LOT Airline Owner Buys German Carrier Condor

The owner of Polish airline LOT is taking over German carrier Condor airlines, a subsidiary of collapsed tour operator Thomas Cook, the two companies said Friday.

The acquisition by LOT owner PGL, or Polish Aviation Group, is expected to close by April once antitrust approval is received. The companies didn’t detail the value of the transaction.

Condor offers numerous flights from Canada to Frankfurt. In summer 2019 it flew out of Vancouver, Whitehorse, Toronto, Halifax and Calgary.

The German government granted Condor a 380 million-euro ($421 million) bridging loan to keep it going through the winter and give it time to find a new investor after British-owned Thomas Cook collapsed in September.

Condor and its prospective Polish owner said Friday that “PGL’s investment will allow Condor to fully repay the loan.”

Condor, which has been profitable, has nearly 60 planes and 4,900 employees. Condor CEO Ralf Teckentrup said that “our passengers have remained loyal to us” over the past four months.

The airline will continue to operate under its existing leadership and with its own brand, the companies said. They added that the airlines will benefit from “operational synergies.”

Together, the two will carry about 20 million passengers per year. Over recent months, “maybe there was uncertainty about Condor’s future,” PGL and LOT Chief Executive Rafal Milczarski said at a news conference in Frankfurt.