Air France-KLM has signaled it wants to get back into the bidding race for Austrian Airlines, but has not made an offer, a source in the state holding company said on Friday.
Holding company OeIAG, which is organizing the sale, is examining whether this is possible, the source said. Air France failed to submit a binding bid for the stake by the October 24 deadline.
"We got a letter about it yesterday from Air France," the source said. The letter did not contain an offer but said Air France wanted to get back into the privatization talks.
Austrian media have said Air France's change of heart might be because it did not know from the terms of the tender that some relief for the carrier's debt was a possibility.
OeIAG is offering a 42 percent stake in Austrian. It is considering bids from Lufthansa and Russia's S7.
Lufthansa has demanded Austria assumes up to EUR500 million euros (USD$637 million) of Austrian's EUR900 million debt pile, and the sale process had to be extended last week to hammer out the details.
Lufthansa's bid, under which it would pay only a nominal amount for OeIAG's stake but would make a buyout offer to other shareholders, expires early December, according to a source close to the process.
