It seems the sell off of Niki is down to one candidate – with International Airlines Group being the sole party left.
Niki Airbus A320 (old colours, Shot 2012), Image – Economy Class and Beyond
According to Reuters, Niki – the insolvent unit of Air Berlin is now exclusive talks over the fate of the airline.
Bild states the bid is worth around €40million. There’s a race at the moment to sell the airline. Whilst it doesn’t have any aircraft (as these have been returned to lessors and been redeployed), Niki still holds onto valuable landing slots at airports in Europe that could be exploited.
And that currently is the value of the airline – the slots it holds.
International Airlines Group owns British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, LEVEL, and Vueling in a passenger operating environment.
If IAG succeeds where Lufthansa failed, in taking over the remains of the airline – it would be logical to assume that Vueling would step into its place to provide lift and capacity to fill those slots.
The big question would be if Vueling operate the same network, or if it had something different planned for the area.
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