Two former officials from a subsidiary of Lufthansa have been charged in the US state of Oklahoma for being involved in bribing foreign officials for obtaining aircraft maintenance contracts.

Two others also pleaded guilty for related criminal charges, according to the .S. Department of Justice. The two officials of Lufthansa Technik's BizJet International Sales and Support were charged with bribing government officials in Latin America for obtaining contracts for the company.

The representatives of a union of striking cabin crew at German airlines, Lufthansa have indicated that they are ready for talks during the coming weekend.

The union appeared ready for talks after renewing contact with the airline amid disagreements over pay and conditions for employees at the airlines. The union has not planned further strike after Friday, according to UFO head Nicoley Baublies.

Air India has not stopped making efforts to become a member of Lufthansa-led international airline group called Star Alliance.

In a recent interview, Air India CMD Rohit Nandan revealed that Air India approached the alliance last week and emphasised that it was good and performing well as any of the alliance’s members.

Speaking on the topic, Mr. Nandan said, “Air India is still looking at Star Alliance and feels that it must take us as our performance data is better than others and better than ever.”

Airlines oppose proposed hike in airport chargesInternational as well as domestic carriers on Thursday aggressively opposed the Airports Authority of India’s proposal to hike the landing charges at Chennai airport.

The AAI intends to increase landing charges at the Anna International Airport for both international and domestic airline by 118 per cent and 48 per cent respectively starting 1st of November.

Starting 2013-14, there would be a 6 per cent annual rise each tariff year on landing, housing, parking as well as UDF.

Germany's national carrier, Lufthansa is planning to deploy world's longest passenger aircraft, Boeing 747-8 on its Bangalore-Frankfurt route later in the year.

The aircraft, which can accommodate 362 passengers on comfortable chambers, will touchdown in the south Indian city within 2012. The company had started using the plane on Delhi-Frankfurt route on Tuesday and said that it will add more jumbo jets to its impressive fleet this year.

Vienna, Feb 25 - Lufthansa is reducing the cargo business of Austrian Airlines, the newly acquired subsidiary said Wednesday - 24 hours after announcing cuts in its technical maintenance unit.

The troubled Austrian Airlines is currently implementing tough savings measures and cuts, after being taken over by Lufthansa last September in an effort to use synergies between the two carriers.

A quarter of jobs in cargo and maintenance would be slashed, reducing the number by 260, a spokesman said.

First the good news, there is a sigh of relief as Lufthansa pilots agreed to return to work, temporarily suspending a protest that had grounded hundreds of flights. The bad news follows, French air traffic controllers and British Airways now also plan to join the revolt against harsh pay cuts that threatens to throw European air travel into bedlam.

In a court hearing, Vereinigung Cockpit - the pilots' union agreed to suspend the strike until March 8.

After a German court ruled against the union on a key contract issue, Lufthansa Airlines said its pilots union had agreed to suspend a four-day work stoppage.

The New York Times reported on Monday that a labor court disagreed with the Cockpit Association's contention that the airline would have to obey German labor laws even for employees that did not work in Germany.

The union agreed to postpone a four-day strike until March 9, after the German court ruling.

Frankfurt, Feb 23 - A pilots' union has suspended till March 8 a strike that has badly disrupted Lufthansa flights, telling a labour court Monday it would resume talks with the German airline.

The union, the Cockpit Association, had ordered more than 4,000 pilots off the job from Monday to Thursday in the biggest strike ever to hit the airways in Germany, but has now aborted the strike after only one day.

Frankfurt, Feb 22 - Pilots went on strike Monday at Lufthansa, knocking out 3,200 flights according to the company's skeleton timetable.

The four-day work stoppage will be the biggest stoppage labour disruption in the German airline's history.

In preparation, Lufthansa was trying to reschedule passengers onto jets flown by non-union staff and offering refunds to passengers who must cancel trips.

There was a rush in recent days to book with other airlines or rebook travel within Europe by rail instead.

Germany's flag carrier and the second-largest airline in Europe, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, has expedited its efforts to create a so-called 'code-share' agreement with JetBlue Airways Corporation and has applied for regulatory approval with the US Department of Transportation, in a bid to strengthen its position at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

A release from JetBlue states, "We're looking to capitalize on our position at JFK, where we're the largest domestic airline."

Frankfurt - German airline Lufthansa AG reported Wednesday a 216 million euro (307 million dollar) net loss during the first half of the year after a sharp fall in revenue.

This loss compared to a 381-million-euro profit during the same period last year with airlines around the world having been badly hit by the economic downturn.

"The persistent economic crisis and its effects on demand, particularly in the premium segment, placed a considerable burden on the result," Lufthansa said in a statement.

Express logistics company Deccan 360, has entered into an agreement with German-based Lufthansa Technik, for maintenance and supply of components for its Airbus A310 freighter aircraft fleet.

Besides this, Deccan 360 has also contracted Lufthansa Technik Services India for complete and end-to-end warehousing requirements, making it the first of its kind in India.  

Through the latest patch up, the company intends to minimize the downtime of its fleet and achieve higher resource and cost efficiencies.