Lufthansa will meet bankers on Friday to pick an advisor for the possible acquisition of a stake in Austrian Airlines, the daily newspaper Die Presse said on Friday.

Die Presse said Lufthansa's chief executive, Wolfgang Mayrhuber, an Austrian, has invited bankers to present their proposals for a Lufthansa move on the loss-making carrier controlled by Austria's government.

The newspaper did not say where it got the information. Lufthansa declined to comment.

Austrian Airlines has hired The Boston Consulting Group to evaluate its options after it reckoned that rising fuel prices would lead to a net loss of up to EUR90 million euros (USD$141 million) this year.

Sources close to the situation say that Boston Consulting will recommend a partial sale to another airline and that it would find most advantage in a tie-up with Lufthansa, Aeroflot or Air France-KLM.

The report will be presented to Austrian Airline's supervisory board on Monday.

Austrian Airlines and the government's holding company OeIAG have declined to comment on its contents before that.