Turkey’s national airline Turkish Airlines has been left alone as the only contender in the bid to become a shareholder of the Spanish airline Air Europa, after the German Lufthansa confirmed in the last hours its withdrawal from the operation, leaving the door open to the entry of the Turkish airline in the Spanish airline market.
As confirmed by the aviacionline website, the German company would have announced on Tuesday that “after exhaustive analysis and intense negotiations, we have decided at this stage not to go ahead with a capital contribution and a participation in Air Europa“, as a Lufthansa spokesman explained to the Reuters agency. Days earlier, the German airline had already expressed doubts about the operation, acknowledging that it would be difficult for it to succeed due to Turkish Airlines‘ more attractive offer.
The announcement comes just a week after Air France also announced that it was abandoning negotiations to become a shareholder in the Spanish airline, where IAG (International Airlines Group), owner of Iberia and British Airways, already owns 20% of the shares, complicating the operation. IAG itself tried last year to take full control of Air Europa, but the deal did not go ahead due to opposition from EU competition regulators, who distrusted the concentration of routes and flights between Europe and Latin America.
At the end of June, Turkish Airlines (THY) confirmed that it was considering a possible entry into Air Europa and that it had entered into non-binding negotiations to become a shareholder of Air Europa, which is seeking to repay the loans it received from the government during the pandemic. However, neither the Turkish airline nor Globalia – the company that currently controls Air Europa – gave details of the negotiations, and officially Turkish Airlines has not yet submitted its bid, which if successful would mark an unusual entry of a non-EU operator into the European commercial aviation industry.
The fact remains, however, that with the withdrawal of Air France and Lufthansa within days, Turkish Airlines now appears to be the clear favourite to become Air Europa’s new partner, marking an unexpected twist in one of the most important – and most complex – operations currently taking place in the European civil aviation industry.
VOTE
EDITORIAL TEAM
🧿 About us
.
Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
…
📣 Your ADVERTISING on Hispanatolia
.
🤗 HELP US WITH A DONATION:
💗 Paypal
