The corporate segment recovery at Lufthansa Group carriers is happening at a slower pace than initially anticipated, executives said during a Tuesday earnings call.
Lufthansa Group includes Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings.
“The airlines’ share of corporate travelers, clear strengths pre-crisis, has recovered much slower with [a] resulting impact on demand structures and yields,” said Lufthansa CFO Till Streichert, who began his position about six weeks ago.
The company’s corporate revenue currently has recovered to about 60 percent of pre-pandemic levels, according to Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr, “a little bit less in Germany, a little bit more on intercontinental and 60 percent right on in continental in general, if you go beyond Germany,” he said. “We see the pickup still existing, but let’s be honest, it is at a slow pace. But I think we have seen the worst.”
Still, the group projects air demand to remain strong in November and December, above 2023 levels, particularly for business- and first-class cabins.
Lufthansa Q3 Metrics
Lufthansa’s third-quarter revenue was at its highest quarterly level ever, at €10.7 billion (US$11.9 billion), an increase of 4.5 percent year over year. Revenue attributed to traffic was nearly €9.25 billion, up 4.7 percent. Net income was nearly €1.1 billion, down about 8 percent.
Total capacity increased 6.4 percent year over year for the quarter, but lags 2019 levels by 6.3 percent. European capacity increased 6.4 percent as well, while the Americas was up 7.6 percent and Asia-Pacific increased 18.1 percent. Africa and the Middle East capacity declined 11.5 percent versus Q3 2023.
For the remainder of the fourth quarter, capacity is projected to increase 2 percent year over year, with bookings increasing 6 percent for the period, Streichert said. For full-year 2024, Lufthansa projected an average of 91 percent capacity compared with 2019 levels.