As it looks for ways of dealing with the devastating effect of the Coronavirus crisis, Lufthansa is exploring the possibility of declaring bankruptcy instead of having the government step-in. The airline, which is Europe’s biggest airline, has said that it is losing 1 million Euros per hour. The airline is seeking to downsize its fleet and restructure.
However, Lufthansa is still awaiting the finalization of its $9.74 billion bailout while also exploring other possibilities of saving the airline like filing for bankruptcy.
Anyways, Lufthansa really hates government influence. If Lufthansa were to accept the bailout from the German government, it would likely take a stake in the airline. So, Lufthansa would rather declare insolvency than have politicians in the airline’s Board.
They’ve already phased out a number of aircraft types and they’re expected to have 100 fewer aircraft and 10,000 fewer staff after this crisis. They would prefer creditor protection over a bailout (9 billion euros) that would see government ownership or the government holding seats on the board. Not good times!
Oh damn, that’s heavy. While a bailout seems necessary, I hope it doesn’t take away from other hard working citizens and their own businesses in Germany.
Lufthansa is not bankrupt, they just consider(ed) filing for a so-called “Schutzschirmverfahren”, which is a self-managed insolvency protection scheme under German law.
This was discussed in order to limit a potential government involvement into the management of the company as @Ishrion wrote.
Nonetheless it already seems to be of the table considering some rumours.
I doubt that they will file bankruptcy… I am German and I know how it works here pretty well. First of all the government will support them for 100% because they are aware of the value of Lufthansa and their group for Germany. Besides that they are also relying on them since there is no airline to replace them after their bankruptcy since AirBerlin filed Bankruptcy years ago. Also Lufthansa is only Publishing this scary numbers because they want to put pressure on the government in the discussion about the amount of money they get because the government didnt want to give them their desired amount. After all that’s only a PR tactic to squeeze more money out of the government which they will get anyways… it’s just a not clear how much, but it’s clear that it will most likely be enough to survive