LHamburg  - The planned merger of Lufthansa's subsidiary Germanwings, Thomas Cook-owned Condor and TUIfly could be facing collapse, the daily Financial Times Deutschland reported Thursday.

The paper quotes a source involved in the negotiations as saying that talks were becoming drawn out and a merger of three airlines was growing increasingly unlikely.

Even when the oil companies have reduced the price of the aviation turbine fuel (ATF) by almost 16% mainly due to fall in international ATF prices, it seems domestic air travel is not willing to reduce their fares. Other than now, the prices of ATF fell in the month of February this year.

An important announcement by Indian Oil was made on Sunday that where earlier domestic airlines were paying Rs 71.02 a litre for ATF, now from September they will have to pay Rs 59.65 litre only. Airlines in Chennai too will pay Rs 65.49, down from Rs 77.66 a litre. In Mumbai, where airlines were spending Rs 73.67 per litre, now will spend only Rs 61.83 a litre.

Sydney - Qantas Airways Ltd failed to meet its own maintenance performance targets, Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) said Monday.

CASA decided to investigate the carrier after a run of technical hitches that saw an emergency landing, bits falling off planes and ground crew forgetting to empty toilet tanks.

Berlin - Airbus SAS is considering an extended 1,000-passenger version of the A380 aircraft, Louis Gallois, chief executive of Airbus's parent company, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) NV, told a German newspaper in an interview to be published Friday.

The airlines, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Air France-KLM SA, were both interested in the extended version of the A380, Gallois told the Dresden-based Saechsische Zeitung.

Vienna  - SkyEurope's losses more than tripled in the latest quarter as record fuel prices wiped out rising passenger revenue, the low-cost airline said Thursday.

SkyEurope, which uses Bratislava, Slovakia, as its hub, lost a net 16.8 million euros (24.7 million dollars) in the three months ending June 30, compared to a 5.1-million-euro loss a year earlier.

"We have been forced to increase fares and cut capacity to eliminate poor performing routes," the Austria-based airline said in a statement. "Our results have been significantly impacted by the high fuel prices."