The European Commission has approved Lufthansa’s takeover of Austrian Airlines Group, allowing it start integrating the company in September. Lufthansa is taking over about 42 per cent of the shares of Austrian Airlines owned by the government for about euro336,000 (US$480,000). The commission also approved a euro500 million government restructuring programme, which Lufthansa has said in the past would be necessary to reduce Austrian’s debt. The EU made its decision based on the condition that Lufthansa and Austrian give up some of their flights on the routes between Vienna and Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne and Brussels for competition reasons.