Lufthansa flies back to black on cargo boom, easing travel curbs

Lufthansa expects high demand for its booming cargo business and the recovery of passenger flights to continue next year, it said on Wednesday, after reporting its first underlying operating profit since the coronavirus crisis. The group reported adjusted earnings before interest and tax of E17m in Q3, versus a loss of E1.262b a year earlier, supported by strong freight business and rising demand during the summer season with the easing of travel restrictions. "We have mastered another milestone on our way out of the crisis: We are back to black," CEO Carsten Spohr said. Analysts in a company-provided poll had expected an adjusted EBIT loss of E33m. Lufthansa's air cargo business reported a record adjusted EBIT of E301m, as demand and air freight rates rose due to ocean freight bottlenecks and global supply chains disruptions. "The favourable supply-demand gap will last at least until 2022, but with a high degree of probability beyond that," Spohr said. The company's Q3 revenue almost doubled to E5.2b, compared with analysts' forecast for 5.5b. Lufthansa, which also owns Eurowings, Swiss, Brussels and Austrian Airlines, said it expected demand to develop positively, resulting in positive earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in Q4. It said Q3 capacity, measured in available seat-kilometres, was 50% of the pre-crisis level. It expects 2022 capacity to rise to more than 70% of the 2019 level. "The positive development will continue up to 80% in the second half of the year," Spohr added. New bookings are currently at 80% of 2019 levels, the airline said, prompted by recovering business bookings and rising demand for long-haul flights, especially to the United States, Lufthansa's most important and profitable market.<br/>