Lufthansa CEO says it's seeking state aid in Germany, other countries

Lufthansa will seek state aid in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Austria as the coronavirus crisis that forced it to ground almost all of its planes will persist longer than feared, the German airline's CE said. "I am optimistic that the talks in Bern, Berlin, Brussels and Vienna will lead to good and positive results," CEO Carsten Spohr said. People close to the matter said last week that Germany was in talks to provide Lufthansa, which has grounded 95% of its fleet due to the pandemic, with billions of euros in state aid and could take a stake in the airline. Spohr added that Lufthansa was lucky to have a liquidity buffer of more than E4b, but some of that was owed to customers that have paid for now-cancelled flights and the carrier was currently losing cash at a rate of E1m per hour, possibly for months to come. "This crisis will take much longer than we could have imagined just a few weeks ago," Spohr said. Lufthansa has previously said it was considering requests for state support.<br/>