Despite political unrest and natural disasters, the Lufthansa group has posted an operating profit of €3 million for the first six months of 2011.
The figure is a turnaround from the €227 million loss Lufthansa recorded for the first quarter of 2011, and is €174 million above the previous year's figure.
The catastrophes in Japan and political unrest in North Africa meant “lower triple-digit losses” for Lufthansa, said Stephen Gemkow, member of the board, responsible for finance and aviation services.
“Lufthansa remains among the profitable airlines in the world even after six months of strong headwinds,” he said.
“All of our business segments are continuing to work hard to extend the gap to our competitors.”
Swiss posted an operating profit of €104 million, with other sectors of the airline group topping up the balance sheet, including cargo and IT.
However, other airlines in the Lufthansa group recorded a loss: Lufthansa lost €100 million, Austrian Airlines €64 million and Bmi €120 million.
Looking ahead, Lufthansa expects the situation in Japan to further stabilise and sales overall to improve, but high oil prices and competitive pressue in “certain markets” remain a challenge.
Fuel costs for the airline group rose by €598 million to a total of €3 billion over the first half of 2011, equivalent to a 24.6% increase year on year. This figure includes a positive hedging result of €434 million.