Lufthansa is still suffering from the crisis. The airline supposes it should double the current capacity if it wants to reduce the losses due to the pandemic, reports the company in a trade message. An increasing number of European countries are once again setting up lockdowns to limit travel movements and thus infections, thus jeopardising the good figures from summer holidays.
Lufthansa’s CEO Carsten Spohr said that the company will not escape restructuring to get through the crisis.
“We are at the beginning of a winter that will be punishment and challenging for our industry,” says Spohr. The company therefore does not provide detailed forecasts for the rest of the year.
The total turnover for July, August and September amounted to EUR 2.6 billion, the same period a year ago was just over EUR 10 billion. The adjusted gross surplus amounted to almost EUR 1.3 billion in the third quarter. In the same period last year the airline booked almost the same amount in the plus.
Losses may increase further now that the German government has announced a new lockdown and many other European countries are also restricting their travel movements due to the pandemic. Lufthansa is therefore committed to low flight capacity and is trying to minimise support services.
If the company wants to be out of the red again next year, the capacity (combination of the number of flight kilometres and the number of seats) should rise again to about 50 percent. The current capacity is estimated at a quarter of what it was.
Lufthansa is making progress in the planned reduction of operational loss. This brings the third quarter to EUR 350 million per month. That is less than EUR 400 million per month that the company had taken into account.