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Lufthansa planes in Frankfurt: Little utilization
Photo:
RONALD WITTEK / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
In descent?
On the ground?
In severe turbulence?
Or even a crash?
To describe the situation of Lufthansa in the corona crisis, there are many worn-out language images from the field of aviation.
One thing is clear: the situation is serious.
The downturn in business and the shutdown of many aircraft means that Lufthansa is losing billions even more than expected.
Germany's largest airline reported a loss of almost two billion euros for the third quarter of 2020.
In addition to a loss of 1.3 billion euros in operating business, Lufthansa also had write-downs on decommissioned passenger jets and financial transactions to hedge fuel prices.
In view of the weak ticket demand due to the corona pandemic, the group intends to continue to offer a maximum of a quarter of the previous year's capacity in the fourth quarter.
At an air traffic summit on Friday, the federal government wants to discuss the future of the industry hardest hit by the corona closings.
Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer is already planning a one billion euro rescue package.
The CSU politician said that he was talking to Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) about the emergency aid.
And: "Time is of the essence", structures must be preserved.
The industry puts pressure on the meeting - and demands even more money.
After the airlines, the airports and the federally owned German air traffic control system would now have to be refurbished with taxpayers' money, demand representatives of industry associations who are taking part in the meeting scheduled for Friday in Berlin.
In addition, prospects for pandemic-safe air traffic must be created.
Environmentalists against unconditional aid
"There must not be irreparable structural breaks," said the general manager of the industry association BDL, Matthias von Randow.
"With the second de facto lockdown, we are facing job cuts. Of around 260,000 jobs at German airlines and airports alone, around 60,000 are acutely threatened."
The companies would have to go into massive debt because of the slump in demand.
That weakens the strength for investments, for example for digitization or for more economical new aircraft.
Politicians have to reimburse the airports as an "important sign and first step" for the costs incurred in the first lockdown by keeping the infrastructure open, said Ralph Beisel from the airport association ADV.
These reserve costs amount to the sum of 740 million euros, which would primarily benefit small and medium-sized airports.
Then it would have to be considered how the airports could be permanently relieved of sovereign costs that would be paid by the state in other European countries.
Negotiations are also to be held on the participation of the federal states, which often own the airport operators together with neighboring communities.
Lower Saxony, for example, supports the Scheuer-Plan to reimburse the storage costs and suggests help for Hanover Airport.
The federally owned Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH could run into liquidity problems because of the fee losses.
DFS boss Klaus-Dieter Scheurle had put the loss of sales by 2025 at up to two billion euros.
Despite a new borrower's note loan of over 500 million euros and cost-cutting measures, the company still needs help, which the BDL has put at 1.2 billion euros.
Here the federal government has to step in as the owner: "Otherwise unrealistically high fees would have to be levied when the air traffic is restarted, which the airlines would not be able to handle," said von Randow.
Environmentalists have warned of a rash rescue of billions in the ailing industry.
Outdated structures should not be supported, announced the ecologically oriented transport club VCD.
"Instead of expanding airports further and sinking further funds into regional airports that were unprofitable before the pandemic, we need a socially responsible restructuring in the direction of the environmental association," said VCD President Kerstin Haarmann.
Unconditional aid, such as the federal government has already given Lufthansa, should no longer be allowed.
They would have to be linked to climate protection.
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apr / dpa
