FRANKFURT, Oct 12 (Reuters) – The German air traffic control authority has reached a deal on pay and conditions with the GdF union, thus averting a strike that would have disrupted thousands of flights across Europe.

The DFS authority said on Wednesday it had agreed to increase pay by a total 5.2 percent in two stages over a 17 month period, while certain employees would be moved up the pay scale, thus receiving a further increase.

The GdF union, which had wanted a 6.5 percent rise, confirmed that a deal had been reached.

In total, the measures will increase the DFS’ labour costs by around 9 percent, it said.

The authority described the deal as “a major financial burden” but said it wished to reach an agreement in the interests of customers and passengers.

The wrangling over pay and conditions has been going on since the start of the year and intensified when the union threatened to strike twice in August during the busy summer holiday period.

Those strikes were averted by court action and a last-minute agreement by the DFS to enter mediation.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German sporting goods maker Puma plans to use a new Formula One partnership to gain consumers in Asia’s emerging markets and reassert its sports performance credentials, a Puma executive said on Wednesday.

Puma earlier signed a deal to provide Formula One team Mercedes GP Petronas with fire-proof racewear for drivers and pit teams, and to produce licensed apparel.

The leaping cat logo of the company, which has been involved in motor racing’s premier event for more than a decade, will also be displayed on the 2012 Mercedes race car and teamwear.

“The expansion of Formula One is coinciding with some of the key markets that we’re targeting,” Christian Voigt, head of sports marketing at Puma, told Reuters, highlighting new Grand Prix venue countries such as India and South Korea.

“There’s considerable appetite for our licensed ranges in Latin America and Asia, especially China.”

Ross Brawn, team principal at Mercedes, told Reuters after the Puma deal was announced there was strong interest from even more countries in joining the Formula One circuit, but that with 20 races next year, the calendar was pretty full.

“What we will see in future is perhaps trading some of the races for other races,” Brawn said, adding a core group of long-term venues such as Monaco, Silverstone and Monza would remain.

FRANKFURT, Oct 11 (Reuters) – A German court has banned night flights at Frankfurt airport after complaints from residents, dealing a blow to cargo and passenger operations as Germany’s largest airport prepares to open a new runway.

The administrative supreme court of Hesse said the ban would start on Oct. 30 with the new winter flight schedule, drawing consternation from German airlines at the lack of time in which to alter internationally agreed flight schedules.

“To implement such a ban at short notice will have significant economic consequences,” a spokesman for Frankfurt-based Lufthansa said.

The local state government decided in 2009 to allow 17 movements — starts or landings — between the hours of 2300 CET and 0500 CET for the winter schedule, mostly for cargo flights.

It decided to allow the flights on economic grounds, even though the Frankfurt airport operator Fraport had agreed not to push for night flying rights as part of a deal to secure permission for the new runway and adjacent terminal that residents had objected to.

Airlines, such as Thomas Cook unit Condor, said Tuesday’s decision came unexpectedly, especially as they were still waiting for a decision from a different, higher court in Leipzig, which is also listening to a complaint from residents.

Lufthansa said it was looking into possible legal measures, even though the Hesse court said in its statement no legal recourse was available.

FRANKFURT, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Eckhard Cordes, chief executive of German retailer Metro , said he no longer wishes to renew his contract, just weeks after winning support from the group’s top shareholder.

Cordes had seemed in danger of losing his job last month after reports that he had fallen out of favour with some supervisory board members, who were due to vote later in the autumn on whether his contract would be extended past October 2012.

However, he battled for support among other members of the board and in a rare public statement, the Haniel family, which owns 34.24 percent of Metro, said they were in favour of a contract extension for Cordes.

Cordes, who informed the supervisory board and major shareholders of his decision on Sunday, criticised the public debate over his contract, saying it threatened to harm the company, its principal shareholders and himself.

“Due to the incidents of the recent weeks and months I have come to the conclusion that the trustful basis to stay on as the head of Metro’s top management does not anymore exist,” he said in a statement on Sunday.

Cordes, a turnaround specialist and former Daimler (DAIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) manager, had come under fire for failing to find buyers for department store chain Kaufhof and hypermarkets unit Real, and a programme of job cuts had been criticised by labour representatives.

The Metro share price has also slumped 38 percent this year on fears of lacklustre consumer spending and as sales dropped at one-time star performer MediaMarkt-Saturn, the chain of consumer electronics stores majority owned by the group.

FRANKFURT, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Investigations are continuing into the death of a 90-year-old German multi-millionaire who died shortly after marrying a 26-year-old model who inherited his beer-brewing fortune, Frankfurt state prosecutors said on Friday.

Bruno Schubert, who made his millions with his family brewery Henninger, married Meharit Kifle, a Belgian model of Ethiopian origin, in August 2009 just months after his first wife had died.

A Frankfurt court on Thursday named Kifle sole heir of his entire 18 million euro ($25 mln) estate.

Prosecutors are investigating the circumstances of his death following allegations made by Schubert’s 64-year-son Hanns Peter Nerger that the beer baron died of dehydration or insufficient treatment, rather than natural causes.

In an interview last week with German tabloid Bild, Kifle denied the allegations and she said she lovingly cared for him right up to the minute he died in October 2010.

“We’re still investigating and there’s still a fair bit to do,” a spokeswoman for the Frankfurt state prosecutor said. “Some witnesses have been interviewed.”

After his death at the age of 90 in October last year, a battle for Schubert’s fortune erupted between his widow, now 28, and his son, Nerger.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Europe should stand ready to ease monetary policy if crumbling consumer confidence leads to a big drop in spending, the head of Europe’s biggest home improvements retailer said on Tuesday.

So far, spending levels have remained fairly steady, albeit subdued, in the face of a euro zone sovereign debt crisis, Kingfisher (KGF.L: Quote, Profile, Research) chief executive Ian Cheshire told Reuters.

But if the region starts to slide back into recession, Cheshire said it would be better to try to stimulate demand via monetary policy rather than for governments to relax their focus on cutting their deficits.

“Given the limited room for manoeuvre in terms of fiscal options, QE (quantitative easing) makes an awful lot of sense provided it doesn’t go on for ever,” Cheshire said in an interview at the World Retail Congress in Berlin.

A survey of 100 retails with annual turnover of more than $1 billion (640 million pounds), published on the first day of the Congress, showed western European store groups more pessimistic about domestic consumer confidence than those in any other part of the world except Australia.

With the euro zone debt crisis and turbulent stock markets frightening consumers already grappling with higher bills and lower wages, retailers are overcoming their traditional wariness of stepping into the political arena.

Cheshire added that with hindsight, the European Central Bank’s decision to raise interest rates earlier this year seemed “odd.”

BERLIN, Sept 27 (Reuters) – Africa is starting to appear on the radar screens of western retailers as they look for the next growth opportunity in emerging markets while having to cope with subdued consumer spending at home.

Consultants Deloitte and Planet Retail on Tuesday identified five African countries — Algeria, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa — as being among the 10 new markets most likely to appeal to multinational store groups in the coming years.

“All have fast-growing economies, young and growing populations, and fragmented retail sectors,” Deloitte and Planet Retail said in a report published on the second day of the World Retail Congress in Berlin.

“Moreover, although traditional forms of retailing are still dominant, a growing middle class is demanding branded products and the opportunity to shop in modern retail formats,” they said.

Africa was thrust into the retail limelight this year when U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart bought a majority stake in South Africa’s Massmart, giving it a foothold in the continent’s biggest economy and a presence in some 13 other African markets, ranging from Botswana to Zambia.

“With the world’s largest retailer now active in the continent it seems likely other leading global retailers will investigate opportunities in the region,” said Ira Kalish, Deloitte’s director of global research.

LONG-TERM INVESTMENT

BERLIN, Sept 26 (Reuters) – The euro zone debt crisis is sapping consumer confidence and if policymakers do not take effective action soon the consequences will be felt the world over, retail executives warned on Monday.

A survey of 100 retailers with annual turnover of more than $1 billion, published on the first day of the World Retail Congress in Berlin, showed western European store groups more pessimistic about domestic consumer confidence than those in any other part of the world, except Australia.

“People are afraid of losing their money. People are not spending as they could,” Lovro Mandac, chairman of German department store chain Kaufhof and vice president of the German retail federation told an audience of around 900 industry leaders.

“The savings rate is going up tremendously in Germany this year, and this will not help.”

Ira Kalish, director of global research at business consultants Deloitte, said euro zone countries needed to align their fiscal policies, debt-laden states like Greece needed to reform their labour markets and wealthier countries like Germany and France needed to do more to subsidise poorer ones.

But there were few signs of that happening, he added.

“We see band aids, periodic bailouts, but not yet fundamental reforms necessary to make this thing (the euro) work,” Kalish said, forecasting the euro zone was heading for a recession and that if policymakers did not take decisive action soon there would be a deep recession that would jeopardise economic recovery in the United States and elsewhere.

HAMBURG (Reuters) – State-owned carrier Emirates Airline EMIRA.UL is not yet seeing a downturn in business and bookings for the next few months are at high levels, even as other airlines warn stuttering economies are affecting sales.

“As yet, fingers crossed, we have not seen any diminution of demand,” President Tim Clark told Reuters in an interview at Hamburg airport.

Lufthansa (LHAG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) last week warned on profits and said it would offer fewer seats on its planes this winter than previously expected.

In contrast, low-cost rival easyjet (EZJ.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) lifted its guidance for the year, boosted by business passengers.

Clark said booking levels were in the high 70 percent range for November, which he described as strong for the time of year.

Clark, who flew into Hamburg on an Airbus A380 superjumbo as part of the airport’s 100th anniversary celebrations, said the UK and Germany were doing well, while its Athens operations were seeing good load factors and yields.

“Our biggest single problem is fuel, but that’s coming off now, he said.

FRANKFURT, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Germany’s two largest airlines said on Wednesday they were cutting capacity and fleets to salvage profits, as economic turbulence hits bookings numbers and prompts customers to put off booking flights until the last minute.

Air Berlin said it hoped to pass on planes it no longer needed to Asian rivals, while German flagship airline Lufthansa , which on Tuesday shocked investors with a profit warning, said it would now only increase capacity over the winter by 4 percent.

Lufthansa had in July already reduced the planned growth in capacity to 6 percent, down from an original 12 percent and indicated on Wednesday it could cut more seats.

“Close attention will be paid to further developments and Lufthansa will, if required, use its existing flexibility to make further adjustments to its capacities,” it said.

French rival Air France-KLM has already said it will halve its winter capacity growth this year, while U.S. airlines Delta and American Airlines have also announced they will be selling fewer seats this winter.

Air Berlin, which is in the midst of an overhaul under a new chief executive, said it would reduce its fleet by a net 18 aircraft to 152 planes and that it was considering halting activities at some smaller regional airports, following its decision to withdraw from Erfurt in eastern Germany.

“We are in turbulent times,” CEO Hartmut Mehdorn told journalists. “On the booking side, customers are being very cautious, booking later, and this is not only happening to us, but to the whole industry.”