Air Berlin Plc, Europe's third- biggest discount airline, expects German antitrust regulators to expand their probe into its purchase of charter carrier Condor.

``The investigation will probably last until the end of January'' as the Federal Cartel Office is likely to start an in- depth investigation into whether the acquisition hurts competition, Air Berlin Chief Executive Officer Joachim Hunold said in an interview in Frankfurt Oct. 19.

Air Berlin announced an agreement in September to buy Condor from Peterborough, England-based Thomas Cook Plc, a travel company controlled by German retailer Arcandor AG, for as much as 475 million euros ($674 million) to add routes and planes. That accord came six months after Air Berlin agreed to acquire LTU, another German charter airline.

The antitrust office must approve the Condor transaction by Nov. 5 or start a longer probe. The regulator has yet to make a decision, Silke Christina Kaul, a spokeswoman at the Bonn-based cartel office, said yesterday.

Thomas Cook owns 75.1 percent of Condor and Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe's second-biggest airline, holds the other 24.9 percent. Air Berlin plans to receive Thomas Cook's stake in February 2009 and Lufthansa's in 2010. A full takeover before then ``is not up for discussion at the moment,'' Hunold said. ``We have contracts and we will stick to them.''

Air Berlin has its headquarters in the German capital and ranks third in Europe behind Dublin-based Ryanair Holdings Plc and Luton, England-based EasyJet Plc in terms of passenger numbers. The airline is open to further acquisition ``opportunities'' that ``make sense,'' Hunold said, declining to say whether Air Berlin wants to buy SAS Group's Spanair unit