BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government sees plans to pay Lufthansa executive board members a bonus for 2021 and 2022 despite the German airline receiving state aid at the time as in breach of their agreement, said a German government spokesperson on Wednesday.
The bonus cannot be accrued and paid out at a later date, said the spokesperson, who added the government is in talks with Lufthansa.
The Handelsblatt daily reported on Tuesday that Lufthansa executive board members will each receive several million euros as a bonus for 2021 and 2022, when the airline was receiving funding as part of a pandemic bailout package to save it from bankruptcy totalling 9 billion euros ($9.53 billion); at that time, dividend and bonus payments were banned.
A Lufthansa spokesperson told Handelsblatt that the money would not be paid out until 2025, if everything went well until then, meaning the payments were not retroactive but rather part of a long-term bonus.