No deal

Lufthansa drops plan to buy Air Berlin's Niki as EU digs in

EU antitrust officials were wary of granting Lufthansa too much market power and didn't accept the remedy package the German airline had proposed

bloomberg

13.12.2017

Deutsche Lufthansa dropped its plan to buy Austrian airline Niki from insolvent parent Air Berlin after European Union competition regulators opposed the deal, leaving the leisure carrier at risk of folding and stranding thousands of travelers ahead of the Christmas travel rush.

Niki was Air Berlin’s most valuable asset, and finding a new owner for it was key to administrators’ plans to keep it flying, alongside regional airline LGW, even after the parent company’s collapse.