LONDON (Standard&Poor's) Dec. 20, 2001--Standard&Poor's today assigned its triple-'B'-plus long-term and 'A-2' short-term corporate credit ratings to Deutsche Lufthansa AG (Lufthansa), the Germany-based aviation group. The outlook is stable. The ratings on Lufthansa reflect its position as: -- Europe's second-largest airline in terms of passenger traffic (81.4 billion revenue passenger-kilometers in 2000); -- The world's second-largest carrier in air freight transport; and -- The world's leading civil aircraft maintenance and in-flight catering provider. Despite strong market positions and a moderate financial profile, the ratings are constrained by challenging volume and pricing pressures in most of Lufthansa's markets, and increased debt levels associated with the acquisition of the remaining unowned shares in catering unit Sky Chefs in
