Lufthansa Looks at Taking Over Thomas Cook-Owned Airline Condor
Skift Take
Lufthansa sees Condor as a good fit for its existing business. The question is would Thomas Cook split up its airline, and would competition regulators allow it?
Lufthansa has talked up its interest in buying Condor from Thomas Cook but is staying away from Alitalia, at least for the moment.
The German airline group used to own half of Condor with Thomas Cook before the latter took full control in 2009. There remains, however, a considerable degree of crossover between the two parties in the German market.
Earlier this year, Thomas Cook said it was running a strategic review of its airline and on an earnings call with analysts on Thursday, Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Sphor explained the rationale in re-acquiring the brand.
Lufthansa is looking to grow its Eurowings low-cost brand out of Munich and Frankfurt with the aim of getting to around 15 percent of leisure traffic out of these airports, which buying Condor would help achieve.
"So assuming we'll one way or another...g
