Add to that the talk some time ago that LH was publicly considering selling off their B6 stake as well. Not surprising since LH's other european ventures such as swiss, the belgian venture, austrian, LH Italia either are underperforming or kaput.
And what would B6 want with such a stake?
One possibility is to just have it sit as an investment; just as LH did. Or grow it as a codeshare with int'l feed into JFK. Another possibility is a Northwest-KLM type marriage seeking antitrust immunity to coordinate schedules.
Hurdles?
Sure, legislative for one. Also, Michael O'Leary has sucked much of Aer Lingus product out to make them a LCC type carrier like Ryanair. Aer Lingus does have LHR slots. And a marriage of this type would likely mean the end of JetBlue seeking to grow organically into a transatlantic carrier. I'm not sure the cabin and pilot crews would just stand by and see possible future jobs outsourced wholesale to a foreign carrier.