German airline Lufthansa returns to profit after pandemic
After two years of massive losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, German airline giant Lufthansa has posted full-year profit for 2022.
The company said on Friday that its net profit last year reached €791 million ($839 million). Losses amounted to €2.2 billion and €6.7 billion in 2021 and 2020 respectively.
Adjusted operating profit for 2022 was €1.5 billion.
“Lufthansa is back,” said Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr.
“In just one year, we achieved an unprecedented financial turnaround… the Lufthansa Group achieved a much better result than expected. Demand for air travel remains high in 2023.”
Airline recovers from the pandemic
Lufthansa is one of Europe’s largest airlines and has subsidiaries Eurowings, Austrian, Swiss and Brussels Airlines.
Demanded a bailout from the German government in 2020 when international air travel was disrupted by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
But the company said passenger numbers in 2022 had more than doubled from the previous year – reaching 102 million – as pandemic restrictions eased.
However, the airline is still dealing with the fallout of laying off much of its workforce in response to lost demand.
This caused problems in the summer as it could not keep up with the rapid return of passengers, forcing it to cancel flights. Other airlines were similarly affected.
The company said high demand in 2023 would be mitigated by “still expected bottlenecks in the European aviation system”.
Source: DW
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