Lufthansa, Ryanair dispute over planes for Austrian carrier Laudamotion

Lufthansa plans to end an agreement to lease planes to Laudamotion, saying the Austrian holiday airline has failed to meet payments, leading to a dispute with its backer Ryanair. The row highlights a battle for market share in Germany and Austria after the collapse of Air Berlin and shows how keen airlines are to get planes against the backdrop of recent Airbus delivery delays due to engine issues. Laudamotion, formed out of the remains of Niki that was part of Air Berlin, flies a fleet of 9 Airbus A320s leased from Lufthansa and 10 Boeing 737 jets from new shareholder Ryanair. “Laudamotion has recently failed – repeatedly – to meet its contractually-agreed lease payment obligations,” Lufthansa said Friday. Lufthansa said it needed planes to expand its Eurowings budget carrier and it has therefore exercised a right to terminate the lease agreements. Ryanair denied that it had failed to meet lease payments and said Lufthansa had failed to pay Laudamotion for carrying out flights on its behalf during March-May. “Laudamotion has repeatedly honored both its aircraft lease payments and maintenance reserves to Lufthansa. Lufthansa’s claims of ‘repeated failure’ to pay is false,” the Irish carrier said. Whether Lufthansa can end the contracts depends on a decision by a court in Britain, with a hearing expected on July 20.<br/>