The German airline Lufthansa reported on Thursday a record loss of 6.7 billion euros (8.08 billion dollars) in 2020 due to restrictions in the aviation sector adopted to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
The first European airline group, which operated at 31% of its capacities last year, lowered its demand forecasts for 2021 due to a slow recovery in travel and plans to return to 90% of 2019 supply by "mid-decade" .
Last May, the German government and the airline reached an agreement on a multi-million dollar rescue package valued at about 9 billion euros.
The intention was that the company could overcome the serious economic crisis.
The agreement made it possible for the German government to become the main shareholder of the airline with a 20% stake in the capital.
Lufthansa undertook to repay the aid within three years.
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The group, which also includes Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Eurowings, is considering "a resizing and modernization" of the company in 2021, according to CEO Carsten Spohr.
This predicted to recover 70% of the flights "in the short term."
The aviation sector is hard hit by the pandemic.
On February 26, International Airlines Group (IAG), the group to which the airlines British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and Aer Lingus belong, reported record net losses of 6,923 million euros in 2020, compared to the profit of 1,715 million obtained in the previous exercise.
The practical paralysis of air traffic between March and June and the almost total absence of tourism throughout the year as a result of the virus explained the collapse of revenues to just a third of those of 2019.
