Lufthansa CEO says will be part of any consolidation in Europe

[BERLIN] Lufthansa expects consolidation to occur among European airlines and is ready to be part of it, the carrier's chief executive said on Thursday.

"If it comes about, Lufthansa needs to be part of that and Eurowings is our tool for this," Carsten Spohr told analysts, referring to the group's new budget unit.

Many industry experts say European airlines need to consolidate to try and improve their profitability.

Mr Spohr also added he welcomed a white paper from US carriers accusing Gulf airlines of receiving subsidies.

"The white paper is very much in line with what we and Air France have said over the last years. Unfortunately we don't have the same intelligence services," he said, referring to the detailed accusations in the paper.

REUTERS