"The rejection of the support package is a signal to the federal government to renegotiate terms with Brussels," a member of Lufthansa's board said, as quoted by the Focus weekly.
According to the source, as cited in the report, the company believes that bankruptcy can turn more advantageous than state aid and, therefore, does not rule out this option. As an example of advantages, they said that opting out for bankruptcy, Lufthansa will be able to suspend reimbursement for sold tickets with an amount totalling up to 1.8 billion euros. It would also make dismissals and closures of unprofitable subsidiaries easier, it was argued in the report.
On Monday, the German government approved a nine-billion-euro ($9.8 billion) bailout for Lufthansa in return for a 20-percent share in the company via emission of additional shares of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, as well as concessions of valuable take-off and landing slots with rival air companies.
Lufthansa's supervisory board rejected these terms on Wednesday.