Jurgen Weber, chief executive of Lufthansa Airlines, the German national carrier, has shifted the airline’s stance on providing financial help to United Airlines and is now willing to consider lending to the carrier.
Lufthansa is one of four members of the Star Alliance that United has approached about helping the Elk Grove Township-based carrier through its current financial plight. United is a founding member of the worldwide airline alliance that allows passengers to easily connect with flights of member carriers.
Singapore Airlines, Air Canada and All Nippon Airways reportedly said that they would consider the move, while Lufthansa indicated its opposition.
That help might become available sooner than a government loan guarantee from the Air Transportation Stabilization Board, which on Wednesday said it needed more information on United’s application for a $2 billion loan, of which $1.8 billion would be guaranteed.
Various airline industry and Capital Hill sources said the ATSB’s public request for more information was a veiled rebuke of United’s intense lobbying for the loan, which included the delivery on Tuesday of more than 30,000 letters to ATSB offices.
In August, 30 Senators and more than 100 House members signed letters supporting a loan guarantee for United.
It’s the first time the ATSB has issued a public request for additional information. Until Wednesday’s letter, the ATSB had worked behind the scenes with the 14 airlines that sought loan guarantees. So far, five airlines, including US Airways, have received loan guarantees, while applications from four carriers have been turned down.
National help: Former competitors of National Airlines, which suspended operations Wednesday after failing to arrange financing, stepped in Thursday to offer alternative transportation to stranded passengers.
National, which had been attempting to reorganize under federal bankruptcy laws, abruptly shut down late Wednesday. The shutdown had been expected in the wake of an investor’s decision two weeks ago to pull out of a multimillion-dollar financing package.
Seven airlines, including American, United, American Trans Air, Alaska, America West, Frontier and Spirit, offered to transport, on a standby basis, passengers holding valid National tickets for a service charge.
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At the time National suspended operations, the airline operated one daily round trip between Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and Las Vegas.
New survey rates Chicago: Sabre Co., an online travel reservation service, says Chicago remains one of the nation’s top destinations for business meetings based on cost.
The survey by GetThere, a division of Sabre, disclosed that a three-day meeting for 100 individuals would cost an estimated $166,000, the seventh highest in the country.
Jacksonville, Fla., was lowest with a cost of $139,000 for a three-day event.