BERLIN (Reuters) – Lufthansa’s (LHAG.DE) budget unit Eurowings is open for further takeover deals once it has completed the integration of Brussels Airlines and planes leased from Air Berlin (AB1.DE), a executive said on Wednesday.
Eurowings is leasing 33 crewed planes from loss-making Air Berlin and has taken over Brussels Airlines, meaning it will grow rapidly this year.
“When we have successfully implemented these, then we will be open for further opportunities,” Lufthansa board member Karl Ulrich Garnadt told journalists at the ITB travel fair in Berlin.
“At the moment, we have no other projects,” he said.
He added Eurowings has not yet made a decision whether to start flights out of the Lufthansa brand’s main hub in Frankfurt (FRAG.DE) in response to Ryanair (RYA.I) starting flights there this year.
“We have to look at the cost base, see how sustainable Ryanair’s deal is,” he said.
(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Ludwig Burger)
