Lufthansa: Corp. Travel Outlook 'Increasingly Positive'

Business travel volume for the Lufthansa Group—which includes Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Swiss and Eurowings—has recovered to about 60 percent compared with 2019 levels, but "the outlook now is increasingly positive," said Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr on a Thursday second-quarter earnings call.

"Based on surveys and the feedback we received from our corporate customers, we forecast increases in the remainder of the year, driven by the larger-scale opening of China and Japan, and the gradual recovery of the world economy," Spohr said.

The company also plans to add back routes that have a corporate focus, Spohr said, including service to China, where the company is "doubling its capacity … with a high share of corporate," he said. "Some of the routes we are now adding, we can now add because they have sufficient corporate demand, which we wouldn't have had two years ago."

On transatlantic routes, business travel is at 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels, "outpacing short-haul and especially outpacing German domestic corporate travel, which will, in our view, remain structurally smaller compared to pre-crisis levels," Spohr said.

In addition, close-in booking continued to be strong in July, and the "trend towards flying more business and first class among private travelers also remains unbroken," he added.

Lufthansa Q2 Metrics

Lufthansa reported its highest-ever second-quarter operating profit of €1.1 billion (US$1.2 billion), Lufthansa CFO Remco Steenbergen said. The company also had record net income of €881 million, up from the €259 reported in Q2 2022. Total revenue for Q2 was €9.4 billion, a 17 percent increase year over year. Passenger revenue was €8 billion, an 18 percent increase from a year prior. 

Each of the company's passenger airlines made a profit, Steenbergen added. Second-quarter adjusted earnings before interest and taxes was €515 million for Lufthansa, €272 million for Swiss, €88 million for Austrian, €31 million for Brussels and €69 million for Eurowings, according to an earnings presentation.

Capacity for the second quarter was at 82.5 percent of 2019 levels. Third-quarter capacity is projected to be 88 percent of 2019 levels, with full-year 2023 capacity at about 85 percent. 

Lufthansa on Tuesday also announced it had entered into an agreement with the German-based HCS Group on the production and supply of sustainable aviation fuel. HCS could begin to supply Lufthansa with SAF beginning in 2026, when it projects it will produce 60,000 metric tons of SAF per year. 

During the Thursday call, Spohr also noted that since introducing its "green fares" in February 2023, which include a surcharge to offset CO2 emissions, nearly 300,000 customers have opted for them.

 Lufthansa Q1 performance