The demand for flights is picking up again, and the freight business is also growing.
Lufthansa can significantly reduce its billions in losses.
Frankfurt / Main - Lufthansa flew in its first operating profit since the beginning of the Corona crisis in the summer.
The success in the third quarter makes the board of directors around Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr more optimistic for the year as a whole.
The MDax group, rescued by the state, now dares to at least halve its operating loss compared to 2020, as he reported in Frankfurt on Wednesday.
For the full year 2022 Lufthansa plans to further expand the flight offer to around 70 percent of the pre-crisis level.
Above all, the strong cargo business and the increased demand for tourist flights helped Lufthansa to achieve an adjusted profit before taxes and interest of 17 million euros.
The bottom line, however, was a minus of 72 million euros in this quarter after a loss of 2.0 billion euros in the summer quarter of the Corona year 2020. Quarterly sales almost doubled to 5.2 billion euros over the course of the year.
On Monday, Europe's largest low-cost airline Ryanair reported a net profit of 225 million euros for the summer months from July to September.
Operationally it was even 254 million euros for the Irish.
Despite the summer high, Lufthansa remains far from the black for the year as a whole.
After an operating loss of almost 5.5 billion euros in the Corona year 2020, the minus this year should now be a maximum of half as high - i.e. remain below about 2.7 billion euros.
So far, the board of directors had only given the prospect of a general reduction in the operating loss.
The Lufthansa Cargo freight division benefited from the high demand and scarce capacities in the global logistics market.
With an operating profit of 301 million euros, it earned more than ever in a third quarter and is still aiming for more than one billion euros for the year as a whole.
In addition, the direct flight subsidiary Eurowings, the maintenance division Lufthansa Technik and the catering subsidiary LSG Sky Chefs achieved operating profits.
The group's network airlines - Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss and Brussels - were in the red again, but were able to significantly reduce their year-on-year decline.
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The management draws hope from the sharp rise in demand for flight tickets - also because important long-haul destinations such as the USA are opening up again for travelers from Europe this fall.
New bookings are currently around 80 percent of the pre-crisis level, it said.
Tickets in the premium classes are particularly in demand.
Not only tourists are traveling more often again.
The proportion of business trips is increasing “significantly”, reported Lufthansa.
The job cuts in the group continued.
According to the information, Lufthansa was still employing around 107,000 people at the end of September.
In Germany alone, 4,000 employees have left the company this year, and an agreement has already been reached with another 3,000.
According to management estimates, Lufthansa still has up to 3,000 too many employees in Germany.
By the end of the year Lufthansa wants to have repaid the last billion from the silent participation of the German state.
In addition, the company had collected 2.16 billion euros in a capital increase completed in October.
The remaining shares in the state economic stabilization fund amounted to 14.09 percent of the total capital after the capital increase.
dpa
