Lufthansa is interested in taking over airberlin
May 5, 2017, 5:37 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2015
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Lufthansa is interested in taking over airberlin
Lufthansa's CEO Carsten Spohr said today, that LH is interested in taking over airberlin. As he said, there are three issues to solve before:
- airberlin has to be clear of debt (de facto owner EY has to pay or abate debts in the amount of at least EUR 1.5 billion)
- airberlin has to decrease the cost of operation
- Lufthansa and air berlin need the approval of the antitrust division or maybe the special approval of the German Federal Minister of Economic Affairs.
Link (German): http://www.handelsblatt.com/unterneh.../19760980.html
- airberlin has to be clear of debt (de facto owner EY has to pay or abate debts in the amount of at least EUR 1.5 billion)
- airberlin has to decrease the cost of operation
- Lufthansa and air berlin need the approval of the antitrust division or maybe the special approval of the German Federal Minister of Economic Affairs.
Link (German): http://www.handelsblatt.com/unterneh.../19760980.html
May 6, 2017, 2:24 am
#3
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Or EY would just keep it.
May 6, 2017, 2:31 am
#4
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May 6, 2017, 3:17 am
#6
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The government is concerned about the jobs at AB and giving slots to FR or U2 is no option.
May 6, 2017, 5:51 am
#8
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May 6, 2017, 6:47 am
#9
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I wish airberlin could be saved somehow, because having Lufthansa as the local monopoly will mean that they go like British Airways and UNITED. Of that development, I am certain, even if it takes a couple of years (and a couple of years is not much).
May 6, 2017, 9:52 am
#11
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I will also be quite unhappy not to see a substantial non-star airline in central Europe, and especially in Germany. This will be a big problem for the market. I don't want to be stuck between LCC's and LH.
May 7, 2017, 1:27 pm
#13
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Economically, I don't see anyone else, other than LH, taking over AB. However, this will clearly lead to a monopoly on many key routes in Germany/Switzerland/Austria/Belgium (not talking about niches). I therefore hope that they will have to give up a very significant number of slots in FRA/ZRH/MUC/VIE/BRU. If not, we'll pay horrendous airfares - as we already do on routes like ZRH-FRA or ZRH-BRU.