Wolfgang Mayrhuber, chief executive of German carrier Lufthansa, sees airline consolidation in Europe gaining pace if the European Union and the US fail in their troubled bid to liberalise air traffic between the regions.

But he signalled in an FT interview that Lufthansa did not feel under pressure to quicken the pace of current “creeping” consolidation in Europe by adding to its 2005 purchase of Swiss in the foreseeable future.