Originally Posted by
worldtraveller73
Hard to say whether the coronavirus will impact growth this year but Lufthansa taking a stake in TAP won't help. We'll have $500 in YQ alone before you know it in addition to higher business fares
LH and UA want to kill off low-price business class and economy class competition for TATL flights. A substantial LH stake in TAP would almost certainly lead to an outcome of the sort approaching that indicated in the post above.
Given Portugal in recent years has had a stronger economic and fiscal run than much of Europe, the TATL-flying airline industry cartel kingpins wanting to get in on Portugal's growth and developments there isn't all that surprising even if such a consideration to buy an influential stake in TAP weren't about wanting to kill off low-price competition.