Niki setback unlikely to divert Lufthansa's flight path

Lufthansa's failure to salvage Niki may slow expansion of the carrier and its budget unit Eurowings, but it is still expected to benefit from the resulting drop in competition in the short term. Lufthansa dropped a bid for Niki, saying it was unlikely to be approved by the EC due to competition concerns. Niki's collapse is likely to be a boon for carriers serving similar markets, including Lufthansa, TUIFly and Condor. "Whilst from a Lufthansa perspective they would have preferred to acquire Niki their core object of strengthening the German market remains intact," aviation consultant John Strickland said. Even before it put in its bid, some at the top of Lufthansa had queried whether it was worth bidding for Air Berlin operations, because the airline would likely benefit from its demise anyway, according to one person familiar with the matter <br/>