Lufthansa Sees Losses of €1.5 Billion in Q2 Due to Covid-19

The Lufthansa Group recorded losses of 1.5 billion euros in the second quarter, due to the collapse in demand for air travel caused by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

According to the Group’s announcement on Thursday, the demand for air travel is not expected to return to pre-crisis levels before 2024.

“Especially for long-haul routes there will be no quick recovery,” Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, said.

Lufthansa said that the drop in air travel demand due to the coronavirus led to an 80 percent decrease in revenue to 1.9 billion euros from 9.6 billion euros in the previous year. Most of the revenue (1.5 billion euros) was generated by Lufthansa Cargo and Lufthansa Technik.

According to Lufthansa, the consolidated net income of Lufthansa Group for the months April to June amounted to minus 1.5 billion euros (previous year: 226 million euros).

In the second quarter of 2020, the Lufthansa Group airlines carried 1.7 million passengers, 96 percent fewer than in the previous year. Capacity fell by 95 percent. Freight capacity offered fell by 54 percent due to a lack of capacity on passenger aircraft.

“We were able to counteract the effects of the coronavirus pandemic in the first half of the year with strict cost management as well as with the revenues from Lufthansa Technik and Lufthansa Cargo,” Spohr said, adding that the Group is benefitting from the first signs of recovery on tourist routes.

“Nevertheless, we will not be spared a far-reaching restructuring of our business,” Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s CEO said.