Vienna - The takeover of Austrian Airlines AG by Deutsche Lufthansa AG is expected to be concluded by the end of the year, the Austrian state holding OeIAG announced Thursday.

Since Air France-KLM and Russian carrier S7 did not submits offers conforming to the specifications of the bidding process, OeIAG said, it would now enter into exclusive "closing talks" with Lufthansa about selling its 42.75-per-cent stake.

There is no dearth of air travelers despite slowdown in aviation sector of the country. Air travel registered positive growth of about 17 per cent in October. It’s surprising, while domestic aviation industry is facing tough situation following global slowdown, high input costs and liquidity crunch. Some airlines have also started retrenchment drive in a line to cut additional cost besides adopting other cost cutting measures.

Singapore - Singapore's Changi Airport has recorded a 3.5 per cent increase in scheduled weekly flights since the beginning of this month, despite softening of travel demand due to the global economic crisis, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said Thursday.

Weekly scheduled flights were expected to increase further in December, when a liberalization agreement, allowing low-cost airlines to operate between Singapore and Malaysia, comes into force, the CAAS said.

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Rome - A wildcat strike by Alitalia employees in Italy forced, for the second straight day Wednesday, cancellations or delays to dozens of flights.

Television news reports showed hundreds of disgruntled passengers stranded at airports around the country, including Rome's Fiumicino hub.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong's flagship airline Cathay Pacific Wednesday released disappointing passenger figures and warned that the outlook for the industry was "challenging."

The airline's passenger figures combined with sister airline Dragonair for October 2008 were up 2.6 per cent compared to the same month in 2007, however, capacity over the same period grew 11.6 per cent.

The amount of cargo and mail carried over the course of the month, was down 7.4 per cent to 114,466 tons compared to the same month last year, Cathay Pacific announced.