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Lufthansa flies to China again

Jan Gruber June 23, 2020 14:14

On Wednesday, Lufthansa will begin resuming its China connections. Initially, a weekly rotation between Frankfurt am Main and Shanghai will be offered. The "first flight" will take place on Wednesday. At the end of January this year, the Lufthansa Group suspended all connections to mainland China. The background to this was the corona pandemic. The company now wants to gradually restore the service across the group, although there are currently restrictions in Austria that make this very difficult. "The flights between Shanghai and Frankfurt are hopefully only the first of further Lufthansa Group connections in the coming weeks and months between mainland China and our home markets of Germany, Austria and Switzerland," said Veli Polat, China Sales Manager at Lufthansa. Entry into the People's Republic of China is currently only possible for non-Chinese citizens with a special permit. Visas have not been issued for several months. Even if you have a visa, you need a special permit to enter the country. Citizens of the People's Republic of China are exempt from this, although quarantine regulations also apply to them.

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Volotea is negotiating corona loans

Granite Pireci June 23, 2020 13:27

The Spanish low-cost airline needs fresh money, which it plans to obtain from Spanish banks in the form of loans. Nevertheless, the company's management believes the carrier is well positioned for the future. Volotea reportedly wants to increase its financial resources. To this end, the Spanish low-cost airline is in negotiations with various national financial institutions, as ch-aviation.com reports. Banks such as Santander, BBVA and Sabadell could provide the airline with up to 112 million US dollars to help it cope with the crisis. After a break of almost 90 days, the airline resumed flight operations a week ago. Despite Corona, the company is optimistic about the future: "We are confident that we will be able to fill our planes to 90 percent in July and August," says co-founder Carlos Muños. In the next two months alone, the company plans to fly to 274 destinations.

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Level staff hold rally

Jan Gruber June 23, 2020 10:13

The workforce of the insolvent airline Level Europe will hold a demonstration in front of the Federal Chancellery in Vienna on Wednesday, June 24, 2020 from 8:30 a.m. The organizers want to draw attention to the fate of the approximately 200 employees whose jobs are at acute risk due to the bankruptcy. The Level employees hope that a solution will still be found that will lead to the continuation of flight operations and thus the preservation of the associated jobs. The company has not yet received any state aid and, according to KSV1870, this is also the reason for the bankruptcy.

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Climate activists with flash mob in AUA-Dash

Jan Gruber June 22, 2020 16:15

Climate activists dressed up as dinosaurs and were on board the first flight between Vienna and Graz. On Monday, Austrian Airlines had special guests on board the first flight between Vienna and Graz after the Corona break. Activists from the climate protection group “System Change, not Climate Change” flew dressed as dinosaurs. According to the organization, such ultra-short-haul flights are “connections from the Stone Age”. “Two activists dressed up as pterosaurs flew on the first Austrian Airlines flight from Vienna to Graz to celebrate the regressive resumption of short-haul flights and the millions in payments for AUA. Representing the climate-damaging fossil aviation industry, the dinosaurs drew attention to themselves with slogans such as “Flights instead of trains” and “Fossils against Future”, the organization said in a press release. “Selling fleet renewal and the addition of ‘alternative fuels’ as climate protection measures is pure greenwashing! Every new aircraft will continue to burn kerosene for the duration of its useful life, thereby fuelling the climate crisis. 'Alternative fuels' are also a dangerous pseudo-solution. Agricultural fuels are often in conflict with food production. In addition, the production of synthetic kerosene is still a thing of the future and would require an enormous amount of electricity that is urgently needed elsewhere for the energy transition," says Mira Kapfinger from System Change, not Climate Change. At Graz Airport, on the other hand, people are pleased that air traffic is now slowly starting up again after the lockdown. Minimum operations are scheduled to end on June 30, 2020. Numerous destinations are to be flown to again in July 2020. "We are very happy that things are starting up again," explains

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Verdi and VC disagree over responsibility at Lauda

Jan Gruber June 22, 2020 15:32

Two unions do not agree on who is responsible for the Lauda collective agreement. The Cockpit Association is now strongly criticizing Verdi and even threatening that a possible agreement will not be recognized. In the struggle for the future of the two German Lauda bases, Düsseldorf and Stuttgart, a tussle over competences is now looming between the Verdi and Cockpit Association unions. The former represents the cabin crew and has only a few members among the pilots. The vast majority of unionized Lauda pilots in Germany are in the VC. Since the Ryanair subsidiary Lauda kept an enormous distance from the employee representatives until around April 2020, but surprisingly demanded the conclusion of a collective agreement with Verdi including a deadline, a demarcation agreement was already discussed between VC and Verdi in the course of short-time work. However, this has not yet been concluded. According to reports, the Lauda management intends to negotiate exclusively with Verdi. An internal circular from VC shows that the rival union has already largely negotiated the collective agreement with the employer. This is now causing displeasure at the Cockpit Association, which has previously been of the opinion that the pilots' agendas are negotiated by VC, not Verdi. The union now feels faced with a fait accompli and is strongly criticising Verdi's behaviour. The approach has no added value for VC members. The union therefore does not want to accept a possible agreement from Verdi and announces in the letter to members that the employer has probably underestimated the Cockpit Association. The union will not take the scandalous conditions that were "pushed through" in Austria into account.

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Varadi: “Trade unions? Then we’ll close the base!”

Jan Gruber June 22, 2020 14:29

If Wizzair gets into trouble with the unions in Dortmund, the base will be closed again and the aircraft will be moved to other airports. Company boss Varadi even believes that unions would "destroy the business". Wizzair CEO Jozsef Varadi does not want to know anything about unions across Europe because, in his opinion, they would only "destroy the business". If the company is "caught" by the German unions in connection with the Dortmund base, the base will simply be closed again. This was explained by the general director of the Hungarian aviation group to the portal Aerotelegraph.com. Wizzair will open its first base on German soil at Dortmund Airport. Up to now, all airports in Germany have been served by bases located outside of Germany. But the group ignores unions across its entire route network and there is no works council. It will stay that way if Varadi has his way. "Unions destroy the business. That is also one of the problems at Lufthansa. If the unions try to catch us, we will simply close the base and move on. That's the beauty of an airline as flexible as ours: we can simply move our planes to another airport," Wizzair CEO Jozsef Varadi told Aerotelegraph.com.

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LH rescue package: Spohr expects rejection

Jan Gruber June 22, 2020 09:53

Due to the low attendance at the upcoming Annual General Meeting, a two-thirds majority is required to accept the rescue package. Lufthansa CEO Spohr assumes that the proposal will be rejected and has ordered the early payment of salaries. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr informed the workforce at the weekend that only 38 percent of the voting capital had been registered for the Annual General Meeting. This means that a two-thirds majority is required to accept the rescue package negotiated with the German government. Due to the negative attitude of a major shareholder who holds 15 percent of the share capital and is registered for the Annual General Meeting, the necessary approval is likely to be difficult to obtain. Spohr writes: "On Thursday, the Annual General Meeting will decide on the acceptance of the German government's stabilization package. Since last night, we know that our shareholders have registered less than 38 percent of the capital for this Annual General Meeting. This means that a two-thirds majority must be achieved in the vote, which, according to recent statements by important shareholders, does not seem certain, particularly regarding the conditions of the capital increase." Preparations have also already been made in the event of rejection. The time remaining until the insolvency filing will be used to discuss alternative options with the German government. Carsten Spohr writes that a grounding is to be avoided. "In order to spare you and your families further uncertainty in these anxious weeks, we decided at the weekend on the Executive Board, for the first time in Lufthansa's history, to bring forward the payment of remuneration and to order the June salaries tomorrow, Monday, June 22nd. We would like to ensure an uninterrupted salary payment process for all of you.

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Austria issues new landing bans

Jan Gruber June 22, 2020 09:31

After Austria lifted the landing bans for incoming passenger flights from a total of ten countries at the weekend, a new ban was issued on Monday at 6:16 a.m. This is stated in NOTAM A1577/20. Accordingly, aircraft with passengers on board that took off from the People's Republic of China, Iran, Lombardy, Belarus, Portugal, Sweden, Russia and the United Kingdom are again not allowed to land in Austria. There are some exceptions, for example, pure cargo connections are permitted. Nursing staff and harvest workers, for example, can also be flown in. All passenger connections between Spain and Austria remain permitted. The quarantine regulations between these two countries have also been lifted since June 21, 2020. Das NOTAM im Wortlaut: A1577/20 – COVID 19: FLIGHT RESTRICTIONSACCORDING TO PARA 25 EPIDEMIC ACT 1950FLIGHTS FROM PEOPLES REPUBLIC CHINA ISLAMIC REPUBLIC IRAN REGION LOMBARDY – ITALY BELARUS PORTUGAL UNITED KINGDOM SWEDEN UKRAINE RUSSIAARE PROHIBITED TO LAND AT FIR LOVV.EXEMPTED ARE: FLIGHTS IN THE INTEREST OF THE REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA,CARGO FLIGHTS, EMERGENCY FLIGHTS, AMBULANCE FLIGHTS, FERRYFLIGHTS, REPATRIATION FLIGHTS, FLIGHTS TO TRANSPORT SEASONALWORKERS IN THE AGRICULTURAL OR FORESTRY SECTOR AS WELL AS NURSINGAND HEALTH PERSONNEL.EXEMPTIONS TO THIS PROHIBITATION OF LANDINGS DO NOT RELEASE PAX FROM ANY ENTRY REQUIREMENTS. 22 JUN 06:16 2020 UNTIL 30 JUN 21:59 2020. CREATED:22 JUN 06:17 2020

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Austria lifted landing bans early

Jan Gruber June 21, 2020 10:12

On Saturday evening, the Republic of Austria lifted all remaining flight bans ahead of schedule. This is made clear in NOTAM A1568/20. The ban on incoming passenger flights from a total of ten countries was lifted without replacement on June 20, 2020 at 21:59 p.m. In concrete terms, this means that not only aircraft coming from Spain, but also those that took off from the People's Republic of China, Iran, Lombardy, Belarus, Portugal, Sweden, Russia, the United Kingdom and Ukraine are allowed to land in Austria with passengers on board. This enables airlines to resume their connections. To date, no NOTAM has been published that would impose a new ban on the countries mentioned or the Lombardy region (Italy). However, the lifting of the landing ban does not change the entry regulations of the Republic of Austria. The NOTAM 1568/20 in full: A1568/20 - COVID 19: FLIGHT RESTRICTION ACCORDING TO PARA 25 EPIDEMIC ACT 1950FLIGHTS FROM PEOPLES REPUBLIC CHINA ISLAMIC REPUBLIC IRAN LOMBARDY REGION - ITALY BELARUS PORTUGAL SPAIN UNITED KINGDOM SWEDEN UKRAINE RUSSIAARE PROHIBITED TO LAND FIR LOVV. EXEMPTED ARE: FLIGHTS IN THE IMPERATIVE INTEREST OF THE REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA, CARGO FLIGHTS, EMERGENCY FLIGHTS, AMBULANCE FLIGHTS, FERRY FLIGHTS, REPATRIATION FLIGHTS, FLIGHTS TO TRANSPORT SEASONAL WORKERS IN THE AGRICULTURAL OR FORESTRY SECTOR AS WELL AS NURSING AND HEALTH PERSONNEL. EXEMPTIONS TO THIS PROHIBITATION OF LANDINGS DO NOT RELEASE PAX FROM ANY ENTRY REQUIREMENTS. 19 JUN 11:29 2020 UNTIL 20 JUN 21:59 2020. CREATED: 19 JUN 11:30 2020

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MH17: Trial without defendants present

guest Author June 20, 2020 08:53

The beginning of June saw the start of the criminal trial against the alleged perpetrators of the shooting down of MH17. Andreas Schönwälder summarized the events of the first three days of the trial for Aviation.Direct. In the Netherlands, the first three days of the criminal trial against those responsible for the shooting down of MH8 took place last week from June 10th to 17th, unnoticed by most media. Since this event interested most readers here but nothing about it was reported in the newspapers, I have decided to briefly summarize the course of the trial here. I would like to note that all information is based purely on the live ticker of a journalist on site (supplemented by details from other live tickers) and that errors may occur due to the double translations Dutch-English / English-German. I would also like to note that all of the following passages are statements from the trial and do not reflect my personal opinion! Just a quick reminder. The investigation into the crash was carried out by the JIT, the abbreviation for "Joint Investigation Team". In aviation, it is common practice that after a crash, all the states involved (origin of the victims, crash site, manufacturer of the aircraft, producer of the BUK, etc.) set up a joint investigation team. This is therefore 100% impartial, as all findings are worked out jointly and at the end all parties are given the opportunity to note and correct any errors. Furthermore, these investigation teams are not tasked with finding any culprits, but simply work out all the facts. Based on the final report of the JIT, the Dutch courts have drawn up an indictment against four defendants. Note: among the fighters in eastern Ukraine

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