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| - German airline giant Lufthansa said Wednesday that Bern had agreed to offer state-backed loans of around 1.2 billion euros to the company's subsidiaries Swiss and Edelweiss, as the group struggles to stay solvent amid the coronavirus pandemic. The two Switzerland-based carriers "will receive guarantees from the Swiss Confederation for 85 percent of loans totalling 1.5 billion Swiss francs (approx. 1.4 billion euros/$1.54 bln)", with the money to be paid out by a consortium of Swiss banks, Lufthansa said in a statement. The loans would be granted at market rates for a period of up to five years, and remained subject to approval by the Swiss parliament, the group added. With global air travel having ground to a halt in the coronavirus crisis, Lufthansa reported a 1.2 -billion-euro operating loss in the first quarter of 2020, and is expecting "considerably higher" losses in the second, with results expected next month. The group, which also includes Brussels and Austrian Airlines, said it was in "intensive negotiations" with the governments of various countries to "secure solvency". Austrian Airlines have asked Vienna for 767 million euros worth of aid, while Lufthansa itself is attempting to negotiate around nine to ten billion euros from the German government, according to local media reports. Earlier on Wednesday, the group announced that its emergency flight plan, which has seen passenger numbers reduced by around 99 percent, would be extended until May 31, though some connections would be restored. As of May 18, Lufthansa said it would offer 15 long-haul connections and "330 weekly flights from its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich to the most important cities in Germany and Europe", up from 280 on the current emergency plan. kih/hmn/cdw
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