More air traffic again: Lufthansa makes a loss of almost a billion - and is recovering

Lufthansa has reduced the loss in the Corona crisis with increasing passenger numbers and cost reductions.

In the second quarter, the adjusted operating result amounted to minus 952 million euros, the aviation group announced on Thursday.

The loss was thus much lower than in the same quarter of the previous year, when the corona lockdown caused a deficit of 1.7 billion euros, and slightly lower than analysts expected.

Thanks to strong bookings and cost reductions, also through short-time working and downsizing, Lufthansa was able to stop the outflow of funds for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic and took in 340 million euros in cash.

"The fact that more than 30,000 colleagues have left us so far hurts us all, but is inevitable for the sustainable rescue of the more than 100,000 remaining jobs," said CEO Carsten Spohr.

7 million passengers

The corona crisis hit air traffic hard.

It was only since May that more passenger planes started to take off again with the easing of travel restrictions.

Lufthansa and the subsidiary airlines Eurowings, Swiss, Brussels and Austrian Airlines carried 7 million passengers from April to June - that was more than in the same period last year, when air traffic was largely on the ground and 1.7 million passengers boarded, but only 18 Percent of 2019 pre-crisis level.

Revenue rose by 70 percent to 3.2 billion euros, but remained far below the level of normal times when Lufthansa had flown in almost ten billion euros in revenue.

At the same time, Lufthansa is making faster progress with its cost reductions than planned: Half of the targeted sum of 3.5 billion euros in savings by 2024 has already been implemented.

Capital increase planned

The renewed increase in the number of infections cast a shadow over tourism in Europe, which is currently recovering and which is currently the main business for Lufthansa due to the lack of business customers.

The important transatlantic business is also still weak because the USA still does not allow Europeans to enter the country to protect against Corona, even if there could be changes soon.

The Executive Board left the outlook for the full year unchanged: The offer is expected to reach an average of 40 percent of the seat capacity of 2019, in the third quarter the airline group plans to offer 50 percent of the pre-crisis capacity. The operating loss will be less than the minus in the previous year of almost 5.5 billion euros. The low-cost airline Ryanair, the main competitor in terms of passenger numbers, wants to fill around two thirds of the seats in the current financial year compared to 2019 and reach zero in terms of operating profit.

Lufthansa had to be saved from bankruptcy due to the pandemic with a € 9 billion government financial package from Germany and the other countries of its airlines - Austria, Switzerland and Belgium. The company used around 4 billion euros of this. Since the rescue operation last year, the German state has been the main shareholder with a stake of 20 percent.

Lufthansa boss Spohr wants to reduce the taxpayer debt with money from a capital increase, which, according to earlier statements, could be carried out before the general election at the end of September. According to analysts, Lufthansa shares will remain slackers until the capital increase because it is unclear how much the value of the paper will be watered down. According to data from Refinitiv, no bank is currently recommending the share as a buy - the majority of analysts advise selling it.