Lufthansa Group is confident of a “strong upswing” in air traffic this year after the most financially challenging two years in its history.
The group reported revenue of €17 billion for 2021, an increase of roughly 24 per cent on 2020. Adjusted EBIT was a loss of €2.3 billion, a significant improvement on 2020’s EBIT loss of €5.5 billion.
Meanwhile, its net loss decreased 67 per cent to a loss of €2.2 billion compared to 2020’s net loss of €6.7 billion.
The company said an increase in passengers as well as its transformation and restructuring measures contributed to the improvement in earnings.
At the end of 2021 the company had 30,000 fewer employees than before the start of the pandemic, representing a 10 per cent decrease in personnel expenses.
Cost saving measures are in place to reduce costs by €2.7 billion annually. The company said this means that 75 per cent of its annual savings target of €3.5 billion by 2024 have already been “secured.”
Questioned on business travel recovery during an analysts' call, Remco Steenbergen, the group's chief financial officer, said: "So as you know, during the crisis time, the business travel was low at between 15 per cent and 20 per cent.
"We’ve seen the bookings clearly coming up very fast on the business travel. The booking turnaround 40 per cent. And when you think about the second half of the year, we expect at least 60 per cent. We have to see what will come about. But really, we expect quite an increase in the course of this year on the business side. So, we’re very confident here."
Carsten Spohr, CEO, Deutsche Lufthansa, said: "2021, was a challenging year for the Lufthansa Group and its employees. And 2022 also begins with developments that worry us as citizens of this continent. Our airlines connect people, cultures and economies. We stand for international understanding and peace in Europe and around the world. Our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine and with our colleagues on the ground, to whom we are providing every possible support.
"The Lufthansa Group used the past financial year to further renew itself. We have decisively and consistently advanced and implemented the transformation and restructuring of the company. Today, the Lufthansa Group is more efficient and more sustainable than before the pandemic.
"Even in the financially most difficult two years in our history, in which painful cuts were unavoidable, we acted in a socially responsible manner and sustainably secured 105,000 jobs in the Lufthansa Group.
"We are very certain that air traffic will experience a strong upswing this year. Our strategy of expanding the private travel segment has proved successful and is paying off. People want to travel. They seek and need personal contact - especially after two years of pandemic and the associated social restrictions. The pent up demand for leisure and business travel was already significantly noticeable in 2021 - and this trend is set to intensify in 2022.
"We are now leaving the crisis behind us, mentally and - in view of the strong booking figures this year - also commercially and face the next challenge strengthened."
He added that the group was investing in its products and services again including "state-of-the-art premium economy seats that will be introduced before the end of the first quarter" for Swiss initially, while other investments in services and digital offerings on the ground and in the air, are also in the pipeline.
In the past year, 47 million passengers flew with the group’s airlines, an increase of 29 per cent on 2020. The number of flights operated increased by 18 per cent year-on-year.
Lufthansa said that at the beginning of 2021 its capacity was at 21 per cent of 2019’s levels while it ended the year at 60 per cent of 2019’s levels.