Lufthansa

Airbus Group said on Feb. 24 its net profits climbed 15 percent last year and predicted deliveries of more than 650 aircraft in 2016 and a rise in orders to record levels.

The France-based European aerospace group chalked up a net profit of 2.7 billion euros ($3 billion), with sales up 6 percent to 64 billion euros.

SunExpress, a joint venture of Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa, has exercised an option for 10 Boeing 737 MAX 8s, the companies said in a written statement on Feb. 22. 

The option for the incremental MAXs was part of a 50 airplane deal signed in February 2014 and completes the largest order in the airline's 27-year history, according to the statement. 

Travel company Thomas Cook will add more than 50 000 airline seats to the airports of Varna and Burgas in 2016, Bulgaria's biggest Black Sea cities, media outlets report.

According to Greek English-language website Tornos News, there will be two flights a week between Burgas and Frankfurt and one connecting Burgas with Rostock, Leipzig and Berlin respectively.

Istanbul's Atatürk Airport has overtaken Frankfurt Airport to enter the top three busiest airports in Europe, Bloomberg has reported, based on 2015 passenger numbers. 

The shift came as Turkish Airlines continued its rapid expansion and strikes at Deutsche Lufthansa AG hurt the German hub.

President Tomislav Nikolic on Monday received athletes from Serbia's RK Vojvodina handball club who helped prevent an incident on board a Lufthansa plane.

The aircraft was flying from Frankfurt to Belgrade on Sunday when a man "threatened to open the plane door."

AEROPLANE DRAMA DURING BELGRADE FLIGHT A passenger tried to enter the cockpit, shouting: "I'm going to open the aeroplane door!"

A Jordanian citizen with an American passport tried to break into the cockpit of Lufthansa aeroplane, heading to Belgrade from Frankfurt, but the passengers managed to fight him down.

Lufthansa cabin crew will go on strike again on Thursday and Friday over pay and retirement demands, newswires have reported.

"We hope that this will finally bring serious movement in this labour dispute and that we will not be forced to also strike in December," AFP quoted the chief of cabin crew trade union UFO, Nicoley Baublies, as saying on Monday.

Most flights between the Bulgarian capital and the airports in Frankfurt and Munich operated by Lufthansa are cancelled as the strike of the flight attendants of the German airline continues on Thursday.

The continuing strike of flight attendants of Lufthansa cancelled all flights operated by the German airline between the Bulgarian capital of Sofia and the airports in Frankfurt and Munich on Wednesday.

Lufthansa has cancelled all its flights to and from Athens on Monday, November 9, due to the ongoing strike by the Lufthansa flight attendant union – UFO over a dispute over retirement benefits.