Lufthansa continues to recover after the Corona crisis – travel boom in summer
Thanks to strong demand from private travelers and high ticket prices, Lufthansa continued to put the losses from the Corona crisis behind in the first quarter. With a 40 percent increase in sales to seven billion euros, the usual seasonal operating loss from January to March was halved to 273 million euros, as the company announced on Wednesday. This corresponded to the expectations of analysts raised by Lufthansa. The net loss fell by a fifth compared to the weak quarter of the previous year, but at 467 million euros it was much higher than the market had expected. Lufthansa justified this with the costs of ramping up stable flight operations in the summer and strikes by ground staff at airports, which led to many cancellations. A write-down on the sold international catering business also had a negative impact.
“The consistently strong demand makes us confident for the coming months,” said CFO Remco Steenbergen. Average revenues, an indicator of price development, were a fifth higher in the first quarter than before the Corona crisis in 2019 and are expected to continue to rise. If there is still a shortage of flights, Lufthansa can therefore push through higher prices, especially in the expensive booking classes. With strong bookings in the first quarter, the airline group, which in addition to Lufthansa and Eurowings also owns the domestic subsidiaries Swiss, Austrian and Brussels Airlines, expects another travel boom in the summer.