Bumpy weather for the airline industry means job cuts to engine maintenance crews in Basel
BASEL, SWITZERLAND – Lufthansa Technik, a subsidiary of the parent of Swiss, the airline, is going on a strict died, restructuring to focus on just one product. The company will cut 82 of its 302-person workforce as a result. The move comes as a result of the high franc and tough airline market conditions, the company said Tuesday 15 May in a statement.
Lufthansa said earlier this month that cost cutting would involve 3,500 jobs worldwide in coming months, due to market conditions.
Lufthansa Technik “will concentrate exclusively on line maintenance, light base maintenance and logistics services for its customers at EuroAirport Basel” it says, and it will discontinue “The labor-intensive technical maintenance of VIP aircraft and the Component Services and Engine Services business will all be discontinued” due to under-utilization, with some job cuts coming before the end of this month.
“The demand for maintenance of regional aircraft and their engines had declined dramatically, and the company was unable to compensate for these disproportionate losses in capacity utilization through its business in the maintenance of VIP and executive jets,” it says.
The company has negotiated with Swiss a deal that may involve 22 staff keeping their jobs, with the Swiss fleet’s engines continuing to be maintained at the engine shop in Basel. The staff would not be working as employees of Lufthansa Technik, however.
Parent company plans 3,500 job cuts worldwide “in coming years”
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Airline Swiss and its mother company Lufthansa both showed losses for the first quarter of 2012, a year that the parent firm expects to remain difficult. Lufthansa posted a loss of euros 397, despite higher passenger traffic that resulted in revenues of euros 6.6 billion, a 5.6 percent increase.
High oil prices were the main culprit but the company noted its earning were also hit by “the air traffic tax imposed in Germany and Austria and the costs of emissions trading in force in Germany since 2012 all had an adverse effect on the Group’s operating result.”
Swiss showed an operating loss of euros 6 million and its sister airline in the Lufthansa Passenger Airlines group had a loss of euros 67m, out of a total loss of euros 442m for the group.
Lufthansa says its cost-cutting plan “is to be achieved partly by cancelling loss-making routes and restricting capacity growth, which has been set at zero for 2012 and a maximum of four per cent for the years 2013 and 2014 each.” It is stepping up its investment in first-class service, saying it intends “to remain the European airline with the most First Class seats by far.”
Frankfurt, Germany (GenevaLunch) - Lufthansa, the parent company of airline Swiss, had an operating loss of €330 million during the first three months of 2010, and a net loss of 298m, more than expected by analysts and a larger net loss than during the same period in 2009, €267m. The company blamed a pilots’ strike, which cost it €50m, as well as higher fuel costs and the consolidation of takeovers of two airlines, Austrian and bmi. The board says it expects nevertheless to end the year with a smaller loss than in 2009, thanks to growth in passenger and cargo traffic.
Links to other sites: Lufthansa (results available 5 May), Wall Street Journal
Update 07:00 Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A strike by Lufthansa pilots was called off at midnight Monday 22 February, the pilots’ union and Lufthansa announced. Talks will resume with no preconditions and the striking unions have committed themselves to avoiding industrial action before 8 March, in an agreement with the German labour court in Frankfurt.
The strike of 4,000 pilots was expected to cause major disruption, but appears to have had a relatively minot impact: Zurich and Geneva airports reported they were fairly calm, despite 27 canceled flights Monday out of a total of 87.
The airline Swiss announced late Monday evening thatwhile its flights are not affected directly by the strike, codeshare flights are and the company will continue to keep a close eye on the situation. The Swiss-based airline, a subsidiary of the Lufthansa group,
A general strike in Greece 24 February will affect some Swiss flights, the company notes.
Links to other sites: NZZ (Ger), ats/Romandie
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – UBS says it has completely lifted a travel ban it implemented in April 2009 for its client managers, reports Nasdaq. They were told not to travel abroad following an order from Finma, the bank regulatory body, for UBS to revamp its cross-border business policies.
UBS also announced Monday 7 December that it is nominating, to one of its 12 board positions, Wolfgang Mayrhuber, chairman of the board and CEO of Lufthansa airline.
Remember Swissair?
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The old Swissair logo, once estimated to be worth CHF700 million before the airline collapsed in 2002, could now be bought by airline Swiss for CHF7 million, the SAirGroup, which is settling the old airline’s debts, says. Lufthansa, which owns Swiss, has said it is not interested in reviving the logo, but the company wants to ensure no one else is able to buy and use it.
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss has extended its online check-in service so that passengers can now visit their check-in page several times to make changes such as moving to another seat or checking in a group of up to nine people.
