Lufthansa back in the profit zone

Rising ticket prices, more bookings and a thriving freight business: According to preliminary figures, the Lufthansa Group is making a profit again, but this does not apply to the passenger division alone.

Dhe Lufthansa Group returned to profitability in the spring. The still very lucrative freight business and the maintenance subsidiary Lufthansa Technik raised the adjusted consolidated earnings before interest and taxes to 350 and 400 million euros (same period last year: minus 827 million euros), as the company reported on Friday in a mandatory announcement to the stock exchange. Sales climbed to 8.5 billion euros in the second quarter of the year after 3.2 billion euros in the same quarter of the previous year.

The Group’s airlines made losses despite higher capacity utilization and rising ticket sales. The only exception here was Swiss, which the segment was unable to pull out of the red on its own. The group announced that the occupancy rate was very high, especially in the premium classes. The contribution from technology was estimated at a similar level as in the previous quarter, when an operating profit of 120 million euros was reported for the subsidiary.

The high demand for tickets since Easter flushed considerable cash into the coffers. On a preliminary and unaudited basis, cash inflow was approximately EUR 2 billion (prior year quarter: EUR 382 million). The M-Dax group expects that the net loan debt will decrease by a similar amount.

Analysts surveyed by Lufthansa had only expected adjusted EBIT of 221 million euros on average. The Lufthansa share rose significantly after the news. The group intends to publish its final quarterly figures on August 4th. Most recently, Lufthansa reported an operating profit in the third quarter of 2021. The bottom line, however, was that the company remained in the red in the quarter and for the whole of 2021.