- Lufthansa has a difficult start to the spring
Lufthansa Group's Challenging Start to Spring
Lufthansa Group's start to the spring was tough, with the company earning significantly less profit than it did a year ago. The company cited strikes costing around 100 million euros and decreasing average ticket prices, particularly in the direction of Asia due to increasing capacity from Chinese airlines, as reasons for the weak second quarter. Lufthansa has already trimmed its winter flight schedule due to lower yields.
In total, the MDAX company reported a group profit of 469 million euros (2023: 881 million euros) in the second quarter. The company increased its quarterly revenue by seven percent to 10 billion euros. While the flight offering grew by 11 percent year-on-year, the revenues of the passenger airlines only increased by 4.5 percent.
The core company, Lufthansa, was particularly loss-making, accumulating a loss of 427 million euros in the first half of the year, half a billion less than in the same period last year when it reported a profit of 149 million euros. The management has started a cost-cutting program. Meanwhile, the maintenance subsidiary Lufthansa Technik had record business, and the company expects profits at or above last year's level for other airlines such as Swiss, Austrian, Brussels, and Eurowings.
For the full year, the company now expects an adjusted operating profit (bereinigtes EBIT) of between 1.4 to 1.8 billion euros, down from the previous target of around 2.2 billion euros. In the second quarter, the operating profit was 686 million euros, compared to 1.1 billion euros in the same period last year.
Lufthansa announcement, 12.7.2024
The decreased operating profit in the second quarter, compared to the same period last year, was reflected in Lufthansa Group's quarterly figures, which showed an adjusted operating profit of 686 million euros. Due to various challenges, the company's group profit for the second quarter was lower than the previous year, with a figure of 469 million euros.
