Lufthansa Group intends to take full ownership of Brussels Airlines early in 2017.
Approval to exercise a call option to acquire 55% of the shares in Brussels Airlines' parent SN Airholding was today granted by Lufthansa's supervisory board, says the German airline group.
Lufthansa has owned 45% of SN Airholding since 2009 and had planned to decide on whether to acquire the remaining shares earlier this year. But the terrorist attacks at Brussels airport prompted Lufthansa to delay that decision.
The Frankfurt-based Star Alliance member says it wants to reach agreements with SN Airholdings shareholders by year-end in order to conclude the acquisition at the beginning of 2017.
Aside from Lufthansa, SN Airholdings has around 30 shareholders, including Virgin Group, Fortis, Suez, Tractebel, Brussels airport and Belgian regional investment funds.
Lufthansa has previously signalled that it is evaluating some form of partnership between its budget aim Eurowings and Brussels Airlines.
Flight Fleets Analyzer shows that Brussels Airlines has 29 Airbus A320s, nine A330s and a mixed regional fleet that includes BAE Systems Avro RJ100 and Embraer ERJ-145 jets as well as Bombardier Q400 turboprops.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
