Lufthansa expects a strong travel year and war problems

Created: 03/03/2022Updated: 03/03/2022 09:41

A Lufthansa Airbus A319-100 passenger plane lands at Frankfurt Airport.

© Boris Roessler/dpa/archive image

Nothing will come of the carefree restart after the Corona crisis for Lufthansa.

The Ukraine war and possible bottlenecks in the summer are making the situation so gloomy that a return to profitability is questionable.

Frankfurt/Main – After two costly pandemic years, Lufthansa is preparing for another difficult time in view of the Ukraine war.

Despite the good booking situation, possible staff shortages at airports and air traffic control are also clouding business expectations.

"We are very certain that air traffic will experience a strong upswing this year," said CEO Carsten Spohr on Thursday when the annual balance sheet was presented.

However, he did not dare to promise that the group would return to the black in 2022.

In the second Corona year 2021, the group was able to significantly limit its losses.

Thanks to a record profit in the Lufthansa Cargo freight division and an initial recovery in the passenger business, the bottom line deficit fell by two thirds to around 2.2 billion euros.

Sales recovered by 24 percent to 16.8 billion euros, but still did not reach half of the pre-crisis year 2019. Last year the group counted around 47 million passengers - around 29 percent more than in the first Corona year, but almost 100 million fewer than in 2019.

The direct financial consequences of the Ukraine war were initially not mentioned.

Because of the Russian attack, the Lufthansa Group had to cancel almost 90 connections per week to the Russian Federation and Ukraine.

In addition, the Far East machines to China, Japan and Korea have to take lengthy replacement routes in the south.

This consumes additional kerosene and reduces the loading capacities of the cargo planes.

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While the passenger business was in the deep red in 2021, Lufthansa Cargo was doing brilliantly: Thanks to high demand, tight capacities and the resulting high freight prices, the logistics subsidiary earned almost 1.5 billion euros in day-to-day business, more than ever before.

The maintenance subsidiary Lufthansa Technik and the catering division LSG also returned to profitability.

The previous booking figures for this year give the Management Board confidence.

The bookings for the Easter and summer holidays are almost at the level of 2019. In the coming months, the group wants to continue to increase its flight offering.

Business in the first quarter was still characterized by the omicron variant of the corona virus, which had triggered travel restrictions and a drop in demand since the last few weeks of the previous year.

For the year as a whole, the Executive Board plans to continue offering more than 70 percent of the pre-crisis level of flights.

In summer it should be around 85 percent, and Eurowings should even offer more tickets in the hot season than in the year before the pandemic.

Germany, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland had saved Lufthansa from economic collapse in the first Corona year with state aid worth billions.

The group has since repaid the German state aid.

However, the federal government still holds a good 14 percent of the group via the economic stabilization fund.

dpa