EU competition Commissioner Margre Vestager sees no complicity of cartel guards in bankruptcy of Austrian Air Berlin subsidiary Niki. From outset, insolvency administrator of Air Berlin and heads of participating airlines had been told that, from a competitive point of view, re were major concerns about sale of Niki to Lufthansa, said Vestager in Brussels. “It was no surprise to Lufthansa that we had seen plan critically.”
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Lufthansa had surprisingly withdrawn its offer for Air Berlin daughters Niki and LG Walter on Wednesday. Niki declared bankruptcy and stopped flight operations. The EU Commission’s period of time for takeover of LG Walter will continue until December 21st. Originally, Lufthansa wanted to take over both airlines for 210 million euros from insolvency mass of Air Berlin.
Vestager said that Lufthansa’s commitments were not sufficient. This also resulted in market feedback from EU Commission. There have been concerns about more than 80 routes. After a takeover, only Lufthansa would have been only supplier on 50 routes. The risk of higher prices and fewer offers for consumers has been considerable, according to Commissioner.
Ticket costs are to be reimbursed to a large extent
Meanwhile, several airlines announced airline’s sudden failure to help repatriate up to 40,000 Niki passengers who are stuck abroad. The Holiday Flyer Condor said that passengers who booked directly with Niki will be able to fly back to Germany free of charge. TUIfly also announced flights. According to airlines, aim is to help holidaymakers who have not booked a package trip but only have a Niki ticket and are now stuck at destination.
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The provisional insolvency administrator, Lucas Flör, shared that almost all air passengers would return fare paid or be rebooked. Accordingly, all customers who have bought flights directly from Niki since insolvency application of parent company Air Berlin in mid-August are expected to receive travel price fully reimbursed. The subject is about 200,000 tickets with travel period until end of October 2018. A furr 210,000 tickets were booked via tour operators. Passengers should contact organiser directly for ir transfer.
Air Berlin had accused EU Commission on Wednesday that its position was incomprehensible. The General Plenipotentiary Frank Steffi criticized that failure of Niki’s sale and bankruptcy of Niki Aviation GmbH were “extremely annoying and could have been avoided.” Lufthansa was only bidder to show solutions for complex issues.
Niki Lauda wants to bid
There are now apparently or interested parties for insolvent airline. As a result, tour operator Thomas Cook wants to expand his flight capacities on German market to a company spokesman. It is refore necessary to check that airline or parts of it are purchased. Also ex-racer Niki Lauda, who had once founded airline and 2011 from company, wants to make a bid. “I’m doing this alone now, n it’s quicker,” said Lauda on ORF. A joint offer of Laudas with Condor was previously inferior to that of Lufthansa.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa subsidiaries Austrian Airlines and Eurowings expressed an interest in acquiring employees of insolvent airline. “Niki-People can apply immediately,” said Austrian Airlines CEO Kay Kratky. Austrian offers pilots of airline an accelerated application process. Flight attendants could take part in a casting on December 21st. Up to 200 ready-trained pilots and around 300 flight attendants are to be hired, airline divided with.
Eurowings also wrote numerous new jobs for pilots, flight attendants and ground staff. Over past few weeks, more than 500 employees have been hired, including many Air Berlin flight attendants and pilots. “From now on we will be offering a multitude of or jobs at our locations in Germany, but also in Austria and Spain,” said group CEO Thorsten Dirks. In concrete terms, staff were wanted for stations in Düsseldorf, Cologne, Stuttgart, Munich, Vienna, Salzburg and Palma de Mallorca, it was said. Niki employed about 850 people last.
“Viable Company”
Austria’s Federal Chancellor Christian Kern announced that it would consider a bridging loan for approximately 1,000 employees. “We want jobs and airline to be saved,” said Kern in Brussels, but dampened hopes for rapid results. Every interested party will first of all examine company and legal situation closely, Chancellor said. In itself, Niki is a “viable company”.
In TUI Travel group, Niki insolvency reports could cause a financial hole of about 20 million euros. The reason for this is, according to a report by tourism trade journal Fvw, that Niki has not yet paid last instalment for Velvet personnel leased TUIfly jets. Tui’s CEO Fritz Joussen cited this sum to be written off in case of a Niki bankruptcy. A spokesman for group did not confirm this at first. Tui already had a negative impact on Air Berlin bankruptcy in summer with around 15 million euros.
