the latest sign of consolidation in the industry.

The German group’s strategy of offering both low prices and high-end services has impressed investors, sending its share price past the 30-euro mark, more than double the level at the start of the year.

Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr was this month named “strategist of the year” by financial daily Handelsblatt, which described him as “tough but fair”.

The post Lufthansa eyes EU green light for Air Berlin spoils appeared first on Iran News Daily.