Airlines Lufthansa has signed contract for parts of Air Berlin
Germany's largest carrier Lufthansa has signed a contract to buy parts of Air Berlin. The carrier confirmed the signature on Twitter. Lufthansa will take more than half of the fleet of 144 aircraft and 3000 of Air Berlin's 8500 staff.
Yesterday, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr confirmed Lufthansa will acquire 81 jets from Air Berlin and its subsidiaries. 20 Airbus A320 Family aircraft will come from Air Berlin. The Austrian subsidiary Niki will be fully integrated in the Lufthansa Group. Furthermore, Lufthansa will take over Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter with its fleet of 20 Bombardier Dash 8Q-400.
Lufthansa plans to integrate the new aircraft into its European low cost subsidiary Eurowings. The transaction, which is valued at around 210 million euros, is still subject to creditor as well as German and European Union regulatory approvals.
To close the gap of Air Berlin, Lufthansa plans to launch additional long haul operations from either Düsseldorf or Cologne-Bonn Airport to several US destinations. The flights will be operated by SunExpress on behalf of Eurowings.
After the integration of Air Berlin, Eurowings will become Europe's third largest low cost carrier after Ryanair and Easyjet. In addition to the integration of Air Berlin, Carsten Spohr confirmed interest in the insolvent Italian national carrier Alitalia.
“Alitalia as it exists today is not up for debate. But if there was a chance of creating a new Alitalia, then as Europe's No1 carrier Lufthansa would certainly be interested in the talks. Italy is an important market for us.” said Carsten Spohr.
Air Berlin confirmed ongoing talks with Easyjet about a takeover of the remaining fleet.
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Source © Lufthansa