Bailout-or-Bust Dilemma Forces Lufthansa to Call in State Rescue
- Merkel’s government clashed over case of taking a direct stake
- Airline clinched 9-billion euro package after weeks of talks
This article is for subscribers only.
In mid-March, the world as Deutsche Lufthansa AG had known it for close to seven decades unraveled in the space of a week.
Italy’s government put the entire country into quarantine on March 9 as deaths from the coronavirus began spiraling out of control. Two days later, the U.S. announced sweeping travel restrictions from 26 European countries, cutting off the lucrative trans-Atlantic artery. Then on March 17, the German government issued an unprecedented global travel warning. Lufthansa, like much of the world’s airline industry, was indefinitely stuck on the ground, bleeding cash.