Lufthansa Group to tighten control over subsidiaries, Handelsblatt reports

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Germany's Lufthansa Group is seeking a tighter grip over its European subsidiaries such as Austrian Airlines and Swiss to improve efficiency, newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Monday.

The units, which include Brussels Airlines, will cede control over supply capacity, network planning and sales to the group from the beginning of next year, the paper cited an internal memo to staff as saying.

That will effectively leave the units only in charge of handling passengers on board, the report added.

Handelsblatt cited a company spokesperson as saying the airline group was in the process of increasing efficiency, profitability and customer satisfaction and declined to comment further.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Editing by Friederike Heine)