FRANKFURT/Cologne (dpa-AFX) - Deutsche Lufthansa AG is putting its legal headquarters in Cologne to the test. The deliberations are still at a very early stage, a company spokesman said Friday. Contrary to a media report, no preliminary decision or even a decision has been made yet, he said.

Lufthansa operates its two hubs in Munich and Frankfurt. On the Main, the group also has the Lufthansa Aviation Center, from which the company is operationally controlled. The two cities had already been considered as possible headquarters in the past.

After the Second World War, the German government had initially pursued the reestablishment of a state-owned airline in Cologne. The predecessor company LUFTAG was founded there in 1953, changed its name to Deutsche Lufthansa AG in 1954 and has had its legal seat on the Rhine ever since. Of the more than 100,000 employees of the Group, however, only a few hundred still work in Cologne./ceb/DP/stk