Europe



A helicopter takes off from Seyne-les-Alpes, French Alps, Tuesday, March 24, 2015, as search-and-rescue teams struggle to reach the remote, snow-covered crash site of Germanwings passenger plane.

A helicopter takes off from Seyne-les-Alpes, French Alps, Tuesday, March 24, 2015, as search-and-rescue teams struggle to reach the remote, snow-covered crash site of Germanwings passenger plane. Image by (AP Photo/Claude Paris)

Lufthansa is offering immediate aid of up to €50,000 (£36,500) per passenger to relatives of the Germanwings crash that killed 150 people.

Airline spokesman Thomas Jachnow confirmed a report by German daily Tagesspiegel.

People waiting for flight 4U 9525 are lead away by airport staff at the airport in Duesseldorf, Germany, Tuesday, March 24, 2015, after a Germanwings passenger jet carrying more than 140 people crashed in the French Alps region as it traveled from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.

People waiting for flight 4U 9525 are lead away by airport staff at the airport in Duesseldorf, Germany, Tuesday, March 24, 2015, after a Germanwings passenger jet carrying more than 140 people crashed in the French Alps region as it traveled from Barcelona to Duesseldorf. Image by (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Lufthansa, which owns the budget carrier Germanwings, had not previously detailed the level of the payments, which are separate from eventual compensation payments.

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said earlier the airline would honour “international arrangements regulating liability” and noted that the company already has offered immediate financial aid to anyone requiring help.

The airline has also flown many victims’ relatives to see the crash site in the French Alps.

(Press Association)