In order to be able to fly out of the crisis competitively, the restructured company will be around 20 percent smaller, said the Lufthansa subsidiary. For this reason, among other things, a total of 1,350 full-time positions would have to be cut compared to the pre-crisis level. Around 850 of these have already been reached through natural fluctuation. Compared to the first half of 2020, the number of employees as of June 30th has increased. already decreased by nine percent from 6,756 to 6,132, in the first half of 2019 there were still 6,999 employees.
Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (adjusted EBIT) were -95 million euros in the second quarter, a year earlier, during the first Covid-19 lockdown, it was -99 million euros, before the crisis in 2019 it was a positive 46 Million Euros. The operating minus for the entire half year was -201 (-235) million euros, after -53 million euros from January to June 2019.
AUA’s half-year sales fell by 42 percent to 187 (332) million euros due to the corona crisis – in the second quarter, at 126 million euros, it was 260 percent more than in the same quarter of the previous year, but 79 percent less than in the second quarter of 2019.
Operating income fell from January to June by 45 percent to 201 (363) million euros. On the other hand, operating expenses were also depressed; at 402 million in the first half, they were 33 percent below the previous year’s level (598 million euros); Above all, the expenses for kerosene and fees fell, and there were also reduced personnel expenses. The ramp-up of flight operations at the beginning of summer caused total expenses in the second quarter to rise by 46 percent to 231 million euros.
The number of AUA passengers fell by 44 percent in the first half of the year from 1.99 million to 1.11 million, compared to 2019 (around 6.7 million at the time) that was a decrease of 83 percent. The number of AUA flights fell by 31 percent to 16,286 – two years earlier it was 66,419. The available seat kilometers shrank within a year by 37 percent to 2.91 billion, the sold seat kilometers even halved to 1.54 billion (-51 percent). The seat load factor fell to 53.1 (68.1) percent. At the end of the second quarter, Austrian Airlines offered only 55 percent of their pre-crisis capacity.
“The increasing number of bookings in the summer gives us air, but the crisis does not allow us to breathe a sigh of relief,” said CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech. In order to meet the increased demand on short and medium-haul routes, the destinations in the summer flight schedule have been increased to over 100 destinations. Increasing incoming bookings at the end of the half-year, short-time work and “effective modernization measures” would have made a stable liquidity situation possible, which is keeping the company on course, according to the AUA boss.
According to the Lufthansa semi-annual report, AUA repaid EUR 30 million early on July 15 from the syndicated loan of EUR 300 million taken out as part of the state stabilization measures.
The fleet of the red-white-red airline was reduced to 73 aircraft in a half-year comparison (1st half of 2020: 85) due to the resizing. The departure of the Dash planes from the Austrian Airlines fleet portfolio made up a large part of the planes that were phased out.
AUA parent Lufthansa: 30,000 employees cut, fewer losses
The AUA parent Lufthansa has reduced the loss in the corona crisis with increasing passenger numbers. In the second quarter, the adjusted operating result amounted to minus 952 million euros, the aviation group announced on Thursday. The loss was much lower than in the same quarter of the previous year, when the corona lockdown caused a deficit of 1.7 billion euros. Thanks to strong bookings and cost reductions, including through staff cuts, Lufthansa was able to stop the outflow of funds for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic and took in 340 million euros in cash. “The fact that more than 30,000 colleagues have left us so far hurts us all, but is inevitable for the sustainable rescue of the more than 100,000 remaining jobs,” said CEO Carsten Spohr.
Revenue rose by 70 percent to 3.2 billion euros, but remained far below the level of normal times when Lufthansa had flown in almost ten billion euros in revenue. According to a survey by the company, analysts had expected an average operating loss of 971 million euros with sales of 3.3 billion euros.
The corona crisis has hit air traffic hard. It was only since May that more passenger planes started to take off again with the easing of travel restrictions. Lufthansa and the subsidiary airlines Austrian Airlines, Eurowings, Swiss and Brussels carried seven million passengers from April to June – that was much more than in the same period last year, when air traffic was largely on the ground, but only 18 percent of the pre-crisis level in 2019.
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
