Outside the United United States, many nations had traditionally subsidized their national air carriers. There had been an economic benefit in having a nationally branded airline flying the flag overseas, bringing tourists into the country, and generating income for local businesses. National pride also played a role. An increasingly competitive global airline industry meant that small national airlines had become less cost effective. Airlines had been forced to ask for more money from their governments or else go out of business. This was why New Zealand stepped in to prop up Air New Zealand in 2001. For their part, many governments no longer had the money to support airlines as they did in the past. In January 2012, Spain’s Spanair and Hungary’s Malev foundered when their governments reduced airline subsidies. State investors in Sweden's SAS, Ireland's Aer Lingus, Portugal's TAP, and the flag carriers of Poland and the Czech Republic indicated in 2012 that because of the European debt crisis they would be reducing financial support and seeking new investors. Turkish Airlines was working to buy a stake in LOT Polish Airlines from the Polish government, which had been trying to sell its 25% share of the carrier since 2009. These state-supported European airlines found themselves falling behind Europe's three big airline groups: Air France-KLM Group, Deutsche Lufthansa (including carriers in Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland), and International Consolidated Group (merger of British Airways and Iberia). It was logical to expect that mergers among state-supported airlines would soon occur as governments chose to privatize their national airlines by selling their ownership shares.