La presse Frankfurt) The leading European airline group Lufthansa on Friday revised its 2024 profit forecast downwards and announced a “recovery” plan in its passenger transport activity due to a risk of losses at the end of the financial year.
Published at 7:23 a.m. Updated at 8:25 a.m. Share
France Media Agency
The group as a whole now expects an annual adjusted operating profit of between 1.4 and 1.8 billion euros, compared to around 2.2 billion previously, following a disappointing first half.
Furthermore, in the sole passenger transport activity, the group's core business, "it is becoming increasingly difficult for Lufthansa Airlines to achieve balance for the whole year", explained the group. in a press release.
“Lufthansa Airlines is particularly affected by the challenges posed by negative market developments and by inefficiencies in the flight operations of Lufthansa and Cityline, also due to aircraft delivery delays,” the statement added.
To remedy this, a “vast recovery program is being launched,” the group said, without giving further details.
In the second quarter, the Lufthansa group achieved an operating profit of 686 million euros, compared to 1.1 billion euros in the comparable quarter the previous year.
This decline of almost 40% is explained by the “decline in average revenue” per passenger in all regions, “particularly in Asia”, according to the company.
The flagship passenger transport business - alongside Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, Eurowing and Brussels Airlines - achieved an operating profit of 213 million euros in the second quarter, around 300 million euros less than during the same period in 2023.
This result did not make it possible to compensate for the loss in the first quarter of 2024, suffered due to strikes called by employees within the group and among air traffic controllers at airports.
In total, during the first six months of the year, the passenger sector reported an operational loss of 427 million euros, which contrasts with the profit of 149 million euros made in the first half of 2023, while the aviation sector had regained color after the period of the health crisis.
The Lufthansa share price lost 1.59% around 9:40 a.m. (Eastern time) on the Frankfurt stock exchange.
These announcements come as the Air France-KLM group, for its part, anticipated a difficult summer at the beginning of July due to an “avoidance” of Paris by international customers during the Olympic Games.
The Franco-Dutch group also suffered a heavy loss in the first quarter caused by rising costs and geopolitical tensions, despite more passengers paying more for their tickets. He therefore launched a savings plan.