Lufthansa has no plans to sell stake in Thomas Cook

FRANKFURT - German airline Lufthansa said Wednesday it had no plans to sell its 50-percent stake in the travel and tourism group Thomas Cook or the unit's charter airline Condor.
"That's not on the agenda," the German flag carrier's chief financial officer Karl-Ludwig Kley told a telephone conference.
"There are nothing but positive things to say about Thomas Cook at the moment. Business is doing well and there is nothing new to say," Kley said.
Europe's leading tourism group TUI helped fuel takeover speculation this week by saying it would not rule out buying certain assets of Thomas Cook.
Lufthansa's CFO retorted that Thomas Cook's charter airline Condor was "not up for sale. It's a first-class company".
At the same time, Kley did not fully rule out a sale of the Thomas Cook's Aldiana club hotels to TUI.
Recent press reports have quoted financial sources as saying that Thomas Cook was in exclusive talks to sell Aldiana to US fund Advent International.
Thomas Cook is a 50-50 joint venture between Lufthansa and the troubled retail giant KarstadtQuelle.

05/11/2005 09:20 GMT