FRANKFURT--Deutsche Lufthansa AG will pay out an initial sum of 50,000 euros (about $54,000) per person to the relatives of passengers on the Germanwings Flight 9525 that crashed in the French Alps earlier this week, the Lufthansa unit said Friday.

"Of course we can't compensate materially for the lives of those lost, but we wanted to provide some immediate financial help to the affected families," a Germanwings spokeswoman said.

Germanwings said the payments wouldn't affect potential further claims made by the families.

Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com

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