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German Coalition agrees on lower airline costs
Leaders of Germany's ruling coalition have agreed to lower costs for airlines, including tax reductions and more efficient security screenings. Why it's important Germany's aviation industry has complained for years that its high costs have put it at an unfair disadvantage to European competitors. CONTEXT Low-cost carriers such as Ryanair and EasyJet reduced capacity in Europe’s largest economy citing high costs. Although passenger numbers have increased in Europe and are now up 3% compared to the pre-pandemic level, they still fell 19% in Germany. This is where Lufthansa has its main hubs at Frankfurt and Munich. By the Numbers The coalition led by the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz agreed to several measures that would save 350 million euros. * Reducing the tax on tickets back to levels of 2024. This is a reduction of 70.83 euros per passenger for long-haul flights. By 2029, the fees for air traffic control will be reduced by more than 10% Reduce security check costs by improving processes RESPONSES Joachim Lang of the industry association BDL said that "the federal government kept its promise and ended years of spiraling costs for taxes, fees and air traffic in Germany." Lufthansa's spokesperson said that the decision was important "because it has become very expensive to fly into and out of Germany". REACTION On Friday, shares of Lufthansa rose by about 2.5%.
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Swiss machine maker feels the heat of Trump's tariffs and the slowdown in auto industry
Norbert Steuer is a logistics worker for Swiss precision machinery manufacturer K.R. Pfiffner has worked at the company for more than three decades. He is now one of the 80 employees out of 105 that will be laid off as it struggles with U.S. Tariffs and a failing auto industry. The company, which produces million-dollar machinery that is used by automakers such as Mercedes-Benz, and suppliers like Robert Bosch, finds itself at the forefront of a difficult European car market, which has been impacted by President Donald Trump's tariffs on trade and a slowdown within China, a key export market. Pfiffner has many European customers in Germany. The slump in the sector has affected carmakers, industrial firms and other manufacturing companies. Pfiffner, a part of Taiwanese owned FFG, was already in trouble before Trump's tariffs were announced. This halted all U.S. orders for the company. Steuer, 59 years old, described the announcement of Pfiffner job cuts as "like a bomb going off" while speaking to employees at Utzenstorf in central-western Switzerland. Steuer is worried about his future. He's scheduled to be laid-off next summer. There's always talk of workers being sought. But will they hire a 59 year old? It's something we've never seen in our lives Pfiffner provides an insight into the challenges faced by firms in Europe's industrial supply chains and beyond. Switzerland's unemployment rate, which was under 2% at the beginning of 2023, has risen to 3%. Swissmem, an industry group, says that the mechanical and engineering sector in Switzerland could lose 30,000 jobs if U.S. Tariffs remain in place. Mercedes-Benz, Continental, and Robert Bosch, among others, have also announced significant layoffs. According to a report by the consultancy EY, German companies have shed more than 114,000 jobs in the past year. This is four times as many as they had lost the year before. In the year before, they had created more than 65,000 jobs. Volker Treier is the chief of foreign trade at the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce. US TARIFF HIT - 'KILLS ANY BUSINESS! The Swiss export industry has been hurt by 39% U.S. Tariffs. On Thursday, however, the U.S. & Switzerland were close to reaching a deal which could lower tariffs and save some jobs. Pfiffner's U.S. orders suffered a severe blow from Trump's tariffs. Andreas Ewald said, "That's a killer for any business." He added that the weaker dollar had caused Pfiffner to increase its exports by around 50%. In Europe, the pressure on employment is increasing, and Britain's labour markets has cooled in the third quarter. European companies are seeing revenues stagnate and cost-cutting is becoming more necessary to boost profits. The U.S. saw the most layoffs for a month in more than 20 years in October. A DOWNWARD SPIRAL RIGHT NOW, EVERYWHERE The vast Pfiffner factory in Utzenstorf is staffed thinly as the work decreases. Ewald, CEO of Pfiffner, stated that the parent company FFG has started to shift some technology and production from its U.S. factories. According to company veteran Steuer, the talk of job reductions is creating a negative loop in the local economy. What do people do when there's a real downward spiral everywhere? He said. "They are saving money rather than buying a car, TV or phone. "And on and on." " (Reporting and editing by Adam Jourdan, Emelia Sithole Matarise, Mark John; Additional reporting by Dave Graham)
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Singapore Airlines CEO: Boeing 777-9 delays will not have a major impact on the airline
Goh Choon Phong, the CEO of Singapore Airlines, said that the airline does not expect a significant impact due to the delayed delivery of Boeing 777-9 aircraft. "SIA's fleet plan has always included flexibility. In this case, despite the delay, he did not expect any major impacts. Boeing has pushed back the delivery date of its long delayed 777X programme to 2027. Goh refused to disclose compensation discussions between Boeing and the airline. He said: "As to delivery delays or future aircraft supply, I'd just say that SIA is in a privileged situation as one of the top carriers. You can expect us to receive some preferential treatment." Singapore Airlines reported Thursday that it had a Profits for the first half of this year fell by 68% Losses at Air India in India, rising costs, and increased competition have all affected the airline. (Reporting and editing by John Mair; Xinghui KOK)
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Families of crash victims appeal US Judge's decision to dismiss Boeing criminal charges
Families of victims of the two Boeing 737 MAX crashes in which 346 people died asked a U.S. court of appeals on Thursday to overturn a judge’s decision to allow the Justice Department to dismiss a criminal complaint against the planemaker. Judge Reed O'Connor of the U.S. District Court Fort Worth, Texas last week approved the Justice Department's request, but harshly criticised the government's choice. He did not believe that it was in the public's interest to dismiss the case which had initially been pursued by the Biden administration, and resulted in an initial admission of guilt. The families requested that the 5th Circuit Court reverse his decision. The families claimed that the Justice Department had violated their rights when it reached a deferred prosecutor agreement with Boeing on a fraud charge arising from false statements the planemaker made to Federal Aviation Administration. Paul Cassell is an attorney for some families. He said, "We don't believe the courts should be silent while injustices are committed." "The charges against Boeing can't be simply dropped." Boeing did not respond immediately to a comment request on Thursday. Last week, the Justice Department rejected the judge's criticism. It said that it thought the deal was the "most just outcome." O'Connor stated in 2023, "Boeing's crimes may be considered as the deadliest corporate crimes in U.S. history." He claimed he did not have the authority to refuse the government's deal with Boeing even though the agreement "fails" to provide the accountability necessary to ensure the safety for the flying public. Boeing agreed last year to plead guilty on a charge of criminal fraud conspiracy after the fatal 737 MAX crash in Indonesia and Ethiopia, in 2018 and 2019. In May, after Donald Trump became president of the United States, the Justice Department changed its course and no longer demanded a guilty plea. Boeing has agreed to pay $444.5 in addition to the $243.6 million fine, plus $455 million for the improvement of safety and compliance programs. The FAA proposed fining Boeing $3 million in September for a number of safety violations. These included actions related to an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX-9 mid-air emergency that occurred on January 20, 2024, as well as for interfering the independence of safety officials. A jury in Chicago ordered Boeing on Wednesday to pay over $28 million to Shikha Garg's family, an environmental worker for the United Nations who died in the crash. Boeing has agreed to not appeal the decision and will pay the $35.85million verdict plus 26% interest. (Reporting and editing by Leslie Adler, Jamie Freed, and David Shepardson)
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US Airlines reduces flight reductions for Friday despite FAA order of 6%
Cirium, an aviation analytics company, and airline officials report that U.S. carriers have cut fewer flights on Friday than required by the requirement to cut 6% domestic flights from the 40 busiest American Airports. Federal Aviation Administration announced late Wednesday that it would not increase cancellation requirements and freeze mandatory flight reductions at 6%. This was in line with what had been previously announced. Cirium reported that airlines cancelled just 1.4% of flights for Friday after cancelling 3.5% on Wednesday and Thursday. The FAA may revise or add to the order. United Airlines announced that it had cancelled 134 flights on Friday, almost 3%, after cancelling 22 flights on Thursday. The FAA has not yet commented. Under condition of anonymity, other airlines confirmed that they did not plan to reduce 6% of their flights on Friday. Prior to the FAA revising its order, airlines were expected to cancel 10% of flights in the 40 busiest international airports and 8% of flights within the United States on Thursday. The FAA decided to reduce the number of cancellations on Wednesday after air traffic control absences had decreased dramatically in recent weeks, just before Congress gave final approval to an agreement to reopen government which was signed by President Donald Trump. The FAA said that it would continue to evaluate whether the system could gradually return to normal operation. FlightAware's flight tracking website reported that airlines canceled 1,020 of their flights on Thursday, in accordance with the FAA requirement. Cirium reported that carriers had canceled flights by 4:20 pm. ET only cancelled 371 flights on Friday. The FAA reported staffing problems at Reagan Washington National Airport and Newark Airports on Thursday, causing delays at both airports. However, there were significantly fewer issues compared to before the government reopened. There are about 3,500 fewer air traffic controllers than the FAA needs to meet its target staffing levels. Before the shutdown, many had already been working six-day weekends and mandatory overtime. FlightAware reports that flight operations have improved, with only 3,000 delays on Friday, compared to 4,000 on Tuesday, and almost 10,000 on Monday. Since October 1, when the 43 day shutdown began, air traffic absences led to tens-of-thousands of cancellations and delays. (Reporting and editing by Leslie Adler & Rod Nickel; Reporting by David Shepardson)
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Siemens Energy pays first dividend for four years and raises its mid-term outlook
Siemens Energy, a German company, announced on Thursday that it would pay its first dividend for four years and also raise its outlook for the mid-term period due to strong demand in gas turbines, power transmission technologies, and services. Christian Bruch, CEO of the company's wind-turbine division, said that the success "was hard-earned" and not a result of chance. He was referring to the years of cost cutting and restructuring in response to a quality crisis. Siemens Energy, which is Germany's sixth-most valuable listed company, has since then benefited from an increase in demand for energy equipment. This was partly due to global AI investments including power-hungry data centers. Siemens Energy has proposed a dividend per share of 0.70 euro ($0.82) for the fiscal year ending in September. This is the highest payout ever since the company spun off its former parent Siemens AG, in 2020. It also beats the 0.56 euro LSEG survey. DATA CENTRES DRIVE ENERGY DESIRE Siemens Energy shares, listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, closed up 2.5% after the news. Siemens Energy expects to see sales grow at least 10% annually in the period 2025-2028. The profit margin will also increase to between 14% and 16% by 2028. The group, which produces everything from wind and gas turbines to power transmission equipment and electrolysers, had expected a growth rate of high single digits until 2028 with a margin between 10% and 12%. Siemens Energy stated that the demand for electricity and the need to upgrade or expand power grids will continue to increase, driven also by "the continued digitalization of the industry, and the share renewable energies, as well as the strong growth in data centers". Siemens Energy, which competes against GE Vernova, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, expects a profit before special items in 2026 of 9-11%. This is up from 6%. The fourth-quarter revenue was 10.4 billion euro, driven by the company's power grid division which had its highest quarterly sales to date. This helped support a record order backlog of 138 billion euro. (1 dollar = 0.8575 euro) (Reporting and editing by Lisa Shumaker, Diane Craft and Tom Kaeckenhoff)
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Alstom increases revenue forecast for 2025 after beating first-half sales
Alstom, a French train manufacturer, raised its organic sales forecast for 2025 after reporting a half-year revenue that was above expectations. This was due to strong demand for high-speed trains. Alstom, the manufacturer of trains and signalling for urban and regional railway networks, expects its organic sales to rise over 5% in comparison with previous guidance between 3% and 5%. "Strong growth in sales across all product lines shows our ability to accelerate delivery of backlog and achieve growth for the full year above our initial expectations." Henri Poupart Lafarge, chief executive of Henri Poupart Lafarge. Organically, revenue grew 8% to 9,06 billion euros ($10.57billion) in the first six months of the year. According to a consensus compiled by the company, analysts had predicted 8.97 billion euro. The growth was driven primarily by "strong performance" across Europe where the group's revenue increased 8.5% on an annual basis in the first half. Alstom signed several large contracts in the first quarter of this year, including a contract worth 6.9 billion zlotys ($1.9 billion) with Poland's long-distance railway operator PKP and a 1.4-billion-euro Alstom order for high-speed trains from French rail operator SNCF Voyageurs. The group has confirmed its rest of the guidance for the year.
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Spanish police bust a ring suspected of trafficking minors from France
The Spanish police announced on Thursday that they had broken up an international criminal ring suspected of trafficking minors to France from the Canary Islands. They arrested 11 people during an operation spanning Lanzarote and Madrid, as well as Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Police said that four suspects were placed in detention pending trial on charges of organised crime, document fraud and child pornography. An investigation was launched after 14 minors disappeared from centres run by the state on the Canary Islands in the period between 2024 and 2025. The police said that the group used contacts and routes in Morocco, Ivory Coast, and Spain to transport the children to France and provided them with fake documents. Lanzarote police officers searched two homes and seized cash, electronic devices, personal documents and other items. Police said that the investigation is still ongoing to find the missing minors, and track down international connections. (Reporting and editing by Alexandra Hudson, Jesus Calero)
British maritime agency: Oil tanker turns toward Iran after small boat approach
Ambrey, a British maritime security company, said that a Marshall Islands flagged oil tanker heading from the United Arab Emirates towards Singapore suddenly changed course and headed toward Iranian territorial water.
Ambrey reported that the tanker was approached earlier by three small boats as it transited southbound through Strait of Hormuz, before diverting course to the Gulf of Oman.
The agency stated that the incident was "likely highly targetted".
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre, which initially reported the incident as a'suspicious incident', said that it received an alert about an incident taking place 20 nautical miles east from Khor Fakkan.
The UAE authorities didn't immediately respond to our request for comment. (Reporting and editing by Clarence Fernandez, Jan Harvey and Jana Choukeir)
(source: Reuters)