Lufthansa will sign a deal on Thursday to buy parts of its insolvent smaller German rival Air Berlin, Lufthansa’s chief executive Carsten Spohr said.
“We will see a milestone in the history of Lufthansa and Berlin today,” he said.
Air Berlin, which has struggled to turn a profit over the last decade, filed for insolvency on August 15, and a government loan has kept its planes in the air while its administrator negotiates with prospective buyers for various parts of the business.
It said late last month that negotiations with Lufthansa and Britain’s easyJet would continue until October 12.
A person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday that Lufthansa, Germany’s largest airline, was set to buy Air Berlin’s Austrian leisure travel airline Niki, its LG Walter regional airline and also acquire some additional short-haul aircraft.
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Read more:
Germany's Air Berlin to end operations on October 28
Air Berlin planes sales to easyJet may collapse
Lufthansa set to land Air Berlin assets, sources reveal
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The operations up for grabs also include access to take-off and landing slots at Air Berlin’s hubs in Tegel in the German capital and Duesseldorf.
EasyJet, which has a base at Berlin’s Schoenefeld airport, has been discussing acquiring 27 to 30 planes, although a media report earlier this week said talks could fail.
Mr Spohr said on Thursday he expected Lufthansa’s imminent deal with Air Berlin would get European Union approval by the end of the year.
Shares in Lufthansa were up 2.9 per cent at €25.27, the top gained in Germany’s DAX market index by 0800 GMT after Mr Spohr’s comments and upbeat notes from brokerages.
Analysts at Bernstein Research raised their rating on Lufthansa’s shares to “outperform” from “market-perform”, saying they expected a deal with Air Berlin to add around €70 million (Dh304.7m) to €90m to annual operating profits at Lufthansa’s budget unit Eurowings in the medium term.
HSBC analysts lifted their target share price to €29 from €25, citing the imminent agreement with Air Berlin, a new multi-year labour deal with pilots announced this week and a positive trading performance this year.
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Ajax v Juventus, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Match on BeIN Sports
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi
Director: Kangana Ranaut, Krish Jagarlamudi
Producer: Zee Studios, Kamal Jain
Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Ankita Lokhande, Danny Denzongpa, Atul Kulkarni
Rating: 2.5/5
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The Bio
Name: Lynn Davison
Profession: History teacher at Al Yasmina Academy, Abu Dhabi
Children: She has one son, Casey, 28
Hometown: Pontefract, West Yorkshire in the UK
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite Author: CJ Sansom
Favourite holiday destination: Bali
Favourite food: A Sunday roast
Cry Macho
Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Dwight Yoakam
Rating:**
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Company%20profile
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TOUCH RULES
Touch is derived from rugby league. Teams consist of up to 14 players with a maximum of six on the field at any time.
Teams can make as many substitutions as they want during the 40 minute matches.
Similar to rugby league, the attacking team has six attempts - or touches - before possession changes over.
A touch is any contact between the player with the ball and a defender, and must be with minimum force.
After a touch the player performs a “roll-ball” - similar to the play-the-ball in league - stepping over or rolling the ball between the feet.
At the roll-ball, the defenders have to retreat a minimum of five metres.
A touchdown is scored when an attacking player places the ball on or over the score-line.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Long Shot
Director: Jonathan Levine
Starring: Charlize Theron, Seth Rogan
Four stars
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
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