Lufthansa Says ‘Ciao’ to Southwest Airlines’ Poison Pill – Cranky Flier

Italian Lufthansa Madness The adventure has begun

Lufthansa has received approval from the European Commission to proceed with its purchase of ITA Airways, provided the carrier keeps its word on proposed concessions in Italy and beyond.

The European Commission has determined that the two airlines primarily operate a complementary route network that will not reduce competition in a way that would be detrimental to consumers, and that the merger will be beneficial to the long-term viability of ITA. Lufthansa will take a 41% stake in the carrier to begin with, with the transaction expected to close by the end of this year. ITA will be integrated into the Lufthansa group of carriers – Lufthansa CityLine, Lufthansa City Airlines, Eurowings, Germanwings and any other airlines that may or may not exist in the group choosing not to comment.

The Lufthansa acquisition comes at a relatively modest price of $350 million and is expected to facilitate the eventual takeover of Air Europa by its rival IAG. The merger will also cost Lufthansa some short-haul routes in Europe, which it is expected to offer to easyJet or Volotea, while offering additional slots at Milan/Linate to other low-cost competitors.

The Southwest is poisoning its own well

Southwest Airlines has introduced a shareholder rights plan — better known as a “poison pill” — as a way to tell Elliott Management where to place its potential hostile takeover of the airline.

If Elliott, or anyone else, acquires 12.5% ​​of the airline’s stock, all other shareholders will have the opportunity to buy additional shares at a 50% discount. Elliott’s stake in WN shares currently hovers around 11%, so the new plan has not yet been implemented, but it is getting dangerously close if the airline continues to add shares to its portfolio.

Elliott has criticized the carrier’s senior management and threatened to force a shakeup at the top, with his complaint centering on the fact that its shares have fallen more than 50% in the three years since the pandemic.

AA Flight Attendants One Step Away From Strike

The National Mediation Council called both sides back to the negotiating table last weekend to try to reach an agreement between American Airlines and its flight attendants. While no agreement was reached during these additional discussions, both sides made progress in their efforts to reach a consensus.

The union has said it is prepared to strike, pending the declaration of a formal 30-day cooling-off period that it must observe before taking industrial action. Federal mediators attending the negotiations are not prepared to declare an impasse and let the cooling-off period begin.

Meanwhile, details of Alaska’s free-agent contract, signed a few weeks ago, were made public for the first time this week, confirming a 32% raise, with first-year free agents seeing their pay jump from $24.95 an hour to $32. The contract also came with the usual bells and whistles, including 3% pay raises in August 2025 and 2026, 21 months of retroactive pay, enhanced per diems and hazard pay on flights to Newark.

Avelo Bloodbath in Orlando

Avelo Airlines is canceling nine routes from its map, six of which serve Orlando and eight of the nine serve Florida, with Burbank to Brownsville being the only cancellation not affecting the Sunshine State.

Five routes — Orlando to Dubuque, Kalamazoo and Lansing, as well as Raleigh/Durham to West Palm Beach and Wilmington (DE) to Sarasota — were currently suspended but were scheduled to resume in November. The other four — Orlando to Binghamton, Brownsville and central Wisconsin, and Burbank to Brownville — will end next month.

The cancellations mark Avelo’s exit from six destinations: Binghamton, Brownsville, central Wisconsin, Dubuque, Kalamazoo and Lansing, upsetting the dozens of people who live in each of those cities.

New Pacific gets new CEO

All is not well in the border state, where Ravn Alaska and New Pacific Airways CEO Rob McKinney left the carrier earlier this week in a move that falls somewhere between a resignation and a firing, depending on who you ask. During his tenure, McKinney oversaw two airlines with three combined names, with New Pacific never really taking off.

Ravn flies to Alaska, and then had the idea to launch New Pacific – then called Northern Pacific – to serve as the Icelandair of the Pacific, using Anchorage as a connecting point between Asia and the United States. Instead, all we got were random flights from Ontario to Las Vegas, Reno and occasionally Nashville.

In the meantime, the airline named Tom Hsieh CEO, prompting Alaska to quickly cut ties with the airline. The company now has to figure out what it’s going to do going forward, while the rest of us have to figure out how we’re going to travel between Las Vegas and Southern California without New Pacific on the case.

• Astana Water took delivery of a brand new A320neo.
• Air Canada will receive eight B737-8s next year.
• Air France expects a less profitable summer this year due to the Olympics.
• Air India plans to add regional operations in India using ATRs.
• AirAsiaX will fly between Kuala Lumpur and Nairobi from November 15.
• Air connection hopes to merge.
• Alaska The Max 9 was returned to Boeing today after its 1282nd flight in January, with seven of the plane’s eight doors intact.
• American buys 100 hydrogen engines.
• Avianca announced its intention to submit a confidential draft registration to the SEC for an initial public offering that doesn’t appear to be very confidential.
• Brussels named after CEO Dieter “Scrabble” Vranckx as its new board chairman.
• Cathay Pacific increases its weekly frequencies to Brisbane and Perth.
• Delta Flight 136 from Detroit to Amsterdam was forced to divert to New York/JFK early Wednesday morning after it was determined that food intended for basic economy passengers had been mistakenly served to the entire main cabin.
• Emirates will now begin operating its A350-900 on November 4.
• Ethiopian started a 4 times weekly service to Warsaw.
• Garuda Indonesia Former CEO Emirsyah Satar will spend the next eight years in prison.
• Iskwew Air It’s a real, not made-up, airline that just got a $1.3 million investment.
• ITA I will fly to Bangkok.
• Korean will stop providing cabin services in the last 40 minutes of each flight, to which most U.S. carriers have asked, “Why did it take so long?”
• Qantas withdraws its B787 Dreamliner from its Melbourne-Sydney service.
• Riyadh Water claims it will take to the skies next year with the world’s most luxurious business class.
• SAS will allow its staff to show off their tattoos and wear sneakers while working.
• Singapore Airlines CEO is a well-paying job.
• Spirit has named Fred Cromer as its new chief financial officer, effective Monday.
• TAROM leases two B737 MAX which will be delivered at the end of next year.
• Turkish has ordered seven more B777 cargo planes.
• United I will send you a radar map to prove it is true when your flight is delayed by weather now.
• WestJet The mechanics return to work.