The airline Lufthansa, threatened by bankruptcy in the corona crisis, wants to repay the state stabilization aid “as quickly as possible”. The group would rather finance itself on the capital market again, said Lufthansa board member Harry Hohmeister the newspapers of the Funke media group (Tuesday editions). “That is much cheaper.”
Lufthansa machine is loaded at the airport, via dts news agency
Of the total of nine billion euros in German state aid, the group has so far called 2.3 billion euros and has already repaid one billion euros. “We also received no state aid in the form of gifts, but rather high-interest loans, for example,” said Hohmeister. In the summer of last year, the state had to save the airline group from bankruptcy. “The federal government’s stabilization package ensured solvency and gave us strong prospects for the future,” said Hohmeister in retrospect. “We are grateful for that.” In the meantime, the group is more stable again: “Overall, the development of the share price shows the trust that the capital market has in Lufthansa,” said Hohmeister, who is on the board of directors for all passenger airlines – Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian , Brussels and Eurowings – is responsible. The federal government had also acquired 20 percent of the airline’s shares for around 300 million euros – with the sharply increased share price, the stake is now worth well over 1.2 billion euros. For the taxpayers, in addition to the high-interest loans for the airline, it was apparently a good deal: “In terms of book value, the German taxpayer has currently made a profit,” said Hohmeister. However, he did not give a timeframe for repaying the remaining state aid: “When and how we can stand on our own two feet again, also depends on how the pandemic and thus the demand develop.” Europe’s largest airline recently experienced a booking boom. With the falling number of corona infections in May, demand had increased more than tenfold. In addition, Hohmeister commented on Ryanair boss Michael O ?? Leary, who is suing against state aid for European national airlines and has thus had initial successes. Hohmeister said: “Who is sitting in the glass house? He got public money himself, by the way, not only state aid in the crisis. ”One only has to look at the current ruling on the ban on aid to Hahn Airport. “The amount of public money that has flowed speaks for itself.”
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