Frankfurt  - Lufthansa disclosed Thursday plans to upgrade its services operating out of Italy, but denied that the move was prompted by the maladies of its Italian rival Alitalia.

The German airline is to use six Airbus jets instead of the smaller Embraer planes it originally ordered for the new flights set to begin in February 2009.

A Lufthansa subsidiary, Air Dolomiti, will carry passengers direct from Milan's Malpensa Airport to Barcelona, Brussels, Madrid, Paris and other cities, said the group in Frankfurt.

To date, Air Dolomiti has mainly operated feeder flights to Lufthansa's Frankfurt and Munich hubs.

Dublin/London  - A Ryanair aircraft was Thursday forced to make an emergency landing minutes after take-off from Dublin airport in Ireland, the budget airline said.

A spokesman said the back of the plane struck the runway as it took off and the pilot returned to the airport as a precaution. He described the occurrence as a "tail-strike" which was "quite common."

"As a precautionary measure the aircraft returned with oxygen masks deployed and landed safely in Dublin," he said.

All 148 passengers disembarked normally and the flight later took off for London-Stansted airport. No-one was injured.

Prague  - State-owned Prague Airport plans to lay off some 160 employees, who account for 7 per cent of firm's workforce, before privatization planned for next year, it was announced Thursday.

In a bid to get in shape prior to the privatization, the company running the airport plans to start cutting the jobs in December. The airport will also cancel 90 vacant positions.

"It is clear that this step will raise the value of our company from the perspective of potential investors," airport's executive manager Miroslav Dvorak said in a statement.

The Czech center-right government of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek is either to sell or lease Ruzyne international airport, the second largest in Central Europe after Vienna.

Mumbai, Sept. 11 : The Chairman of Jet Airways, India’s premier private international airline, Naresh Goyal, was honoured with the ‘Business Person of the Year’ award at the prestigious UK Trade and Investment India Business Awards 2008, here on Tuesday.

This distinction was conferred upon Goyal for his significant contribution to India-UK business relations and for making the UK a strategic and pivotal destination in Jet Airways’ aggressive international expansion plans.

The chief minister of Karnataka, B S Yeddyurappa does not like the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA). The CM commented on the BIA on his return from US, after attending the world Kannada conference. The CM termed Bengaluru airport as low quality as compared to airports in the US.

He said that the state has received the airport after a wait of about 12 years but the authorities have failed to fulfill the aspirations of the people of the state. He confessed it after the celebrations of his 100 days in office on Tuesday.

Paris - European aerospace giant EADS has expanded its Power 8 cost-saving programme to counteract the weakness of the dollar against the euro, the French daily Le Monde reported Tuesday.

Unlike the original plan, which was created in response to losses suffered by the EADS subsidiary Airbus because of problems with its A 380 superjumbo, the new "Power
8 plus" programme involves the entire company and is to save it 1 billion euros (1.41 billion dollars) beginning in 2010.