Wednesday, November 03, 2021
For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic
Lufthansa ends up in the profit zone again
An increased desire to travel and a “record result” in the cargo business give Lufthansa an upswing. After a long dry spell in the Corona crisis, the group is again operating profit in the summer. The downsizing process is also making further progress.
Thanks to a sharp rise in demand for flights, Lufthansa returned to profitability for the first time since the beginning of the Corona crisis in the summer. In the three-month period from June to August, the group’s airlines recorded 19.6 million passengers, as the group announced in Frankfurt am Main. This corresponds to 46 percent of the pre-crisis level in the third quarter of 2019.
According to the company, the operating result rose to 17 million euros. In the same quarter of the previous year, the group had posted a sharp minus of almost 1.3 billion euros. The Group’s sales in the third quarter almost doubled year-on-year and increased by 96 percent to 5.2 billion euros.
In the first nine months of the year Lufthansa, which had to be supported with billions in government aid in view of the dramatic collapse in air traffic during the corona pandemic, achieved a consolidated result of minus 1.9 billion euros. In the previous year it was minus 5.6 billion euros.
As the group has now announced, “people’s longing to travel and the dismantling of pandemic-related travel restrictions” led to a sharp rise in demand for air travel in the summer months. Business travel also recovered “significantly” in the course of the quarter. In the freight business there was another “record result”.
“Path of Successful Change”
Group boss Carsten Spohr declared that it was now a matter of “continuing on the path of successful changes”. Above all, the group wants to reduce its costs. According to the company, measures have already been implemented that save around 2.5 billion euros annually – this corresponds to “more than 70 percent of the annual savings of 3.5 billion euros planned by 2024”. The measures include, among other things, “process improvements at the passenger airlines” and “closer cooperation between Lufthansa German Airlines and Lufthansa Technik”, explained the group.
Lufthansa also wants to continue cutting jobs: “In Germany alone, 4,000 employees have left the company in 2021 through volunteer programs, fluctuation and social plans,” said Lufthansa. In addition, agreements on this have already been made with 3,000 others. At the moment there is still an overhang “mathematically up to 3,000 employees” in Germany.
At the end of September, around 107,000 people were employed by the group, which also includes the airlines Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Brussels Airlines. According to the company, the goal is “long-term employment” for “more than 100,000” people.