Spanair, a Spanish airline, announced yesterday that it is trying to persuade some of its Star Alliance partners to take a stake in the loss-making carrier. According to a spokesman at Spanair, which the government of Catalonia owns a 28 percent stake in, is in talks with United Continental, Singapore Airlines, Avianca, Turkish Airlines and Deutsche Lufthansa.

Some other low-cost carriers in Europe have questioned the legality of the aid Spanair receives from the government of Catalan, prompting the airline to issue the talks. In recent weeks, the Spanish carrier announced that a company controlled by Catalan would be providing it with a EUR 20 million cash injection. Another government-controlled firm also gave the airline EUR 10 million in October.

Earlier this week, the European Low Fares Airlines Association asked the European Commission to investigate the subsidies, claiming they are a blatant violation of state aid rules and European competition legislation. The Catalan government and Spanair have not yet commented on the accusations.

Scandinavian airline SAS sold Spanair to a group of investors from Catalan last year. SAS, however, still owns an 11.9 percent state in the company while the local government and Catalan business groups control the rest.

In the second half of this year, it is expected that Spanair will report huge losses of EUR 10 million. This, however, is down from the EUR 60 million losses of a year ago. According a spokesman, the company is unlikely to make a profit before 2012.