Lufthansa’s Takeover of Austrian Airlines Investigated by European Union

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European Union regulators are now launching an investigation into Lufthansa’s bid for Austrian Airlines. The investigations has been started, because experts are saying that this new deal could actually reduce choices for passengers and hike up the fares of many routes. The European Commission has already said that it has serious doubts about if the takeover could proceed without the airlines making some changes.

With this takeover, the European Union says that Lufthansa would become way too powerful with flights from Vienna, as well as other European cities. Lufthansa is the biggest German airline, and Austrian Airlines dominates most of the routes out of Austria.

However, it has also been noted that Lufthansa has already offered to make some changes for the European Union. However, the Union goes on to say that they are not sufficient enough to approve the deal at the current stage. The European Union says that it wanted to look at more problems and solutions.

The regulators cannot take an additional 90 days to go over the deal. Lufthansa also has the right to pull out of the deal if the European Union does not come through by July 31. Antitrust European Union officials have been separately looking into whether the Austrian government is selling Austrian Airlines to Lufthansa for a fair price. This investigation was launched back in February because they believed that the price could be too low and may be an illegal state subsidy.

However, no other word has been given out on what has been found so far in the investigation. Not much has been said from either airline as of yet.

For more information visit: www.lufthansa.com