Austrian Airlines could be bought by LH for 1 euro!
In the Austrian sunday papers an article details the continuing woes of Austrian Airlines.
In takeover talks Lufthansa has offered a 'bid' of 1 euro for the struggling carrier which currently is loosing 150 million euros a year with a debt to the state owned holding company of 900 million euros.
Drastic restructuring leading to a possible loss of 40 older LH aircraft and a quarter of the staff including 400 pilot jobs could be on the cards. Leaving the airline with 60 aircraft, mostly SH and 700 pilots.
If LH buy the carrier they will see the restructuring through with a 'sweetner' from the state to assist in the redundancy package programme. The final intention would be a slimmer Austrian Airlines complementing the LH route structure with the possible integration of 'Niki' low cost SH at a later stage.
Ouch, thoughts go out to all those who might lose jobs over this one. Seemed to come a little out of the blue! First of many perhaps?
1 euro plus a backhander to take over 150 million losses per year and 900 million euro debt. Seems LH are on a march somewhere!