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Lufthansa machines are parked on the premises of BER, which is about to open
Photo: ANNEGRET HILSE / REUTERS
Lufthansa flew in another billion-dollar loss in the otherwise lucrative summer season.
Because of the corona pandemic, numerous flights were still canceled, while the company also had to reimburse customers for two billion euros for previously canceled trips.
The state-backed group assured the company in a mandatory notification to the stock exchange that liquidity was still secured.
The adjusted loss before interest and taxes amounted to 1.26 billion euros in the third quarter according to preliminary figures - after 1.7 billion euros in the spring quarter.
For the year as a whole, an operating loss of just under 4.2 billion euros has already accumulated.
In the previous year, Lufthansa had recorded a gross profit of 1.72 billion euros at the end of September - that was before Corona.
The net debt increased within a year by more than 2.2 billion euros to 8.93 billion euros.
The stock exchange initially reacted to the business figures with rising prices.
Postponed tax payments
Income from increased air traffic in July and August and the postponement of tax payments had a positive effect in the third quarter.
For the remaining months, however, higher demand is no longer expected due to the ongoing Corona travel restrictions, the company warned in the message.
The current plan provides for only a quarter of the flights from the same period last year in the current quarter.
There are hardly any intercontinental flights at the moment.
The management was confident that the Lufthansa Group could withstand further loads from the corona pandemic.
At the end of September, the MDax group reportedly had liquid funds of 10.1 billion euros.
This also includes 6.3 billion euros from the aid that individual Lufthansa companies received from their home countries Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium.
Including equity measures, 9 billion euros were made available.
Lufthansa does not expect the cash flow to develop positively until the end of next year.
A significant reduction in the fleet and the workforce has been announced.
Most recently, around 27,000 of the 128,000 jobs remaining worldwide should be cut.
However, there have so far only been fragmentary agreements with the trade unions, especially at home in Germany, and further trouble threatens.
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mamk / dpa
