Airline Finance News - Europe.

For more airline finance news, data and analysis, please go to: http://www.airguideonline.com/professional.htm Jul 3, 2006

Finnair

Finnair announced the conclusion to statutory negotiations with employees covering the 670 technical and administrative jobs it wants to eliminate. It said it still is talking with its subsidiaries and flight staff. It plans to implement the cuts largely through early retirements and will announce the number of layoffs required this fall. The cuts will result in a [euro]10 million hit on its second-quarter profit-and-loss account in pension and "other personnel arrangement fees." Jun 29, 2006

Hapagfly, Hapag-Lloyd Express

Tourism giant TUI said pilots at its Germany-based airlines Hapagfly and Hapag-Lloyd Express approved a new contract that increases pay and sets a salary structure through the end of 2008. TUI said the contract centers on a uniform salary scale for all pilots flying for Hapagfly as well as HLX, the LCC arm, and paves the way for fleet expansion, with "at least" three 737-700s to be added to the HLX fleet next year. Jun 27, 2006

Iberia

Iberia board last week approved the reorganization of the airline group's top management along with a new management structure. As indicated by Chairman and CEO Fernando Conte to this website during the IATA AGM earlier this month, the position of COO is being eliminated following the resignation of Angel Mullor. The restructuring "is designed to achieve two objectives: To reduce the number of senior executives, and to assign greater responsibility to the members of the Executive Committee," Iberia noted. The group's maintenance and handling business units will evolve into "full division status, on a par with the airline division itself." The company will have three GMs: Enrique Donaire will remain head of the airline division, Manuel Lopez Aguilar was appointed GM-maintenance and engineering division and Fernando Sarmentero was named acting GM-airports division. Iberia Group CFO Enrique Dupuy also will take charge of corporate strategy. The executive committee, which reports to the chairman, will have eight members. Jun 26, 2006

Lufthansa

Lufthansa said it is opposing plans by Deutsche Flugsicherung, Germany's air navigation services provider, to increase user charges by 13% in 2007. "Our goal is a cut in fees per flight," an airline spokesperson told Reuters. DFL has lowered user fees in each of the last three years. Jun 28, 2006

Virgin Atlantic Airways

Virgin Atlantic provided no more details on the UK-US price-fixing investigation of British Airways that reportedly was triggered by a tip-off from Virgin. A high-profile US law firm filed a class-action suit against BA and Virgin on June 23 following press reports of the UK-US probe. The lawsuit accuses the airlines of engaging in a "global conspiracy" to fix prices on long-haul flights to and from Jun 27, 2006

Virgin Atlantic Airways

Virgin reportedly tipped off authorities to alleged BA price-fixing. Virgin Atlantic Airways reported rival British Airways to the UK Office of Fair Trading for inappropriate phone calls that a BA executive allegedly made to Virgin executives regarding fuel surcharges, a tip-off that triggered a joint UK-US probe into possible "cartel activity," British media said Friday. Jun 26, 2006