Lufthansa swung to an operating profit of 36 million euros ($49.1 million) in the first quarter after carrying a record number of passengers. The result compared with a loss of 75 million euros a year ago, Lufthansa said in a statement last week.

Delta is continuing to prepare for an April 30 emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after it said April 16 that “unofficial results” show more than 95 percent of creditors voted in favor of the airline’s plan of reorganization.

A U.S. bankruptcy court on Wednesday gave Delta Air Lines the go-ahead to exit Chapter 11 today, ending a year and a half in bankruptcy. “I will sign the confirmation order,” Judge Adlai Hardin said at a hearing in U.S. bankruptcy court in New York.

Continental Airlines posted a higher than expected first-quarter profit helped by fuller planes, higher fares and a slight decline in fuel prices. It was the first time the airline reported a profit in the seasonally weak first quarter since 2001, marking another milestone in the recovery of long-suffering U.S. airlines, which began in earnest last summer.

Iberia said on Friday it required more information from suitor Texas Pacific Group regarding its $4.6 billion bid for the airline, echoing comments it made last week.

Lufthansa finance chief Stephan Gemkow said the airline may achieve its target of 1 billion euros of operating profit a year early in 2007, Euro magazine reported.