Thursday, March 4th, 2021
Recovery drags on
Corona breaks Lufthansa record loss
Lufthansa made a record loss of 6.7 billion euros last year due to the corona crisis. Even rising prices in the freight sector cannot compensate for the deep red numbers on passenger flights. After the difficult start to the new year, things are not looking good for 2021 either.
Lufthansa, which narrowly escaped bankruptcy, made the highest loss in the company's history due to the corona crisis last year. Despite massive cost reductions, the net loss in 2020 amounted to 6.7 billion euros, after a profit of 1.2 billion euros in the previous year, as Lufthansa announced. The figures largely correspond to the analyst estimates made by the company itself.
In the current year, the operating loss should be lower than the minus in the crisis year of 5.5 billion euros. "Starting in summer, we expect stronger demand again as soon as the restrictive travel restrictions are reduced due to the further spread of tests and vaccines," said Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr and called for travel bans and quarantine obligations to be lifted.
Due to the slump in demand during the pandemic, the number of passengers reached 36.4 million, only a quarter of the previous year's figure. A large part of the fleet was on the ground, it took off only around a third of the flights of the previous year. Sales fell by 63 percent to 13.6 billion euros.
The main business with passenger flights was in the red. Only the cargo division Lufthansa Cargo was able to benefit from rising prices with scarce capacity and achieved an operating profit of 772 million euros – the highest in its history. In the current year Lufthansa boss Spohr expects a recovery due to the elimination of the strict travel requirements in Europe in the summer. But he is no longer quite as confident as he was at the end of last year.
For the year as a whole, Lufthansa expects a capacity of 40 to 50 percent compared to the pre-crisis year 2019. Previously, the airline had expected to achieve up to 60 percent. The group, however, expects a difficult year 2021 and renewed losses. The effects are long-term – the airline does not anticipate a 90 percent load factor again until the middle of the decade.
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