The Lufthansa Group expects to see "an increasing recovery in business travel" in the second half of this year, with third-quarter capacity reaching about 50 per cent of 2019 levels.
The group reported €3.2 billion in sales in the second quarter, up 70 per cent year over year, but for the full first half of this year, which includes comparisons with the pre-pandemic beginning months of 2020, sales were down about 30 per cent. The group's capacity in the second quarter was 29 per cent of its capacity in the second quarter of 2019, and the number of passengers carried was 18 per cent of 2019 levels.
However, Lufthansa noted that business "improved steadily" during the second quarter. Bookings in June were twice what they were at the beginning of the quarter. By the end of June, capacity had increased to 40 per cent compared with two years previously, and the load factor had improved to 58 per cent, compared with an average of 51 per cent for the quarter, as demand on short- and medium-haul routes in Europe grew.
Capacity growth in the third quarter will include long-haul markets as restrictions lift, and the group expects that to happen for North America in the late summer and "gradually towards Asia towards the end of the year." The group currently is offering service to 84 per cent of the destinations served prior to Covid-19 and expects "nearly all" destinations to be offered by September.
The group reported a net loss of €756 million in the second quarter, compared with a loss of €1.5 billion in the second quarter of 2020.
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