FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German carrier Lufthansa is reconsidering its decision to cancel an agreement that allows passengers of smaller rival Condor to use Lufthansa feeder flights as part of their journey to holiday destinations, a spokesman for the company said.
Condor has complained that Lufthansa abused its market dominance when it cancelled the agreement.
German magazine Der Spiegel reported earlier, without citing sources, that EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager had complained to Germany about Lufthansa’s decision to cancel the agreement.
“We weren’t aware of how badly Condor is doing,” the Lufthansa spokesman said.
Lufthansa, which received a 9 billion euro ($10.6 billion) government bailout last year, has previously said the cancellation of the agreement, which would take effect in June this year, was necessary to prevent under-utilisation of its plane capacity.
Condor declined to comment.
A spokeswoman for Germany’s Economy Ministry declined to comment on the Der Spiegel report. The European Commission and Germany’s Finance Ministry were not immediately available for comment.
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(Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach, Michael Nienaber and Foo Yun Chee; Writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
