Aviation

  Frankfurt / AFP German airline Lufthansa said on Sunday it will suspend flights to Venezuela from next month owing to the economic crisis in the country. “We have decided to suspend the service between Frankfurt and Caracas for the time being as from June 17,” a company spokesman said. The service, three times a week, was Lufthansa’s only flight between ...

  Nicosia / AFP A Cyprus-based budget airline, Cobalt, announced it will launch passenger flights to Greece and Britain from June. Cobalt said it was granted an Air Operator Certificate after a successful test flight with its first Cyprus-registered Airbus A320 from Larnaca to Heraklion in Greece. Its chairman, Gregory Diacou, said the carrier will begin flights to Athens on June ...

  London / Bloomberg British Airways is evaluating its routes to Nigeria, adding to aviation-industry pressure on the government as sister carrier Iberia and US competitor United Airlines halt flights to the oil-based market as traffic stutters and currency controls delay access to revenue. The UK carrier is struggling to repatriate its share of the $575 million that Nigeria currently ...

  Sydney / Bloomberg Air New Zealand Ltd.’s stake in Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd. has attracted several potential buyers and talks are under way about a possible deal, said Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Group Ltd. It’s not yet clear whether Virgin Group itself, which owns about 10 percent of Virgin Australia, will increase its stake in Australia’s ...

  Kuala Lumpur / Bloomberg AirAsia Bhd., Southeast Asia’s biggest budget carrier, reported an almost sixfold jump in quarterly profit amid plans to expand its fleet in a region projected to surpass the US as the world’s biggest air-travel market in two decades, led by China. The Sepang, Malaysia-based company said net income in the quarter through March climbed to ...

  Washington / AFP The sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 aircraft landed in the US state of Pennsylvania, completing the latest leg of a record-breaking flight around the world to promote renewable energy. After taking off from Dayton, Ohio early Wednesday, the plane piloted by Swiss explorer Bertrand Piccard arrived at 8:49 pm (0049 GMT Thursday) at Lehigh Valley International Airport after ...

  Maryland / Bloomberg Lockheed Martin Corp. is leaning toward the Tata Group as a potential partner to build its flagship F-16 as India looks to modernize an aging fleet of fighter jets. “Naturally we would gravitate to Tata,” George Standridge, Lockheed Martin’s vice president for Aeronautics Strategy and Business Development, said in an interview in New Delhi when asked ...

  New York / Bloomberg US airlines and airports are spending millions on added workers to avoid a repeat of long security lines, as the coming Memorial Day weekend kicks off what’s expected to be a record year for summer travel. “We are concerned for this weekend, where we’ll see higher than normal flight loads,” said Ross Feinstein, a spokesman ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG is struggling to hire cabin crews for new routes, putting growth plans at risk as low wages and years of labour conflict complicate the airline’s recruiting amid a tight German job market. Through mid-May, Lufthansa has brought on about 500 flight attendants for its namesake carrier, the company said in response to questions from Bloomberg. ...

  Washington / AFP The Solar Impulse 2, a solar-powered airplane piloted by Swiss national Bertrand Piccard, successfully flew out of Dayton, Ohio in the dark early on Wednesday en route to Pennsylvania, according to a live online feed of the departure. The single-seat plane with the wingspan of a Boeing 747 is covered in solar cells that power its propellers ...