The AUA mother Lufthansa expects the negotiations on state aid in the billions to come to an “early end”.
“The support from the German state would be a decisive step for our future viability,” wrote the board headed by Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr in an internal message to the workforce on Sunday. “We are in an intensive and constructive exchange with the German Federal Government. (…) In our opinion, these discussions can be brought to an early conclusion.”
Lufthansa is negotiating aid of around 10 billion euros with the German government, some of which could flow as a silent participation. In return, state involvement is also under discussion.
The Management Board wants to discuss the situation with the Supervisory Board this Monday, followed by the Annual General Meeting on Tuesday. “All meetings, meetings, deliberations and committees are currently dealing with only one topic: securing our future,” the letter to the German press agency continued. “State aid is also important in order to restart flight operations as quickly as the general conditions allow.”
Spohr had until recently rejected a major influence by the state on the company – and may also do so at the shareholders’ meeting, which should only be broadcast on the Internet due to the corona crisis. “We got into this crisis through no fault of our own. Now we need state support. But we don’t need state management,” he says in the manuscript.
Spohr receives rifle support from politics. “The aid from the state is intended to help overcome the crises quickly,” said the Secretary General of the CDU Economic Council, Wolfgang Steiger, of the German Press Agency. Direct state participation would “only be an absolute exception”. Steiger emphasized: “From the start, the state has to make it clear that it only entered into the respective company investments due to the crisis and will exit again in the foreseeable future.”
Steiger warned that politics should not secure a lasting influence on companies. “If parts of the federal government now want to use this request to secure significant state influence on this company, it is a strange behavior from politics,” said the head of the CDU-affiliated association.
Union supports board
The UFO flight attendants’ union also supported the board. Ufo managing director Nicoley Baublies, once a member of the control committee and often a keen critic of Spohr, said to “Welt am Sonntag”: “State representatives on the supervisory board do not offer any added value in operational business.” The dpa told Baublies that such posts could quickly become symbolic. “Supervisory boards from the government do not replace guidelines on protection against dismissal, participation and other important points of our position paper on state participation.”
The group’s dilemma is great: Of around 760 aircraft, around 700 are on the ground, 3000 flights a day are canceled, more than 80,000 of the 130,000 employees are on short-time work, instead of 350,000 passengers a day, only around 3,000 fly with Lufthansa and its subsidiaries . Lufthansa currently has more than four billion euros in liquidity. But every hour, operationally, it loses one million euros due to the standstill.
Government officials said the talks were ongoing. “We speak intensively with the Federal Government and KfW about liquidity support for our company,” said Spohr. But the federal government is not the only point of contact. Because of the subsidiaries AUA, Brussels Airlines, Swiss and Edelweiß, Spohr also has to talk to the government of Austria, Belgium and Switzerland.
While Berne has already pledged a multi-billion dollar loan, negotiations with Vienna are still ongoing. Austria’s Finance Minister Gernot Blümel was satisfied with the recent talks, in which Chancellor Sebastian Kurz also took part. However, it requires assurances and guarantees for the AUA hub in Vienna.
Tax billions against climate protection
The AUA board should also deal with possible bankruptcy scenarios, as the newspaper “der Standard” reported at the weekend. For example, AUA chief financial officer Wolfgang Jani recently wrote to the AUA staff in an email: “From now on we have to deal with other scenarios as well, as the day of insolvency approaches.” On May 18, PwC’s auditors would evaluate the company’s continued outlook, the report said.
The Belgian government is not only demanding solid guarantees for the subsidiary Brussels Airlines in return for 290 million euros as liquidity aid, the newspapers “L’Echo” and “De Tijd” reported on Saturday. In a letter to Spohr, Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes also urged detailed growth prospects and quantifiable goals for the development of Brussels Airport as a hub. The issue of the Belgian state’s participation with a possible veto right on corporate policy, for example on travel destinations, is also under discussion, the newspapers continue.
In Germany, the left-wing faction in the Bundestag and environmentalists are calling for government aid to be linked to demands. “Tax billions for Lufthansa can only be given against commitments to protect the climate,” said Greenpeace traffic expert Benjamin Stephan on Sunday. “If the federal government now joins Lufthansa, it must insist on having a say and thus stop domestic flights and enforce a blending quota for alternative fuels.”
The left-wing budget politician Victor Perli warned that an agreement with the federal government must include the preservation of jobs and climate targets. “Restructuring the group on the back of the employees is unacceptable. In return for government aid, Lufthansa has to live up to its overall social responsibility,” said Perli.
(APA / dpa)
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