Budapest  - German courier DHL confirmed on Friday that it would close its logistics base at the FlyBalaton airport, in another blow to the struggling provincial airport in western Hungary, next to Central Europe's largest lake.

DHL established a cargo base at the airport in the autumn of 2007, but last summer stopped running daily flights from Dresden in Germany. The base is to close by the end of February.

London - British Airways (BA) Friday reported a pre-tax loss of 70 million pounds (100 million dollars) in the nine months to 31 December, compared with a profit of 816 million pounds in the same period in 2007.

BA said Friday that the decline in the value of the pound and the airline's high costs in dollars added to pressures of last summer's steep oil price rise.

"The industry continues to face very difficult trading conditions on the back of a weak economic environment," the airline said.

Frankfurt  - Despite the crisis gripping the global economy, Germany's biggest airline Lufthansa AG said Tuesday that it had turned in a solid earnings performance in
2008.

The airline said that operating profit for the full year will come in at about 1.3 billion euros (1.67 billion dollars), as a result beating the group's 1.1-billion-euro target as energy costs tumbled during the second half of the year.

Vienna  - , chief executive of Austrian Airlines AG, was forced to step down with immediate effect, ahead of the flag carrier's planned takeover by German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Austrian media reported Thursday.

Lufthansa agreed last December to buy a 42 per cent stake in the ailing carrier currently held by Austria's state holding OeIAG. The deal is pending on approval from the European Commission.

Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have threatened to stop supply of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) to Kingfisher Airlines by midnight, in case, the carrier remains fail to clear its dues worth Rs 158 crore.

It should be recalled that oil marketing companies have already decided to supply ATF to private carriers Kingfisher and Jet Airways on 'cash and carry basis' from January 27. These carriers have been found defaulter of non-payment of oil dues for October 22 to October 31, even after crossing of 90-day credit period.

Melbourne, Jan 29 : Flight attendants in the US are livid over being forced to wear uniforms promoting beer, and insist that turning them into walking billboards is unacceptable.

Spirit Airlines is promoting alcohol on airline crew aprons and is running a series of ads inviting customers to enjoy DD''s (deep discounts) and MILF (many islands, low fare) - referring to large breasts and an acronym made popular in the 1999 movie American Pie.