BERLIN: Lufthansa reinforced its position as Germany’s largest airline yesterday by signing a 210 million euro ($249m) deal to buy large parts of insolvent Air Berlin
Lufthansa plans to use the Air Berlin assets to quickly expand its Eurowings budget business.
Air Berlin, which has struggled to turn a profit over the last decade, filed for insolvency on August 15, and a government loan has kept its planes aloft while its administrator negotiated with prospective buyers for parts of the business.
Lufthansa has agreed to acquire Air Berlin’s Austrian leisure travel airline Niki, its LG Walter regional airline and 20 additional aircraft, Air Berlin said.
“This contract provides new opportunities for jobs for a large part of our workforce. But we can only really breathe again when the EU Commission approves the deal,” Air Berlin chief executive Thomas Winkelmann said.
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said earlier he expected the European Union to approve the transaction by the end of 2017.
However, Ryanair, which has previously called the talks a “stitch-up”, said it would be referring the matter to the EU competition authority in due course.
Andreas Mundt, head of the
German cartel office, said the Commission would take a close look at the deal and that the German authorities would follow the process closely.
Talks to sell some of Air Berlin’s remaining assets to Britain’s easyJet and other bidders are continuing, Air Berlin said, without providing details.
EasyJet, which has a base at Berlin’s Schoenefeld airport, has been discussing acquiring 27 to 30 planes. Air Berlin previously said others, such as Thomas Cook’s Condor, could pick up some parts of the business.
Spohr told a German paper earlier that his airline would be investing around 1.5 billion euros in total as a result of the Air Berlin deal.