On July 10, the European Commission rejected concessions offered by Lufthansa to speed up the approval of its takeover of Austrian Airlines. The European Commission went on to tell the German carrier that it would have to come up with concrete concessions by the end of the day for the approval to be sped up.

A spokesman for Lufthansa did confirm that an informal offer had been sent into the European Commission regulators that it wished for an early decision. However, the European Commission said that the offer was not enough to bring its decision forward to the end of the month. They said that unless Lufthansa improves its offer, a decision will not be made until later in November.

The European Commission spokesman, Jonathan Todd, said that they did receive the informal offer from Lufthansa, but he said that, unfortunately, it was worse than what was previously on the table. He went on to say that the new package that was offered showed one step forward and two steps back.

A second investigation from the European Commission had been started this month over some concerns about the takeover of Austrian Airlines by Lufthansa. Many feel that this could cause competition to be reduced on routes between Vienna and other European cities. For the merger to get the go ahead, Lufthansa has to come up with a satisfactory remedy to these concerns.

Todd finished up by saying that if no acceptable plan was put forward by Lufthansa, then the investigation would not report until November 6. Lufthansa can still walk away from the deal if not signed by July 31.