It had long been clear to industry insiders why Lufthansa took out several bonds on the capital market this year. The aim was to repay the state aid to the Federal Republic of Germany as quickly as possible. This will also rid the carrier of possible government influence.

On Friday, Deutsche Lufthansa AG repaid or terminated all remaining silent participations in the Federal Republic of Germany. The repayment was made much earlier than originally planned.

In the morning, the silent contribution II of the Economic Stabilization Fund of the Federal Republic of Germany (WSF) in the amount of 1 billion euros was completely redeemed. After the company had already repaid Silent Contribution I, of which only 1,5 billion euros had been called, in October, the unused and remaining part has now also been terminated. The company had already repaid a KfW loan of 1 billion euros early in February. This means that all German government loans and silent partnership contributions including interest have now been repaid or terminated. Under these conditions, the WSF has undertaken to sell its stake in Deutsche Lufthansa AG amounting to around 14 percent of the share capital by October 2023 at the latest.

“On behalf of all Lufthansa employees, I would like to thank the German Federal Government and the German taxpayers. In the worst financial crisis in our company's history, they gave us prospects for the future. As a result, we were able to keep more than 100.000 jobs. We are proud that we have now been able to keep our promise earlier than expected and have repaid the German financial aid. I would like to thank our employees for their great commitment and especially our customers who have remained loyal to us during this challenging time. Lufthansa could rely on Germany and Germany can rely on Lufthansa. Many challenges remain. Our aim is to strengthen our position among the world's leading airline groups. To this end, we will systematically continue the restructuring and transformation of the company, ”explains CEO Carsten Spohr.

In Austria, Switzerland and Belgium, government loans have so far been partially repaid. According to a press release, Austrian Airlines only repaid 30 million euros. Another, significantly higher installment payment has been announced for December 2021. In the Alpine republic, however, there is also a non-repayable aid amounting to 150 million euros. This was linked to a number of conditions. Furthermore, the workforce of Austrian Airlines is still in the state aid measure for short-time work.