Lufthansa Group today, June 3, presented a financial report for the first quarter of this year. The German air carrier completed with a net loss of € 2.1 billion.
“Air travel around the world has virtually stopped in recent months. “This has an unprecedented effect on our quarterly performance,” quoted Lufthansa CEO Karsten Spor in a press release. “Given the very slow recovery in demand, we must immediately take steps to restructure the business to counter this situation.”
As noted in the report, even measures already taken to reduce costs did not help the airline avoid serious losses, as the drop in revenue was too significant. Compared to last year, the carrier’s revenue fell 18% to € 6.4 billion. In addition, the company notes that it only lost a hedge of fuel contracts on the basis of the quarter that it lost almost € 1 billion.
Recall that earlier Lufthansa agreed with the German government to receive financial assistance in the amount of € 9 billion to overcome the effects of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the state will buy back 20% of the company’s shares and, through the Economic Stability Fund (WSF), will be able to appoint two of its representatives to the supervisory board. Thus, for the first time since 1997, the company may become partially state-owned.
