Lufthansa reinforced its position as Germany’s largest airline Thursday by signing a E210m (US$249m) deal to buy large parts of insolvent Air Berlin. Lufthansa plans to use the Air Berlin assets to quickly expand its Eurowings budget business. News of the deal pushed Lufthansa shares up more than 3% to their highest level in nearly 17 years. Lufthansa has agreed to acquire Air Berlin’s Austrian leisure travel airline Niki, its LG Walter regional airline and 20 additional aircraft, Air Berlin said. “This contract provides new opportunities for jobs for a large part of our workforce. But we can only really breathe again when the EU Commission approves the deal,” Air Berlin CE Thomas Winkelmann said. Lufthansa CE Carsten Spohr said earlier he expected the EU to approve the transaction by the end of 2017. <br/>