Six years ago Condor was a German holiday airline whose parent had just collapsed, kept alive by a state bridging loan while everyone worked out what to do with it. On 25 September 2026 the German state announced it is getting out entirely.

Attestor, the British investment firm that bought 51 percent of Condor in 2021, has exercised an option written into that original deal and will acquire the remaining 49 percent. That stake is held by SG Luftfahrtgesellschaft, a vehicle owned jointly by the federal government and the state of Hesse. Closing is planned for 31 August 2027. Neither side has disclosed a price.

What unlocked it was Condor repaying its state-backed loan early, in spring 2026. The airline settled a €175 million KfW facility ahead of schedule, and in doing so handed its majority owner the key to the rest of the company.

The Numbers Behind the Exit

Condor’s last reported financial year is the reason this is being framed as a success and also the reason it is more complicated than that.

Revenue rose 11 percent to €2.35 billion. Operating profit climbed 25 percent to €151 million. Passenger numbers were up 13 percent to 9.6 million. By the measures that describe whether an airline is good at flying aeroplanes, Condor had a strong year.

It still posted a net loss of €110.4 million. The reported reasons are interest on loans from Attestor itself, used to fund the fleet renewal, and changes in lease accounting. In other words: the operating business works, and the capital structure is expensive.

Why the State Was There at All

Condor ended up part-owned by the German taxpayer because of somebody else’s bankruptcy. When its British parent Thomas Cook collapsed in September 2019, Condor was a functioning, separately-certificated airline attached to a dead company, and Berlin lent it money rather than let it stop.

Attestor arrived in 2021 with roughly €450 million covering equity and fleet renewal, took majority control, and negotiated the option it has just used. The state kept 49 percent and a loan. That loan is now repaid, and the 49 percent is on its way out of public hands.

Full Ownership, Halfway Through a Restructuring

Attestor is taking complete control of an airline in the middle of a savings programme. Condor’s “Zukunftspakt”, its future pact, targets €100 million of savings a year across the next two financial years.

The commercial picture behind that is an airline rebuilding its own feed. Condor has renewed its long-haul fleet with A330neos and expanded short and medium-haul flying to funnel passengers into its Frankfurt long-haul operation — work it has to do itself since Lufthansa ended the feeder arrangements Condor once relied on.

Gerber’s warning, made alongside the ownership news, points at fuel costs driven up by Middle East tensions rather than anything to do with the shareholder register. It is a reminder that the thing being bought outright is still a leisure airline in a market where the customer notices twenty euros.

What It Means

For passengers, nothing immediate. The aircraft, the crews and the schedule are unaffected by who owns the shares.

For the German government, it is a rare clean ending to a pandemic-era intervention: money lent, money repaid, stake sold. For Attestor, it is the removal of a public-sector co-owner from an airline it now has to make work on its own terms, with a savings target running and a full year still to go before the deal even closes.

Sources: aeroTELEGRAPH; hessenschau; dpa-AFX roundup via finanzen.at; Reuters.