Lufthansa forecasts profits boost from wealthy passengers

Lufthansa has predicted that demand from wealthy passengers will bring “substantially higher” profits despite widespread travel chaos and disputes with unions. “We see a nice ramp-up coming for the third and the fourth quarter,” said CE Carsten Spohr, adding that the airline could carry 80% of its pre-pandemic passenger numbers next year, even as economic data increasingly point to a global recession. “People who are travelling business class or even first class on an airline like Lufthansa . . . they tend to be less sensitive to economic up and downturns,” said Spohr. However, he confirmed that business travel bookings were still at only 50% of their pre-Covid levels. The airline’s wealthier customers “are willing to spend money on vacations, on hotels, on rental cars, on expensive restaurants and [are] also willing to spend more money for personal space and travelling”, he added, citing data from Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss. Before the pandemic, corporate bookings accounted for 45% of the group’s revenue. But Lufthansa has reduced capacity for business travel since companies moved to holding more meetings online. Net profits for the three months to the end of June were E259m, compared with a E756m loss in the same period last year, putting the airline on track to post an annual profit for the first time since the pandemic began. Lufthansa’s cargo division benefited from high demand for freight transport, posting record earnings before tax and interest of E482m in the quarter.<br/>