COLOGNE, Germany, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- German airline Lufthansa would not comment Thursday on a French newspaper report it was in discussions to buy a "key stake" in Spanish airline Iberia.
A Lufthansa spokesman called the report in Paris's La Tribune "speculation." An Iberia spokeswoman in Madrid denied talks were taking place.
La Tribune added an outright takeover -- which could create an airline that would carry 100 million passengers a year -- would face several obstacles, such as Iberia's price tag. The airline has a stock market value of about $4.1 billion.
Europe's current No. 1 airline in passenger-miles is Air France-KLM, an airline created in a 2004 merger that carries 70 million passengers annually.
Iberia's finance director raised the possibility of a joint arrangement with Lufthansa or Air France-KLM in a November newspaper interview.
Iberia is already 10 percent-owned by British Airways.
Lufthansa's relationship with Iberia, Spain's largest airline, goes back to 1928, when it bought 24 percent of an air company that later became Iberia.
