“If there is an opportunity to invest in Lufthansa, we would like to do it.
Germany is a very important country for us, both in terms of air transport services and in terms of development of tourism,”
Initially, Qatar would like to form a partnership with Lufthansa.
Qatar Airways has been investing in many airlines around the world. Qatar currently has a stake in:
IAG (British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, Vueling, Air Europa): 21.46%
LATAM Airlines: 10%
Cathay Pacific : 9.6%
Air Italy: 49%
China Southern Airlines: 5%
Qatar has even offered to purchase a stake in American Airlines but was rejected.
Of course, if Qatar goes through, Lufthansa may not accept the agreement.
Do you guys think Qatar will go through with this?
That would be interesting. Ironically we had a plane over here getting painted for Lufthansa, and the next one in was for Qatar. I think that if this were to happen, I think it would have some awesome global outreach.
Interesting 🤔
Even more proof that OneWorld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam will fall eventually leading to smaller partnerships. This could actually be good in the short term for Swiss, TAP and/or SAS if Lufthansa leaves Star Alliance because they could all have a shot to assert themselves as the premier star alliance carrier in Europe
It is insane to think that Qatar actually has this much money to hold such a large “piece of the pie” in some of the largest airlines in the world.
For me, it is obvious that the government (aka House of Thani) is funding these ventures, with its immense wealth, which is why Qatar Airways seems to acknowledge little risk when purchasing stakes.
I really disagree with this one. First because LH isn’t exiting Star Alliance anytime soon and secondly because SWISS is part of the LH Group (and renowned for the Swiss hospitality), SAS is a close partner and TAP is not comparable to a carrier of the size of LH.
All those airlines benefit from the Star Alliance with Europe being pretty evenly split up between Oneworld (mostly IAG) and Star Alliance (mostly LH Group) and low-cost carriers (e.g. Ryanair and EasyJet) not mentioning the odd exceptions (Alitalia) and smaller airlines here.
——— Also I think LH’s answer to the reports shows it all: “We did not privatize Lufthansa in Germany to have it re-nationalized in Qatar.“
Hmm, interesting. This would make Qatar Airlines a very powerful airline. Owning a stake in another 5-star airline and managing to maintain a 5-star status, that would be impressive.
Please, no. Qatar Airways has been suffering losses recently, so this isn’t a good idea. The Gulf blockade does not help them, either. Not to mention that Gulf carrier Etihad nearly went bankrupt from overinvestment with other airlines. Qatar should tread carefully.
