Wolfgang Mayrhuber

German airline operator Deutsche Lufthansa AG said Thursday net income in the third quarter rose 23 percent because of the addition of new group airlines. But the company reported a loss in the first nine months on lower passenger levels and prices while fuel costs rose. Lufthansa, Europe's biggest airline by sales, said net income for the July-September period rose to euro184 million ($270 million) compared with euro149 million in the year-ago quarter. Those results were helped by the first-time inclusion of earnings from Austrian Airlines and British Midlands. Third quarter revenue, though, fell 9.4 percent to euro5.9 billion from euro6.5 billion, as overall ... Read Full Story

Deutsche Lufthansa AG said Monday it will develop with Panasonic Corp. a service to offer passengers in-flight Internet and cell phone connections. Lufthansa said the service, known as FlyNet, will be available starting in mid-2010. The Cologne-based airline said it hopes to equip a major part of its long-haul planes in the service's first year, and eventually the entire long-haul fleet. Lufthansa launched a previous version of FlyNet, which offered Internet connections but no cell phone service, in 2003. However, its partner, Boeing Corp.'s Connexion, withdrew the service in 2006. The airline did not say how much the new service would cost for passengers, ... Read Full Story

German flag carrier Lufthansa and Japanese electronics giant Panasonic have teamed up to offer passengers wireless Internet on long-haul flights from 2010, the airline said on Monday. Long-haul business passengers will enjoy services comparable "with those available at powerful hotspots or upmarket hotels," Lufthansa boss Wolfgang Mayrhuber said in a statement. "The service will gradually become available on all Lufthansa's long-haul flights worldwide," the firm said. Spokesman Michael Lamberty told AFP that prototypes would be tested towards the end of this year, with the aim of rolling out the service on 50 long-haul planes in mid-2010. Passengers will also be able to send text ... Read Full Story

German flag carrier Lufthansa formally closed its acquisition of Austrian Airlines (AUA) on Thursday in a move it hopes will enable it to overtake Air France-KLM as Europe's biggest airline. It has been long and stony road before the deal could be finally completed, with more than a year of tortuous negotiations, fierce opposition from rival airlines and competitive concerns on the part of the European Commission. But Brussels finally gave its green light last month after Lufthansa agreed to a number of concessions. And the German airline announced Thursday that it now owned more than 90 percent of the shares in AUA and ... Read Full Story

A New York-bound Boeing 747 operated by German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG turned back in mid-flight Saturday after the pilot reported that one the plane's four engines was leaking oil. The airline said Saturday that the plane, carrying 334 passengers from Frankfurt to New York, was over Greenland when the pilot made the decision to turn back although the plane could have flown onward to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport on three engines. Ann Curry, an NBC television reporter, was aboard and provided public "tweets" — brief, instant Internet updates via Twitter — on the plane's turnaround after it returned to Frankfurt International ... Read Full Story