LONDON, May 1 — Air France-KLM Group closed the sale of its CityJet unit to Intro Aviation GmbH with a deal the German buyer said will seek to extend the partnership between the carriers at London City airport.

Air France will continue its commercial cooperation as part of a new industrial plan, with CityJet seeking to develop a European network under its own brand from the London base where it’s the No. 1 carrier, Intro said in a statement today.

The German company finally closed the purchase yesterday, ending an auction that began in September 2012 as Air France revamps regional operations to end years of losses. Intro is taking on a carrier with 38 BAE Systems Plc Avro RJ85 jets and Fokker 50 turboprops small enough to take off from the short runway at London City, an airport favoured by business travellers because of its proximity to the financial district.

The offer price for the deal, which includes VLM Airlines of Belgium, was not disclosed. CityJet will also continue to operate flights for Air France at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, Europe’s second-busiest hub.

Intro was founded in 1973 by retail entrepreneur Hans- Rudolf Woehrl, who ran Nuremburg-based carrier NFD before selling that operation to Eurowings in 1992, according to the Reichenschwand-based company’s website.

Woehrl became CEO of Deutsche BA in 2003 after buying the unit for €1 (RM4.53) from British Airways, which had hired him to shut it down. The operation was refocused on the high-frequency business travel market and sold in 2006 to Air Berlin Plc, which later also bought long-haul carrier LTU from Intro.

Intro was advised by Geneva-based Barons Financial Services, which acted on the other deals and said it also initiated the CityJet transaction.

Ernst & Young acted as accounting adviser and Matheson of Dublin and BTU Group of Munich advised on legal matters. — Bloomberg