Gobble gobble. There was an interesting European airline deal announced this week — as Air Berlin announced a deal to take over charter airline Condor in February 2009.

Thomas Cook, the travel conglomerate, said this week that it would exchange its 75.1% stake in Condor for just under 30% in Air Berlin and an undisclosed amount of cash.

Depending upon Air Berlin’s stock price in 17 months, the deal could be worth between $705 and $845 million.

Only one interesting part to all this. Lufthansa owns 24.9% of Condor and reports this week indicated that the deal was put together without Lufthansa’s blessing.

This is no small thing as Air Berlin is now Lufthansa’s biggest domestic rival. (Air Berlin is on a merger tear, having already purchased  German carriers DBA and LTU.)

In addition, Condor and LTU are Germany’s two biggest charter carriers, according to the Financial Times.

Dunno. 17 months is an eternity in this business.

Will be interesting to see how this one pans out. As for Air Berlin, I think it currently has its hands full trying to put the pieces together with DBA and LTU.

Technorati Tags: Air Berlin, airlines, Condor, Lufthansa