German airline Condor to cut up to 25% of staff, CEO tells newspaper

BERLIN (Reuters) - German charter airline Condor will cut up to 25% of its employees to reduce costs and recover from the coronavirus crisis, Chief Executive Ralf Teckentrup told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung weekly.

"Like other airlines, we will have to cut about 15% to 25% of jobs. That would be between 650 and 1,000 jobs," Teckentrup told the Sunday newspaper, adding he expected a crisis in the airline sector to last until 2024.

In April, Germany's government and the federal state of Hesse agreed to give Condor loans worth 550 million euros after the owner of Poland's LOT pulled out of a deal to buy the group.

"We will have lower income and higher costs and have to repay state aid ... Average ticket prices will rise," said Teckentrup.

(Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Edmund Blair)