After losing billions again in the Corona crisis, Lufthansa is expecting a strong recovery.

However, the management around CEO Carsten Spohr does not dare to make a profit forecast because of the uncertainty about the consequences of the Ukraine crisis.

"We are very sure that air traffic will experience a strong upswing this year," Spohr said on Thursday.

"Now we are leaving the crisis behind us mentally and - in view of the strong booking figures this year - also commercially."

A detailed financial outlook is currently not possible, said Spohr.

After a weak first quarter, however, things should go up significantly, so that the result will improve.

Bookings for the Easter and summer holidays have almost reached the pre-crisis level of 2019.

For the year as a whole, the Lufthansa Group, which also includes Eurowings, Swiss, Austrian and Brussels Airlines, wants to offer more than 70 percent of the pre-crisis capacity for passenger flights after only 40 percent last year.

The company was also deep in the red in the second year of the corona pandemic, but significantly reduced the loss.

Operationally, there was a minus of 2.3 billion euros in 2021 after 5.5 billion euros in the previous year, when the corona pandemic broke out.

Lufthansa performed as expected on the market.

Several waves of Covid disease worldwide slowed demand as governments fought the spread of the dangerous virus with strict quarantine obligations and other requirements.

Freight division with record profit

The network airlines made a high operating loss due to the still weak long-haul business.

The holiday airline Eurowings, which focuses on Europe, was able to significantly reduce its minus.

Lufthansa-Cargo tore the group with a record profit of 1.5 billion, because tight supply and high demand for air freight enabled a sharp rise in prices.

Lufthansa Technik and catering also made a profit.

The airline group, which was saved from collapse with a high level of state aid, was able to reduce its net loss by two thirds to 2.2 billion euros, with sales of 16.8 billion euros.

The number of passengers rose by 29 percent to 47 million.

Before the Corona crisis, there were more than 140 million.

In the Corona crisis, Lufthansa laid off 30,000 employees without there being any redundancies in Germany.

At the end of last year, the group still had 105,000 employees worldwide.

Personnel costs have been structurally reduced by ten percent.

By 2024, they should be 15 to 20 percent below the pre-crisis level.

"Today, the Lufthansa Group is more efficient and sustainable than before the pandemic," explained Spohr.

The airline group wants to continue to be one of the five largest in the world.