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What the longtime Condor boss Ralf Teckentrup is trying to do on Germany's largest holiday airline Condor is admirable. But it's a suicide mission. The former Lufthansa manager is making an effort to keep the popular charter plane out of the turmoil of the parent company Thomas Cook's bankruptcy and to endow itself with such a dignified retirement. He deserves it.
He and his team managed to consistently earn profits from Condor despite adverse circumstances, not an easy exercise given the murderous competition in the industry. The chances that his plan works, however, are at most 50 to 50:
- The fleet is partly outdated.
- The machines are missing tourists, who previously contributed the host mother as guests.
- And single travelers are likely to hesitate with bookings, as long as it is not clear whether the society has a chance of survival.
Р-the Federal Republic of Germany still want to be a trans-border bank or have a bank loan? Yes. Do we want to rent several dozen machines instead, like the British, to retrieve stranded tourists from abroad? The costs would be immense.
In the case of bankrupt Air Berlin, however, the rescue aid granted in 2017 was even repaid in full, as it turned out these days. What the federal government can not provide is a new owner. And to find that, it takes time. Time that Teckentrup and his team no longer have and only get when the federal government signals that it supports the continuation of Condor as an independent airline. Also with money.
"Let the store go broke," industry experts and self-proclaimed experts point out in reference to the existing overcapacities in the market. For example, the remaining competitors could demand higher prices, earn more and at the same time curb cheap delusions and the associated CO2 emissions. That may be all right, but Condor only exists once. The line belongs to the inventory of the old Federal Republic as the kidney table, VW Beetle or Toast Hawaii.
I can still remember my first flight more than 40 years ago. With Condor we went across the Alps to Sicily, a terrific experience that was only possible because Condor demanded much lower prices than the Lufthansa. The tariffs of the scheduled airlines still had to be approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization IATA and reached dizzying heights.
The fact that Lufthansa hijacked its daughter Condor to the British almost 20 years ago was and remains a sacrilege. The meeting of the Supervisory Board this Tuesday would have offered the opportunity to correct the mistake. But as can be heard, Condor was not even on the agenda.
