WASHINGTON/FRANKFURT, March 19 (Reuters) – A surprise Russian bid was reported in the works Friday for a multibillion-dollar U.S. aerial-refueling fleet even as Europe’s EADS <EAD.PA> sought three more months for a possible bid of its own.

The fresh competitor is a joint venture due to be announced by a U.S. defense contractor and United Aircraft Corp of Russia, an aerospace consortium partly owned by the Russian government, said John Kirkland, a Los Angeles-based attorney representing the planned partnership.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the tanker contest with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Moscow Friday and “would very much like to discuss it further before she leaves,” Kirkland said, citing a senior Russian aerospace-trade official.

The developments shook up the U.S. Air Force’s troubled, nearly decade-long effort to start replacing its fleet of Boeing-built KC-135 tankers, which are close to 50 years old on average.

They raised the prospect of a three-way contest pitting the Russians against EADS, the corporate parent of Airbus, and Chicago-based Boeing Co <BA.N>.

The U.S. Defense Department is “right now seriously considering the extension request from EADS,” Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said in an emailed statement. The current deadline is May 10.

“We have always made clear that this is a fair and open competition and we welcome all qualified bidders,” he added in response to a question about the reported Russian offer.

WASHINGTON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Europe’s EADS <EAD.PA> is seeking three more months for a possible bid to build a multibillion-dollar U.S. aerial-refueling fleet, the Defense Department said on Friday.

The request sets up a possible head-to-head match that would pit EADS, the corporate parent of Airbus, against Chicago-based Boeing Co <BA.N>, its archrival in the commercial airliner market.

The Defense Department is “right now seriously considering the extension request from EADS,” Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said in an emailed statement. The current deadline is May 10.

EADS, which lost its U.S. partner for the job last week, could rejoin the race if it determines “there is a fair chance to win, after evaluating all relevant factors,” the company said earlier on Friday.

Northrop Grumman Corp <NOC.N>, teamed with EADS, bested Boeing for a deal to build an initial 179 tankers, only to have that 2008 award canceled after U.S. auditors found the Air Force had failed to follow its own judging rules.

Los Angeles-based Northrop, which would have been the prime contractor, withdrew on March 8 from the planned rematch, which is valued at up to $50 billion.

In dropping plans to bid, Northrop Chief Executive Wes Bush said the Pentagon’s final tender “clearly favors” Boeing’s smaller 767-based plane over the larger Airbus A330 derivative pitched by EADS.

FRANKFURT, March 16 (Reuters) – Air Berlin <AB1.DE> canceled $1.7 billion worth of firm orders for Boeing Co’s <BA.N> 787 Dreamliner aircraft amid uncertainty over whether it will increase long-haul flights.

Air Berlin, Germany’s second-biggest airline after Lufthansa <LHAG.DE>, said on Tuesday that it has cut its order to 15 planes from 25. It also reduced the number of options for further 787 aircraft to five from 10, it said.

“We will continue to fly long-haul, but the bulk of our business is medium-haul,” a spokesman for the company said. He did not comment on whether Air Berlin will increase the number of its long-haul flights in the future.

The airline ordered the Boeing planes in 2007, when it planned to buy charter airline Condor from Thomas Cook <TCG.L>. Air Berlin backed out of the planned takeover a year later, citing soaring oil prices and worsening economic conditions.

Since then, the company has left investors wondering what it would do with the order for the twin-aisle, mid-sized Dreamliners, which can carry about 250 people long distances.

The cancellation depletes orders slightly for the hot-selling but long-delayed 787, which promises greater fuel efficiency for airlines as they struggle to control costs and boost ridership.

Boeing, the world’s No. 2 planemaker, has suffered a decline in orders in the last two years as a number of airlines canceled or deferred orders amid the industry’s worst downturn in decades.

FRANKFURT, March 9 (Reuters) – Deutsche Post DHL <DPWGn.DE> unveiled a conservative financial strategy that focuses on saving cash to safeguard its credit rating and gave a 2010 earnings outlook that missed market expectations.

The move, announced by new Chief Financial Officer Larry Rosen on Tuesday, comes after Deutsche Post disappointed investors with major strategic moves that failed to produce hoped-for gains and long-term growth.

Europe’s biggest mail and express delivery company sees its express delivery and freight businesses boosting underlying group earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to 1.6-1.9 billion euros ($2.2-2.6 billion) from 1.47 billion in 2009.

That outlook is well below the average estimate of 2.1 billion euros in a Reuters poll of analysts.

Post shares fell 1.6 percent to 12.59 euros at 1106 GMT, while the German blue-chip index <.GDAXI> was 0.52 percent lower.

Shrinking business investing hurt Deutsche Post and its peers last year. The World Trade Organisation has said that 2009 global trade volumes contracted by about 12 percent, the sharpest decline since World War Two. [ID:nLDE61N12T]

Deutsche Post Chief Executive Frank Appel said trade volumes stabilised toward the end of last year and the moderate recovery picked up in early 2010.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Deutsche Post DHL said a global economic recovery and cost cuts will help it boost its core profit this year, as it halted a slide in revenues last year and demand for air freight and mail started to improve.

However, shares dropped in pre-market trade on Tuesday as investors had expected a stronger outlook from Europe’s biggest mail and express delivery company.

Shrinking business investing hurt Deutsche Post and its peers last year. The World Trade Organisation has said that 2009 global trade volumes contracted by about 12 percent, the sharpest decline since World War Two.

In 2010, underlying earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) will rise to 1.6-1.9 billion euros from 1.47 billion euros in 2009. The 2009 figure was down 27 percent year-on-year but was exactly in line with analyst estimates in a Reuters poll.

Deutsche Post shares were indicated 3.2 percent lower before the German market opens at 0800 GMT, while the German blue-chip index was seen 0.2 percent lower.

“Weak full-year 2009 report and weak full-year 2010 guidance will weigh on the share today,” a local trader said.

Deutsche Post said it would pay a steady dividend of 0.60 euros per share for 2009, in line with analyst estimates. It also vowed to pay out 40-60 percent of its profits as dividends from now on to woo investors.

FRANKFURT, March 2 (Reuters) – General Motors [GM.UL] has tripled its funding of European arm Opel and cut its request for state aid in a bid to win over European governments and labour.

The U.S. carmaker said it will provide 1.9 billion euros ($2.57 billion) in equity and loans — up from the 600 million euros first earmarked — which Opel said on Tuesday would provide enough cash to operate through the end of this year.

Opel had previously said it had enough liquidity to last well into the second quarter.

GM last year drew the anger of European governments and workers when it scrapped plans to sell Opel and asked them to contribute to the cost of returning the carmaker to profit.

Germany — asked to provide the lion’s share of aid — had been cool to the idea of funnelling taxpayer funds into Opel after GM abandoned a deal with Canada’s Magna <MGa.TO> that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had helped broker.

Labour representatives have baulked at GM’s plans to shut an Opel factory in Belgium and rescinded their promise to contribute 265 million euros in annual cost concessions.

GM’s plan for Opel envisages 8,300 job cuts factories across Europe, shuttering the Antwerp plant, 20 percent capacity cuts and a return to profit by 2012. Opel has about 50,000 workers, half of which are based in its four German factories.

FRANKFURT, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Travellers in Europe picked their way through flight disruptions on Tuesday as French air traffic controllers went on strike and Lufthansa <LHAG.DE> tried to get its planes back into the air after a stoppage by pilots.

In France, airlines had to cancel half of the short- and medium-haul flights at Paris’s Orly airport as well as a quarter of flights at Charles de Gaulle international airport, as the French workers went on strike. [ID:nLDE61M0F5]

French unions have called for a five-day strike to protest plans to modernise air traffic, signed by Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The unions fear the reforms will lead to layoffs.

German flag carrier Lufthansa’s pilots in Germany went on strike on Monday, causing about 900 flights to be cancelled and leaving thousands of travellers around the world stranded.

Lufthansa has said that one day of strikes on that scale would cost it about 25 million euros ($34 million) in lost revenues alone.

“That is just a part of life, that people are not happy about the future and try to secure their jobs,” said Aldes Persolis, a passenger from Latvia who was stranded in Munich.

A few hours after the strike began, Lufthansa asked a court to halt the strike, which was meant to last until Thursday.

FRANKFURT/LONDON, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Germany’s biggest cable television firm Kabel Deutschland [KABLD.UL] switched to a 1 billion euros ($1.36 billion) initial public offering (IPO) on Tuesday after a multi-billion euro sale to private equity fell through.

A source familiar with the deal said private equity owners Providence and the management would sell at least a combined 25 percent stake and bookbuilding is to begin in mid-March. “The flotation will probably involve only shares held by the current owners,” a Kabel spokeswoman said.

The move came despite the withdrawal this month of more than $4 billion worth of IPOs by private equity-backed New Look, Merlin Entertainments and Travelport, with equity investors fearful of poor performance by companies saddled with big debts.

The Kabel IPO would be the biggest in Germany since Hamburger Hafen und Logistik’s $1.7 billion issue in November, 2007, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The decision by Kabel’s owner to opt for an IPO follows a month of weakness in high-yield bond markets.

A debt banker said around 20 high-yield deals had been delayed or withdrawn, although another banker said a company like Kabel would have been able to complete a bond sale.

Potential buyers of private equity-owned companies would have needed to sell bonds to refinance bank loans used for the initial purchase. Greece-related volatility would have introduced uncertainty about the yield debt investors would have demanded .

FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) – Lufthansa pilots in Germany agreed to suspend for two weeks a strike that grounded about 900 flights on Monday, just as rival British Airways’ cabin crew voted to join the fray to protest harsh cost cuts.

Some 4,000 Lufthansa pilots took part in a stoppage on Monday that was meant to last for four days, leaving thousands of passengers around the world stranded, on concerns the company could try to cut staff costs by shifting jobs to foreign units.

In a hastily called court hearing, pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) agreed late on Monday to suspend the strike until March 8 to give the deadlocked parties a chance to resume talks.

“VC has said that it is prepared to resume talks, and we are sticking with that,” said VC negotiator Thomas von Sturm. Lufthansa said it welcomed the decision, though it will take a few days until its flight operations have normalized again.

Airlines are reeling from the aviation industry’s worst year ever, in which demand dropped faster than capacity could be cut, but workers are becoming increasingly impatient with pressure from employers to tighten their belts.

Lufthansa aims to cut 1 billion euros ($1.36 billion) of costs by 2011, to become more lean while expanding abroad.

Europe’s national flag carriers have been trying to cut their costs as they lose market share to low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and EasyJet whose no-frills offers lure customers looking to cut their travel spending.

FRANKFURT, Feb 22 (Reuters) – A strike by Lufthansa’s <LHAG.DE> pilots in Germany over job security grounded hundreds of flights on Monday, causing travel chaos and leaving thousands of passengers around the world stranded.

Some 4,000 German pilots began a four-day stoppage on concerns the company could try to cut staff costs by shifting jobs to foreign subsidiaries such as Austrian Airlines (AUA) <AUAV.VI> or Lufthansa Italia, where wages are lower.

The German flagship carrier wants to cut 1 billion euros ($1.36 billion) of costs by 2011 while expanding abroad to compete with low-cost carriers and Asian rivals.

Last September Lufthansa completed a shopping spree that saw it add Brussels Airlines, Austrian Airlines and BMI [BMID.UL] to its stable, while also starting up its own airline in Italy, called Lufthansa Italia.

The Lufthansa showdown came as rival British Airways (BA) <BAY.L> braced for the results of a new strike ballot among cabin staff who were forced by a UK court to abandon plans for a 12-day work stoppage over Christmas.

If a BA strike, over cost-cutting plans, goes ahead in Europe’s second-biggest economy European travellers could face additional travel turmoil. [ID:nLDE61I12V]

Lufthansa expects the strike will cost it about 100 million euros ($135 million), in addition to lost ticket sales and possible damage to its reputation as it grounds about 800 out of 1,800 flights per day over the four-day period.