Air Berlin's administrator takes in bids from Lufthansa, others

Lufthansa and several other parties had put in bids for parts of Air Berlin by the deadline of Friday set by the administrator of the insolvent airline. Germany’s second-biggest airline after Lufthansa filed for bankruptcy last month after major shareholder Etihad Airways withdrew funding following years of losses. “The current status as of the 2 p.m. (1200 GMT) deadline today is that we have received several offers that we will now have to assess in great detail,” a spokesman for Air Berlin said, declining to provide further details. A source close to the negotiations said Friday’s deadline for bids was not set in stone and that any offers made over the coming days would still be taken into account. Most potential investors appear interested primarily in the airline’s roughly 140 aircraft and its airport landing and take-off slots rather than in taking over the business. Lufthansa made an offer for parts of Air Berlin, a spokesman said, declining to provide more detail. A source familiar with the matter said Lufthansa planned to offer a three-digit millions of euros sum for up to 90 planes, including Austrian holiday airline unit Niki’s fleet and 38 crewed planes it already leases from Air Berlin. European budget airline easyJet, which media reports had said was interested in acquiring up to 40 of Air Berlin’s planes, only confirmed on Friday that it had bid for parts of Air Berlin’s short haul business. Meanwhile former Formula One motor racing world champion Niki Lauda has put in a joint bid with German airline Condor, owned by holiday firm Thomas Cook, a spokeswoman for Lauda said. Separately German family-owned logistics firm Zeitfracht has offered to buy Air Berlin’s cargo marketing platform, its maintenance business and regional unit LGW.<br/>