Lufthansa Chief Executive Officer Christoph Franz told reporters that his company was open to forming partnerships with any of the Middle East-based carriers. However, Franz said it does not yet see the need to form an alliance with any of the Gulf airlines as of the moment.
"We have investigated this question several times ... The Lufthansa group, we have done our own homework and we developed business plans, potential forms of joint ventures, etcetera, with the different Gulf carriers. So far we've come to the conclusion that it is not beneficial for us. But in our industry never say never. So if things and the environment are changing, maybe we come to new solutions," Franz said.
The biggest airline in Europe by sales, Lufthansa currently has a joint venture with United Airlines and Air Canada to cover the North American route. It also has another venture with All Nippon Airways for the Europe-Japan route, according to Reuters.
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