Germanwings crash: Lufthansa offers financial assistance to families

Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, said it is offering financial assistance of 50,000 euros ($54,400) to the relatives of the victims aboard flight 4U9525 that crashed on Tuesday en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.

The Germanwings Airbus A320 jet crashed in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in the French Alps, killing all 150 people - 144 passengers and six crew members - on board.

The relatives of each victim would get up to 50,000 euros for "immediate help", a Lufthansa spokesman told Xinhua on Saturday.

The final amount of each payment would depend on "what the need (of the relatives) is", the spokesman said, adding that the airline would calculate the this on "what Lufthansa has to pay".

Lufthansa's chief executive officer (CEO) Carsten Spohr had on Thursday said his company would financially support and facilitate relatives of the victims, indicating that the airline was financially stable and would be able to continue flying.