Scope of European Commission airport slot conditions reduced
Lufthansa’s Executive Board has accepted the commitments offered by Germany to the European Commission for the €9bn stabilization package negotiated with the state-run Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF).
The German flag carrier’s board had earlier this week postponed agreement on the deal because of concerns that the Brussels regulator’s conditions would weaken carrier’s hub function at Frankfurt and Munich airports.
The Lufthansa board said in a statement that the scope of the conditions required in the Commission’s view has been reduced in comparison with initial indications.
The statement said: “Lufthansa will therefore be obliged to transfer to one competitor each at the Frankfurt and Munich airports up to 24 take-off and landing rights (slots), i.e. three take-off and three landing rights per aircraft and day, for the stationing of up to four aircraft.
“For one and a half years, this option is only available to new competitors at the Frankfurt and Munich airports. If no new competitor makes use of this option, it will be extended to existing competitors at the respective airports.”
The slots will be allocated in a bidding process. The slots can only be taken over by a European competitor that has not itself received any substantial state recapitalisation as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Supervisory Board must still approve the stabilization package negotiated with the WSF, including the commitments to the Commission.
Subsequent to the Supervisory Board’s decision, the company intends to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting in the near future to obtain shareholder approval for the WSF stabilization measures.
