Lufthansa raised its financial forecast after operating profit almost doubled in H1. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes in 2017 will rise “above the previous year,” Lufthansa said Monday. That topped the German airline’s earlier prediction that the measure would be slightly below. The improved outlook underscored the strong passenger demand that has helped push Lufthansa shares to a nine-year high. The carrier has capitalised by leasing extra aircraft from ailing rival Air Berlin and from the full takeover of Brussels Airlines, which enabled Lufthansa to expand its Eurowings low-cost arm. “The results of the first half year show that all efforts put forth by our staff in all business units are clearly paying off,” CEO Carsten Spohr said. “We are especially pleased with the success of Eurowings,” he said, adding it is highly probable that Eurowings will achieve “positive results.” Adjusted Ebit almost doubled in the first six months to E1.04b from E529m a year earlier, on “strong demand” for tickets. Revenue rose E2b to E17b, Lufthansa said. Pre-bookings for Q3, seasonally the most important period, have “stabilized,” the airline said. Q2 unit revenue increased 1.8% excluding currency effects, while unit costs excluding fuel and currency effects declined 3.4%, Lufthansa said. Both costs and unit revenue will fall in the second half, the airline said.<br/>
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LOT Polish Airlines has taken delivery of the final aircraft of its batch of eight Boeing 787-8s, as the Polish national carrier eyes the arrival of the larger -9 model next year. CEO Rafał Milczarski credits the twin-aisle aircraft as being a factor in the airline’s financial turnaround. The eighth 787-8 will largely be used to increase frequencies on LOT’s Asian routes, notably to Tokyo (from 3X- to 4X-weekly) and Seoul (from 3X- to 5X-weekly). From August 2017, the enlarged fleet will also begin 5X-weekly services from Warsaw to New York Newark, replacing a Boeing 767-300 leased from Portuguese leasing and charter specialist EuroAtlantic Airways. The final 787-8 will also allow for potential new long-haul services to be launched even before the arrival of a batch of four 787-9s from next year that will be used to inaugurate the recently announced Budapest-New York JFK and Chicago O’Hare routes from May. The 787-9s will be the largest aircraft LOT has ever owned, with capacity for 294 passengers, including 24 in business class. LOT’s final two 787-8s were acquired under a financial leasing mechanism. Milczarski said this was more efficient financially than other methods and would allow the airline eventually to own the aircraft, saving “many million dollars over the next few years.” The CEO said the finance leases had been possible thanks to guarantees from the British foreign credits agency, UK Export Finance, and indicated that LOT was becoming “a player worth cooperating with.”<br/>
Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) has undertaken one of the final steps before the start of its Bombardier CSeries services to London City Airport Aug. 8. One of the airline’s CS100s visited LCY for the first time July 17, to carry out pilot familiarization and parking trials. It will be the largest aircraft to use the small airport, which is located in the capital’s Docklands area. The airport has a single runway jutting out into one of the former docks and apron space is also at a premium. A major expansion program aims to improve the latter situation, as well as adding a parallel taxiway to improve capacity. The Lufthansa Group subsidiary plans to operate its inaugural service into LCY with its CS100 fleet Aug. 8 on a flight from Zurich. Earlier this year, Bombardier received clearance from the European Aviation Safety Agency and Transport Canada to operate the steep approach necessary for services into LCY, which has several tall buildings in the nearby financial district on its western approach. Aircraft have to adopt a descent angle of up to 5.5 degrees, instead of the normal 3 degrees. The SWISS aircraft’s visit also allowed ground handling crews to practice parking and fueling procedures on the new type, which returned to Zurich later yesterday.<br/>