Any state aid to Austrian Airlines will not happen unless parent company Lufthansa provides suitable motivation, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz explained Wednesday.
“Aid without advantages for Austria as a business location, without a stake in Lufthansa, just for the sake of it, is not going to happen,” Kurz told Austrian media company ORF after a meeting with Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr.
Even without a good proposal, "we will, of course, find a way to work with Lufthansa," Kurz said, "but Lufthansa is and remains a German company, so there can be no state aid" without something in return.
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On Tuesday evening, Austrian Airlines confirmed that it had applied for €767 million of state aid in Austria because of the current crisis. Most of this would consist of loans, while part of it would involve state grants that are yet to be negotiated.
Lufthansa is also discussing support measures with other European governments, including Belgium, where the government so far has not granted state aid for Lufthansa subsidiary Brussels Airlines. In fact, the positions of Lufthansa and the Belgian government "are so far apart that the negotiations have been put on hold to allow to ease the pressure,” according to LN24.
Jason Spinks
The Brussels Times
