Rivals swoop on insolvent Air Berlin’s assets
Frankfurt — Air Berlin is in talks with three competitors about buying up its assets, the insolvent airline’s boss said on Thursday, warning that not all jobs would be saved. "Aside from Lufthansa, we are in contact with two other interested parties from the aviation industry," Air Berlin CE Thomas Winkelmann told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily. The negotiations have been going on for weeks, he said, and all three airlines were financially sound and large enough "to offer Air Berlin a secure future" while keeping Germany as an operations hub. He did not name the other two airlines, but German media have speculated that EasyJet and Thomas Cook subsidiary Condor are the other parties. Condor said it stood ready to play "an active role" in the restructuring of Air Berlin. EasyJet declined to comment. Air Berlin filed for insolvency on Tuesday after main shareholder Etihad Airways suddenly pulled the plug on years of financial support for the loss-making airline. In a controve...
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