Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) has approached Condor (DE, Frankfurt International) over its proposed participation in the German mainline carrier's Eurowings (EW, Düsseldorf) budget operation.

Informed sources who spoke to The Wall Street Journal said talks are currently at an early stage and that no fixed decisions have yet been taken.

Condor was a subsidiary of Lufthansa up until early 2003 when its entire shareholding was bought out by package holiday group, Thomas Cook. At present, it operates ten A320-200s, six A321-200s, thirteen B757-300s, and twenty B767-300(ER)s on leisure flights to forty countries in the Caribbean, North America, Latin America, the Mediterranean, Africa, and Asia.

For its part, Lufthansa has been scouting for potential partners for its Eurowings budget project. As recently reported, SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) and Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National) have been approached over their respective participations.

Eurowings is Lufthansa's reponse to Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) and easyJet (London Luton) on the domestic and regional fronts and to Emirates (EK, Dubai International), Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International), and Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) on the longhaul front.