A fifth of leadership jobs at Germany's Lufthansa are being axed.

The 20% cull of management positions was part of a restructuring plan announced on Tuesday (July 7).

1,000 administrative jobs will go too.

The group, which employs about 138,000 people, said it would also halve its investment in new aircraft.

Shareholders backed a $10.2 billion government bailout last month.

That was after Germany's flagship carrier was brought to the brink of collapse by the unprecedented international travel slump.

Lufthansa also said on Tuesday it wanted to reduce government loans and equity stakes as soon as possible to avoid an increase in interest charges.

The airline said it had staff in 22,000 full-time positions it no longer needed, but would try to avoid forced layoffs.

Lufthansa said it was trying to reach agreement with trade unions on layoff plans, but had only been successful so far with the UFO union representing German cabin crew.

The airline decided in April to cut 100 aircraft from its fleet of about 760 and not to resume operations of its budget carrier Germanwings.