Air traffic: Lufthansa announces hot summer

When air traffic is expected to restart this summer, air passengers will have to prepare for sharply rising ticket prices.

The heads of the aviation groups Lufthansa and Air France-KLM pointed this out on Thursday when they presented their results for the first quarter of this year. The background to this is the sharp rise in fuel prices as a result of the Ukraine war, as well as various flight-related services. Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr expects further operational disruptions due to acute personnel problems at partners such as airports and air traffic control, as they have already shown at Easter.

Lufthansa itself has left the Corona crisis behind and is in a “new normal,” said Spohr. “We are more flexible, efficient and powerful than before the pandemic.” The strong demand is being borne primarily by private travelers, to whom the company has responded with an increased range of tourist offers. In the summer, the crane group wants to fly 95 percent of the pre-crisis level again on European short-haul routes, and the direct flight subsidiary Eurowings is even offering more seats than in 2019. For the year as a whole, Lufthansa is aiming for an average of 75 percent of the pre-crisis offer. While the North Atlantic flights bring high yields, China with its strict corona regiment as the most important Asian destination continues to be almost non-existent.

Again, apologize to the passengers

Lufthansa had already canceled a three-digit number of flights at its Frankfurt hub for the Easter wave of travel because there was a lack of ground staff for handling. He fears that he will have to apologize to the passengers from time to time in the summer, said Spohr. However, one is in close contact with the airport operator Fraport in order to get the largest possible offer. In the constant negotiation process, Lufthansa also receives financial compensation for the failures.

The same is expected by the CEO of the US aircraft manufacturer Boeing, which has once again postponed the delivery of the modernized 777X wide-body jet. “Assume that we will be paid for our patience.” Lufthansa is one of the launch customers of the jet, which is said to consume significantly less fuel than its predecessor. But instead of the end of 2023, as recently hoped, the first example of the type should now only find its way to the customer in 2025. The slightly smaller Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” long-haul jet is also delayed, meaning that Lufthansa has to keep older aircraft with higher fuel consumption and CO2 emissions in service longer.

losses reduced

In the first quarter, the Lufthansa Group contained its losses thanks to a sharp increase in ticket demand. The bottom line was a minus of 584 million euros. That was 44 percent less than in the same quarter of the previous year, which was even more affected by Corona. While sales more than doubled to almost 5.4 billion euros, the minus in day-to-day business (adjusted EBIT) fell by 44 percent to 591 million euros. The number of passengers has more than quadrupled to 13 million in the year.

For the year as a whole, the operating result should improve compared to the loss of billions in the second Corona year 2021, also thanks to the still very profitable freight business of Lufthansa Cargo. The division earned a record figure of 495 million euros in the first quarter. However, the board of directors still does not dare to say whether the group will make it into the black for the year as a whole – also because of the recent extreme jumps in the price of kerosene, which in some cases even exceeded the increases in crude oil. Another uncertainty factor is how customers will react to the Ukraine war and high inflation.

In view of the improved prospects, Lufthansa also wants to return the corona-related state aid for its Swiss subsidiary Swiss by the middle of the year. Of the state-guaranteed credit line of 1.5 billion Swiss francs, 210 million were recently used. Lufthansa had already repaid the repayable state aid from Germany last year. The Federal Republic’s Economic Stabilization Fund still holds a good 14 percent of the share capital of the MDax group.

Competitor Air France-KLM also reported strong ticket demand. CEO Ben Smith wants to break even in the current quarter and offer up to 90 percent of the pre-crisis capacity in the summer. In the first quarter, the loss was 552 million euros after a loss of almost 1.5 billion a year earlier. Sales had more than doubled to 4.4 billion euros.