Lufthansa Group will bid for a minority stake in state-owned Portuguese carrier TAP Air Portugal.
Portugal's government announced a privatization procedure for TAP in July. It plan to sell up to 44.9% of the carrier to a winning bidder or bidders and reserve 5% of TAP stock for the airline's workers.
Lufthansa Group carriers currently fly about 140 weekly roundtrips to Portugal and its largest carriers (Lufthansa, Swiss, Brussels) are in the Star Alliance with TAP. A partnership, Lufthansa Group said, would strengthen Lisbon's position as an Atlantic hub for the group.
"Connectivity between Europe and other regions of the world, such as South America Africa, and North America, could be expanded." Lufthansa said.
Air France-KLM has also submitted a proposal for TAP. International Airlines Group -- parent of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling -- has also expressed interest.