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"I can confirm that Niki Lauda handed in an offer (for Niki),"
his spokeswoman said, declining to say how much he offered or
whether he had teamed up with anyone.
Niki, unit of Air Berlin, filed for insolvency last week after
Germany's Lufthansa <LHAG.DE> backed out of a deal due to
competition concerns, grounding the airline's fleet and
stranding thousands of passengers.
Niki's administrators, who had asked for binding offers by
Thursday, will assess the offers and present a proposal at a
creditors' meeting on Friday, one of the administrators said.
"I hope that there will be a decision, or at least a decision in
a certain direction, during the meeting," Lucas Floether told
Austrian broadcaster ORF.
Ryanair decided not to bid because there was "insufficient
clarity about Lufthansa aircraft leases to Niki which we
couldn't resolve in time," the Irish carrier said in an emailed
statement.
Lufthansa, which still plans to buy other parts of Air Berlin,
has already arranged with lessors to take on some of the Niki
planes, which has drawn criticism from Lauda.
Lufthansa has said that it will honour conditions set out by the
European Commission under which it must transfer planes to any
alternative Niki purchaser, whether by transferring planes it
has already leased to the buyer or offering to lease or sell
planes it has purchased.
A spokesman for Zeitfracht said that while it wasn't bidding, it
still wanted to cooperate with whoever ends up buying the unit
of collapsed Air Berlin, without providing details.
Other interested parties include tour operator Thomas Cook <TCG.L>
and Swiss carrier PrivatAir. Sources have told Reuters that
British Airways parent IAG <ICAG.L> is also interested.
(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle, Victoria Bryan, Klaus Lauer;
Editing by Maria Sheahan)
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