Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr yesterday revealed that he is not worried about the Green Party in Germany from an airline perspective. The news comes as the Green Party became Germany’s leading party in the polls earlier this week.
Across Europe, the environment has become a hot topic. As part of this, aviation has been one of the industries targeted due to its visible pollution. This has been particularly the case in France, where lawmakers are moving closer to banning some short-haul domestic flights. However, Lufthansa’s CEO isn’t worried about the rise of the Green Party in Germany.
Green Party will support the economy
According to The Local in Germany, the Green Party took the lead in German opinion polls on Monday with 28%, overtaking Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU with 27%. While presenting Lufthansa’s Q1 results yesterday, its CEO Carsten Spohr revealed that he isn’t worried about the German Green Party. Justifying his decision, Spohr commented,
“If you look at those states in Germany where the Green Party is in power… you see that once they are in power they very much shift their policies towards supporting the economy.”
Spohr believes that low-cost carriers, such as Ryanair, are far more likely to be targetted by any new policies. He suggested that Germany could potentially implement the Austrian minimum fare policy,
“The specific topics they have in terms of aviation are much more targetted against the low-cost carriers… You see the ideas of the greens in Austria, which might be copied into Germany, minimum prices of €30 ($36), I think that’s more what we’ll see assuming the green party is part of the government in the future on the federal level.”
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Austria’s minimum fare will mean that fares under €40 ($48) would be banned. This would particularly affect low-cost carriers such as Ryanair, who offers €9.99 ($12.08) fares. In contrast, most if not all of Austrian Airlines’ fares are above €40. Spohr wouldn’t have any issue with such a policy in Germany, previously attacking the low fares offered by Ryanair as irresponsible. However, he later backtracked, saying he would provide such fares if needed to keep his valuable airport slots.
France style flight ban would only affect one route
In France, lawmakers are currently seeking to ban domestic flights that could be served by train in less than two and a half hours. However, Spohr isn’t worried that this would affect Lufthansa if implemented in Germany. He added,
“For those of you who have been following the decision of this French Government, if that same ruling would have been adapted to Germany, which means no domestic flight unless there are connecting passengers onboard, and unless it takes more than two and a half hours to replace that flights by train, only one domestic route in Germany would’ve been stopped, which is Dusseldorf – Stuttgart”
Do you think Lufthansa should be worried about the rise of the Green Party in Germany? Let us know what you think and why in the comments below!
