Germania seeks court ruling to stop Air Berlin bridging loan

Germania, the airline with headquarters in Berlin and which operates scheduled and charter flights to European, North African and Middle Eastern destinations, has sought the help of a German court to stop the German government from releasing a €150 million (US$180.5 million) bridging loan to Air Berlin prior to approval being granted by the European Commission. The regional court has decided to hold a hearing on the matter on September 15.
The German government has indicated that the legal won’t stop dispersal of the funds. “The submission of the application … has no suspensory effect,” the economy ministry said in a statement, adding that Berlin expected the European Commission to approve the loan.
The bridging loan had been set up to allow Germany’s second-largest carrier, which filed for bankruptcy protection two weeks ago, to continue to operate for the next three months while a buyer or buyers are sought. Currently there are at least six bidders interested in acquiring part or all of Air Berlin’s assets, including Lufthansa, which has its eyes on approximately 12 of its 17 long-haul aircraft as it does not offer long-haul flights from Berlin.
Lufthansa, which has the backing of the German government to acquire major parts of Air Berlin, could take on as many as 90 of its planes, including 38 aircraft it is already leasing from the airline. A deal like this, with a value in the low hundreds of millions of euros, could see up to 3,000 of Air Berlin’s workers move to Lufthansa.
easyJet and Thomas Cook’s Condor could then divide the rest of the fleet between them according to some media reports, with easyJet interested in up to 40 planes and Condor a double-digit number.
Niki Lauda, the former motor racing driver has expressed interest in buying back leisure unit Niki, which he founded, and aviation investor Hans Rudolf Woehrl is interested in acquiring all of Air Berlin.
Labor bosses are all unhappy that all the bidders were focusing on Air Berlin’s aircraft, routes and landing slots and no mention has been made of the 2,800 workers at its maintenance unit and in administration. Air Berlin has a total of 8,000 workers.
Ryanair is not confident that its complaint to competition authorities over Lufthansa’s bid to take over parts of Air Berlin will halt the deal, its chief commercial officer said today (Tuesday.)