German flag carrier Lufthansa reported net profits of 992m for the first six months of 2007 but the figure was boosted by 03m from the sale of shares in Thomas Cook.
The airline said it had increased both its capacity and sales during the six months and it was on a "successful course."
Revenue rose by 4.6% from 9,648m in the same period of 2006 to 10,089m while group operating earnings rose by 63.6% from 297m in 2006 to 468m in 2007 and profits from operating activities increased 83.7% from 338m in 2006 to 621m this year.
It said its passenger business made the "largest contribution" to the improved results with Europe doing especially well.
Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Lufthansa's chairman and ceo, said: "The result underlines the success of our strategy to continually and selectively invest in products, to place customer orientation at the fore and to keep an eye on the costs."
Mr Mayrhuber said SWISS was now fully integrated with Lufthansa and together the two carriers would be looking to open up new markets.
Stephan Gemkow, the airline's finance director, said later it was aiming for full-year operating earnings of 1.2bn which would be 40% higher than 2006.
He said the aim was the make Lufthansa more profitable than major European rivals BA and Air France/KLM, both of which both currently have a higher operating margin than Lufthansa's 4.9%.
Mr Gemkow also said that Lufthansa would not be bidding for Iberia which he said was too expensive nor Alitalia where he said the conditions of sale imposed by the Italian government were too strict.
Rezidor reports rise in post-tax profits
The Rezidor Hotel Group reported a rise in post tax profits for the first six months of 2007 of 13.9m, compared with 10.3m for the same period in 2006.
Earnings before tax were 32.3m compared with 25.4m for 2006 while revenue rose during the six months from 185.7m to 197.6m.
Revenue per available room (revPAR) also rose by 3.9% from 71.3 to 74.1 and occupancy was marginally up from 67.3% to 67.6%.
Figures for the second quarter of 2007 showed a post-tax profit of 15m, the same as 2006, while pre-tax earnings were 27.7m compared to 25.4m.
During the six months, Rezidor said it had reached 300 properties mark, with 231 hotels in operation and 69 under construction. Together they gave the group a total of 61,499 rooms.
The group said it was still on target to add an extra 20,000 by the end of 2009.
Kurt Ritter, group president and ceo, said: "We had a good momentum during the first quarter followed by a slow down in April-May and a pick up in June.
"We believe that our performance was in line with or better than the overall market, and expect RevPAR to continue to grow during the remainder of 2007.
"Rising contribution from hotels in their ramp up phase, rate driven RevPAR growth and a gradual shift in our business model are expected to improve the EBITDA margin.
"During the first half of 2007, we opened over 3,500 rooms. Given these new openings and our contracted pipeline, we feel confident of adding 20,000 new rooms by the end of 2009."
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