BERLIN, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- German Condor Airlines would continue its flight operations "as planned" after the bankruptcy of its parent company Thomas Cook on Monday, a press spokesperson of the airline confirmed to Xinhua on Tuesday.
According to the German airline, a subsidiary of the world's second largest tour operator Thomas Cook, about 240,000 people were currently traveling with Condor.
"I assure you that we will do everything in our power to ensure that our fleet continues to bring our guests reliably to their worldwide holiday destinations and home again safely as planned as we have for the past 64 years," said Ralf Teckentrup, chief executive officer of Condor, on Monday.
Following the insolvency of Thomas Cook, Condor applied for a bridging loan by the German government in order to avoid "short term liquidity challenges". The German airline did not provide any information on the amount of the loan.
The loan application was currently under review by the German government. According to Condor, the government of the German federal state Hesse, where the company is headquartered, would have "already promised its support".
"The German government should support Condor, for reasons of equal treatment alone," Klaus Mueller, chairman of the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv), told the newspapers of the German Funke Media Group on Tuesday.
Mueller referred to a loan that the German government had granted to the German airline Air Berlin, which went bankrupt in 2017. According to Mueller, the experience with Air Berlin's loan had been positive as the last installment had just been repaid.
German airport operators were also hoping for the airline's continued existence. The German airport association ADV welcomed "expressly" that Condor is trying to maintain flight operations despite the "difficult situation".
The domestic aviation industry could not afford to lose another German airline after Air Berlin in 2017 and Germania in early 2019, said ADV chairman Ralph Beisel, adding that "the German holiday airline should be given a fair chance to continue its long-term operations".
The German taxpayers' association (BdSt) rejected governmental aid for Condor. "We must be careful that the taxpayer does not become a kind of last resort of insurance", said Reiner Holznagel, chairman of the BdSt to the German newspapers Stuttgarter Zeitung and Stuttgarter Nachrichten on Tuesday.
