Lufthansa stake buy gets EU nod

BRUSSELS: Lufthansa AG won EU regulators' permission yesterday to take a large stake in Brussels Airlines, but must give up slots at Belgian, German and Swiss airports to eliminate antitrust concerns.

Lufthansa plans to spend 65 million euros on a 45 percent stake in the holding company that owns the Belgian carrier. The deal, due to close by the end of June, gives the German airline the option to take over all of Brussels Airlines in 2011 for not more than 250 million euros.

The European Commission said Lufthansa had agreed to sell airport slots to other airlines for flights between Brussels airport to Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg and Zurich to soothe EU concerns that Lufthansa would become the only airline serving these routes.