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Deutsche Lufthansa AG and TUI AG are planning to enter into official negotiations concerning the set up of a joint low-cost airline.

Following months of preliminary talks, TUI Travel head Peter Long is to announce this at an investors’ conference in London tomorrow, the paper said.

According to the report, Lufthansa and TUI are to each hold 40 pct in the new airline, while Germanwings co-owner Albrecht Knauf is to hold the remaining 20 pct.

source: Hemscott

Lufthansa is continuing to extend its route network to growth markets in Africa. On 1 April 2008, following the introduction of the summer timetable, a new service will be launched between Frankfurt and the Angolan capital, Luanda. The non-stop route will be operated once a week by an Airbus 340-300 with 221 seats.

source: Boarding.no

Lufthansa, the German flag carrier, is to become the first European airline to set up its own fleet of business jets to augment the services offered to its most lucrative premium customers.

The group has been testing the market for executive jet services for the past three years in a co-operation deal with NetJets Europe, the leading operator of business jets in Europe and part of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.

However, NetJets, which specialises in fractional ownership and card membership schemes for private jets, has decided to terminate the deal, as the venture has developed differently to that which was first envisaged and there have been disagreements over pricing and aircraft availability.

source: FT.com

The merger plans of Lufthansa’s Germanwings unit and of TUI’s TUIfly division are set to include Eurowings too, people familiar with the talks told Reuters on Thursday.

The parties plan to build a larger alliance that also involves Eurowings as a third airline, the people said.

Building entrepreneur Albrecht Knauf, who holds a majority stake in Eurowings, may also take a stake in the possible new entity, the people said. Lufthansa owns 49 percent of Eurowings but has all the voting rights and operates the regional airline.

source: Reuters

The German airline Lufthansa now operates out of Florida’s busiest passenger airport.

Flights between Orlando and the airline’s Frankfurt, Germany, hub are scheduled to run every day except Saturday. From Germany, passengers can fly to nearly 100 countries around the world.

source: wpbf.com

Germany’s biggest airline Lufthansa on Friday denied Spanish press reports that it was preparing a takeover bid for Spanish national carrier Iberia.

“‘This is not true. We deny it,'” a Lufthansa spokesman told AFP.

The takeover speculation was sparked by a quote in the Spanish press from a Lufthansa executive, Aage Duenhaupt, saying that Lufthansa believed three euros per share was a “‘very interesting price.'”

But the Lufthansa spokesman said there had been “‘a misunderstanding'”.

Iberia has been looking for a commercial partner since March.

source: Yahoo!

Lufthansa AG, Germany’s largest airline, said Tuesday that first-half passenger figures rose 5.9 percent to a record as the carrier used up more of its capacity.

About 27 million passengers flew with Lufthansa in the first six months of the year, the company said in a statement.

The seat load factor – or the amount of capacity taken up – improved by 2.1 percentage points to 76.1 percent, Lufthansa said.

source: Forbes

German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG has shown renewed interest in Spanish carrier Iberia and may make an offer this month, according to a German weekly, WirtschaftsWoche.

The German company declined to comment on the report saying it has nothing more than its previous comments — made by its chief executive Wolfgang Mayrhuber — that the Spanish carrier is of strategic interest, but it is too expensive.

source: earthtimes.org

For plane builder Airbus and German airline Lufthansa AG, the A380’s first flight to North America on Monday is a chance to show off the superjumbo to potential U.S. buyers and to the airports they hope will be flight bases for the double-decker jet.

“‘We’re talking about an airplane that is representing aviation in the 21st century in terms of efficiency,'” said Jens Bischoff, Lufthansa’s vice president for the Americas.

For Airbus, which has been beset by management and financial crises – including a two-year delay to the A380 that wiped more than euro5 billion ($6.61 billion) off profit forecasts – the flight is a chance to prove that the plane will be ready when the first deliveries are made in October to Singapore airlines.

source: Physorg

The organisers of Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival are close to a deal with national airline Lufthansa that’ll enable music fans throughout Europe to get a cheap trip to the event September 27-29.

The package will include a round-trip flight, festival access and free local public transport, and will come out at no more than euro 180.

Discussions are still ongoing for 14 airports to offer the deal, including major international terminals in England, France, Holland, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Hungary and Russia.