Lufthansa’s Debt Priorities Mean Taking Fewer Airbus Planes
- Airline is likely to accept less than 80 aircraft through 2023
- Airbus lobbied for assurances that deliveries would continue
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Deutsche Lufthansa AG is unlikely to take delivery of all 80 of the jets it’s allowed to accept through 2023 under terms of a 9 billion-euro ($10.3 billion) government bailout, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The German airline will instead prioritize quick repayment of the aid, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential matters. While the plans are in flux and depend on the pace of a travel recovery, any shortfall would be a setback for Airbus SE. The European planemaker, also partly owned by Germany, is Lufthansa’s most important supplier and lobbied for stronger assurances that the airline would keep up plane deliveries, people familiar with the matter said.