Lufthansa and its partner Karstadt have sold their jointly owned travel subsidiary Euro Lloyd Reisebüro to Swiss holding company Kuoni Reisen. It clears the way for their new C&N Touristik travel venture.
Lufthansa is being forced to back out of other travel ventures, including the sale of stakes in Hapag-Lloyd and DER, under pressure from Germany's monopolies watchdog.
Founded at the start of the year, C&N Touristik is now one of the biggest charter holiday companies in Europe, holding 90% of Lufthansa charter subsidiary Condor and 90% of Karstadt's tour operator NUR.
Until now, Lufthansa owned 49%of Euro Lloyd, with the remainder held by Karstadt. A contract for the sale was signed with Kuoni on 24 February, subject to approval by the Lufthansa supervisory board.
Euro Lloyd has 110 travel agencies throughout Germany, with sales of over DM1 billion ($550 million).
Source: Flight International