CHRISTINA MACKENZIE / SALZBURG
Lufthansa is considering whether to give its regional operations a single corporate identity or regroup them under a single brand, although a final decision has not been taken, says Lufthansa CityLine managing director Karl-Heinz Köpfle.
Germany's flag carrier has already given a joint brand to its turboprop carriers - Team Lufthansa - which include Augsburg Airways, Cimber Air and Contact Air, but its regional jet-operating partners, Air Dolomiti, CityLine and Eurowings, do not share branding.
CityLine is the only carrier owned outright by Lufthansa, but Köpfle says the move to a single identity is unlikely to include bigger stakes in the others. "Lufthansa is not interested in equity exchange but in co-operation," he says.
Lufthansa has the option of doubling its 24.5% share in Eurowings, but Karl-Friedrich Müller, Euro-wings marketing and sales director, says the option can only be exercised in the last quarter of next year or the first quarter of 2004.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa is examining proposals from Bombardier and Embraer for a replacement deal for its defunct order for 60 Fairchild Dornier 728s, plus 60 options.
The manufacturers have submitted bids based on the Bombardier CRJ700/900 and Embraer 170, and a decision is likely by year-end.
Köpfle says, however, that "there is no real pressure to hurry the decision because we have enough aircraft capacity" for now.
Source: Flight International
