The shareholders of Lufthansa have voted in favour of accepting €9 billion state aid package from the federal Economic Stabilisation Fund (WSF) after concerns that its largest shareholder could block the deal.
The deal passed after billionaire shareholder Heinz-Hermann Thiele told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that he would vote for it after earlier voicing unhappiness with the package.
Thiele, who 15.5% holding makes him Lufthansa’s biggest shareholder had previously said he feared the government taking a stake in the airline would hamper its ability to restructure.
Carsten Spohr, chairman Lufthansa said of the successful vote. “The decision of our shareholders provides Lufthansa with a perspective for a successful future. On behalf of our 138,000 employees, I would like to thank the German federal government and the governments of our other home countries for their willingness to stabilize us. We at Lufthansa are aware of our responsibility to pay back the up to 9 billion euros to the taxpayers as quickly as possible.”
In a statement Lufthansa said that as a result of the deal the company’s liquidity is “secured on a sustained basis”. The carrier said it is working at full speed to get its operations up and running again.
“The airlines’ flight schedules will therefore be consistently expanded in the coming weeks. The flight schedule for the next few weeks will be published at the beginning of next week. The plan is to include 90 percent of all originally planned short-haul destinations and 70 percent of all long-haul destinations in the flight schedule again by September,” it said in a statement.
“A decision on the approval of the stabilization measures in the other home markets of Lufthansa Group will be made in the near future,” the statement added.