The Lufthansa group says it
made a loss of €1.26 billion in preliminary figures for the third
quarter. This compares with losses
of €1.7 billion in the second quarter and positive earnings of €1.3 billion
in the same period in 2019.
The airline said, “The corona crisis continued to
have a considerable impact on Lufthansa group's earnings development in the
third quarter of 2020. However, due to an expansion of the flight schedule in
the summer months of July and August and considerable cost reductions, losses
were reduced compared to the second quarter.”
During the quarter, the group’s airlines paid out
€2 billion in refunds for corona-related flight cancellations but these were partly
offset by cash inflows from the expansion of flight activities.
The company said that at the end of September, it had
liquidity of €10.1 billion at its disposal which includes €6.3 billion of
undrawn funds from stabilisation packages in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium.
The group said it was in a position to withstand
further burdens from the corona pandemic.
“Demand for air travel is expected to
remain low in the coming winter months due to the global evolution of the
pandemic and the associated travel restrictions.
“According to current planning,
the group's airlines will only offer a maximum of 25% of the previous year's
capacity in the fourth quarter to ensure that flight operations continue to
generate a positive cash contribution.
“At the same time, Lufthansa group is
working intensively on restructuring measures in all business segments in order
to achieve short and medium-term cost savings and minimise the operating cash
outflow.”