Germany’s cartel office opened an antitrust probe into Lufthansa after leisure airline Condor complained about the termination of a commercial agreement between the carriers. The inquiry will focus on Lufthansa’s decision to end a deal allowing Condor to market short flights from the larger carrier that feed into Condor’s long-distance journeys, Kay Weidner, spokesman for the federal cartel office said. That agreement is due to be terminated on June 21, in the middle of the typically busy summer travel season. Condor filed a complaint this month saying that the move is an abuse of Lufthansa’s dominant market position in the region. Andreas Mundt, president of Germany’s cartel office, said that the body was trying to establish the facts of the case. He added that the probe was necessary to ensure competition in Germany’s “already highly-concentrated” flight market. The spat comes as Lufthansa pivots to long-haul tourism travel, a niche occupied for years by Condor, its one-time subsidiary. Lufthansa is launching a Eurowings Discover brand with which it hopes to grow in lower-cost leisure travel, a segment of the market that’s expected to recover from the coronavirus downturn faster than business travel. Lufthansa defended its decision to cancel the deal as it fights to overcome the crisis in global aviation. “It would be irresponsible to neglect the utilization of our own aircraft and thereby jeopardize additional jobs at Lufthansa,” it said.<br/>
star
Ryanair sought to shoot down Germany’s multibillion euro bailout for Lufthansa, asking an EU court to cancel EU approval. Germany’s E6b recapitalization and a state guarantee for a E3b loan “discriminates unlawfully between EU airlines,” Ryanair said Thursday. The carrier filed its challenge at the EU’s General Court on Jan. 22. “It is extraordinary that Lufthansa announced it did not need so much state aid, yet the German government was committed to favoring its ‘global champion’ instead of putting measures in place to support air traffic recovery in a manner that would benefit all airlines delivering traffic at German airports,” Ryanair said. Ryanair is challenging more than a dozen state bailouts for airlines across Europe over concerns the cash boost for rivals will allow them to emerge stronger, slash fares and swallow up others. <br/>
The Greek government said Thursday it would throw the country's main carrier Aegean Airlines a lifeline of up to E120m in return for a stake in the company. Aegean Airlines "will receive state financial support... up to the loss it sustained as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic," government spokesman Christos Tarantilis said after a cabinet meeting. In return, the carrier will give the Greek state stock warrants worth 11.5% of its shares after a capital increase of at least E60m, for a period of two to five years, Tarantilis said. He noted that the move had already been approved by the European Commission.<br/>
THAI’s submission of its rehabilitation plan is being delayed a second time after it won approval to submit the plan an additional month later. The flag carrier disclosed in a 27 January update that Thailand’s Central Bankruptcy Court has approved its request for a further extension of the submission deadline to 2 March. Thai had indicated on 26 January that it was considering seeking another extension, having already extended the deadline once from 2 January to 2 February. Thai says the further extension is “due to a need to put together the comments and suggestions from several groups of creditors on the principle of the draft rehabilitation plan in order to prepare a complete and comprehensive rehabilitation plan to ensure that the rehabilitation plan will receive the approval of the creditors’ meeting”. “Moreover, as the rehabilitation plan contains several important aspects, the production of the rehabilitation plan is therefore highly important and requires thorough consideration from the relevant persons and all interested parties.” Once the rehabilitation plan is complete, the official receiver will send a copy of the plan to creditors for their consideration and approval in a creditors’ meeting, a process that could take around one and a half months, Thai said on 26 January. Once creditors have approved it, the Central Bankruptcy Court must give a final verdict.<br/>
Singapore Airlines will begin operating the first of nine ex-SilkAir Boeing 737-800s from March, as it expects the integration of its regional operator into mainline operations to be completed by April 2022. The first of these narrowbodies will be deployed by SIA on the Singapore-Phuket route from 4 March, says the carrier. Alongside integrating former SilkAir routes into its network, SIA says it will also deploy the 737s on points within its current network. The first of these will be Brunei in March. The nine 737s, configured to seat 12 business class and 150 economy class passengers, will join the fleet progressively. SIA group CE Goh Choon Phong says the introduction of the 737s will “bring about a more comfortable and seamless travel experience for customers on our regional routes”. <br/>