[AndrewinHK]

To steer us back on topic. It will be interesting to see what remedies LH/ITA submit to the EU by the April 26th deadline.

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persiantraveller

[Rferguson2]

@AndrewHK will be interesting indeed.

I would imagine that LH would have already considered that the deal would not just be waved through by the competition authorities and will likely have in their back pocket some options scribbled down. 1) go for no remedies. 2) If 1 fails offer X. 3) if 2 fails offer X & Y. I imagine there will be a ‘red line’ point where LH would walk away but I doubt we will get there.

[tomyam42]

Off topic, but when I was young there used to be a region called the Near East. That was generally defined as countries bordering the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, namely Turkey, Cyprus, Syria. Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and Libya. The Middle East comprised countries bordering the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Somehow the latter gobbled up the former. A pity really. As for Georgia and Azerbaijan (and Armenia) which were in the Soviet Union I prefer to group them as Caucasian.

I am going to fly TK to TBS later this year having chosen them rather than QR because the short sector was in an A320 rather than a 737 MAX. Regrettably TK has now changed the A320 to a 737, but fortunately not MAX. I have enjoyed my short haul flights in TK business class finding them far more comfortable than any European carrier and also better than QR. It will be my first experience of TK’s long haul service and is scheduled to be in an A350. You scare me by the suggestion of aircraft roulette.

[LetsFlyNow]

Reuters has been repeatedly reporting the that EU is going hard on LH and wants similar conditions to those applied to the Korean Air /Asiana merger.

In that case KE has had to give up slots, flight rights and planes to low cost rivals T’Way & Air Premia. T’way will be getting A350s from Asiana und use these to launch flights to Frankfurt, Paris, Barcelona and Rome in the 2nd half of 2024. KE will help T’way launch these flights.
On the other side of the pacific Air Premia is also getting slots, flight rights and 4 B787-9 to increase service to the US.

The LH group is not willing to go this far especially on the lucrative TATL routes and Japan. I don’t see LH giving up the precious HND slots. Then again, which other airline would start routes to Frankfurt or Munich? Last i checked there were still unused 24 slots at both MUC and FRA that LH gave up when it got financial aid during Covid and no airline has shown interest in these slots 3yrs later. While Easyjet is eager to snatch slots at LIN the rest of it doesn’t look that way.

Then ofcourse you have Condor. With Condor expanding into more business markets compared to previously typical sun destinations, could we see LH/ITA being forced to transfer a few planes (A350s or A339neo) and slots to Condor and condor launching or increasing flights to some high-yield destinations? Now that would be fun.

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AndrewinHK

[cwoodward]

The new ‘City Airlines’ operating from both Munich and Frankfurt airports will also be looking for slots mid year to operate it short haul routes around Europe.
They are ‘of course’ yet another Lufthansa subsidiary

[fsav81]

On the insolvency point raised earlier in this thread, it is indeed a factor that can be taken into account by antitrust authorities to permit a tie-up that would otherwise raise competition concerns. It’s called the Failing Firm Defence. That said as a defence, it needs to be raised as such by the parties, rather than by the authority proactively. And to prove it is notoriously tricky. You basically have to prove with firm economically grounded evidence that but for the merger, the target company would fall over.

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AndrewinHK

[LetsFlyNow]

In the case of LH City Airlines (Code VL), Lufthansa is just transferring slots & routes from the mainline and LH Cityline to the new cheaper subsidiary in the same way Air Dolomiti has taken over most of the routes from Northern Italy to FRA & MUC as well as to and from other EU cities like Warsaw. LH & LH Cityline will no longer fly these routes and such City Airlines won’t be on the search for fresh slots.

Even typing this i’ve found myself confusing City and Cityline. Seriously this is sheer madness not seen before on any major airline (that i can think of).

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cwoodward

[cwoodward]

The airline does actually have 40 A220-300 aircraft on order for delivery from late 2025 Ready for service are three x 16 old A319-100s transferred from Euro Wings
The plan for 2024 is six destinations 3 domestic and 3 in Europe.

[FDOS]

Very nice, the A220-300.

[persiantraveller]

@AndrewinHK – I hope LH fail at this and that AZ will be acquired by AFKLM! Hopefully, inshallah…

[persiantraveller]

@FDOS – Fluck Air France.
…and your smug, hateful, spiteful, ugly racist-like attitude. If I could I would literally force you to fly AZ.

ITA is the best in the world lol…

[persiantraveller]

@Cwoodward – Turkey is sometimes considered to be in the Balkans, and since TK partially competes with the ME3, it doesn’t consider itself European, maybe Eurasian, but certainly not continental European… as I already said, it is not AZ, AF, BA, KL, and LH. It is not regarded as Euro in service style for sure. I will not back down on this as much as you want. IST is in Europe, but the other half of the city isn’t, as it traverses the Asian continent. Also, you can say it’s Europe as much as you like, although it isn’t and never will be. The ‘facts’ aren’t what is written on an airline or alliance website. And you repeating that information, doesn’t make it correct. That goes both ways, for you too. Let’s stop arguing.
Eff TK honestly.

I will not be spending further time on this infantile matter. There’s people that are dying right now in this instant and we’re here fussing about TK and geography, doesn’t matter who started, it’s stupid. Grazie e arrivederci.

[persiantraveller]

Oh and btw FDOS, you just said that because you hate me shoving the best superior airline ITA down your throat like the inferior AF and in spite of that, you are so pathetic and I know you secretly love our airline and want to fly on it so bad to come to FCO. Lol bye!

[persiantraveller]

@tonyam42 – Turkey is comprised in the Near East. I would exclude Egypt and Libya, which belong both physically and culturally in North Africa.

Anyway, QR all the way, their Business class is much better than anything TK has to offer, even on the 2-2 narrowbodies and 2-2-2 previous versions on the QR 777. Also, why and how can you choose a 737MAX over just about any other aircraft, especially an A320, are you crazy? The A320 is much better in terms of comfort and SAFETY especially. Who on earth would fly on the MAX, the most atrocious piece of “engineering” ever made in the modern history of aviation, by ignorant corrupt retarded americans who don’t even know what they’re doing. It is unsafe, uncomfortable, ugly, and esordiato with the recent incident, I don’t know how you can explicitly favour to fly on one or at least how you won’t refuse that but go out of your way to avoid a great A320… maybe it’s the woke bs indoctrination of CNN and the FAA that continue to tell you that the MAX is “safe” just like the vaxsh*t is “secure and effective”… hah. Also, QR vs TK no doubt we know who wins there in terms of service… I seriously can’t understand people sometimes. But also for sheer convenience, depending on where you’re coming from, wouldn’t TK be a huge detour to go to TBS?

[persiantraveller]

The A220, horrible aircraft

*****Post edited by Business Traveller to remove obscene language.*****

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