Austrian Airlines Approves New Deadline for Lufthansa

The Austrian takeover commission has now approved the new Lufthansa request to extend their deadline for the planned takeover of Austrian Airlines till August 31. Under these new conditions, August is now the latest that Lufthansa can walk away from the deal. If they do not call off the deal by August 31, then they have to go through with the contract.

The Austrian commission said that the deal is looking more likely, following the new proposal that Lufthansa has sent in to the European Commission. If the deal is accepted by the European Commission, then Lufthansa can get an early approval on the deal.

The Austrian commission said that the whole point to extending the deal was to prevent a failure in the offer. The deal may have fell through if the airline did not approve the extend deadline. As of right now, the European Commission is still looking over and investigating the new proposed deal that Lufthansa has sent into them. In order to get a quick decision made, Lufthansa has said that it would give up a number of routes that will be open to other airlines for free.

Some of the daily flights that may be freed up would be three daily flights to Stuttgart and three to Cologne from certain airports. There could also be five flights a day on the Frankfurt route and up to four flights a day on the Munich and Brussels routes. If the deal is approved, then these routes will be offered to other airlines that are not fellow Star Alliance members first. This could give some other airlines a key chance to grab some routes that use to be held only by Lufthansa.