The takeover of Air Berlin costs 50 million euros to Lufthansa

Stand: 06:45 | Reading time: 2 minutes

R Record numbers for the number of pbadengers and the use of aircraft capacity – but still not d & # 39; increased revenue. This is what the Lufthansa Group's half-year results presented today show. There is an explanation for the contradiction. These include higher fuel costs and problems with the integration of aircraft and ex-Air Berlin crew into Lufthansa's Eurowings subsidiary. It runs slower than expected. Ulrik Svensson, Chief Financial Officer of Lufthansa, said the costs of flight cancellations, delays or strikes of air traffic controllers ranged between 70 and 80 million euros. The compensation for delays and the elimination of flights have increased to Eurowings alone by 45 million euros.

However, Lufthansa considers it a success that despite the turbulence of the market and the special costs, the operating result for the year can be maintained. The Group benefits from the fact that the activities of the main Lufthansa and Swiss brands are developing very well, offsetting the turbulence of Eurowings. Lufthansa's competitor, Ryanair, had recently announced a drop in profits during the year

Although its sales stagnated at just under 17 billion euros, Lufthansa reports nearly nine percent of additional flights (590,000). 67 million pbadengers were transported – 12% more. The utilization rate was 79.8%

The difficulties of Eurowings are summarized in the sentence: "Due to different events and developments, of which we had no influence, we here are slower and unfortunately not as good as expected "Irregularities, delays and cancellations of flights are regretted.

Because the former airmen of Air Berlin must be better maintained and upgraded to reach the Lufthansa level and increased because of the extended certification by the Luftfahrtbundesamt under the line of loss of the cheap girl Eurowings. Before interest and taxes, it amounted to 199 million euros in the first half. In mid-August, the last two of the 77 airmen of Air Berlin eventually flew into the Eurowings fleet.

The additional costs for the integration of the Air Berlin fleet were again from 50 million euros to 170 million euros. Increased year. With that, however, Lufthansa really wants to reach the maximum limit. Eurowings will be back in the dark for 2019.

From here three or four years ago, the low-cost subsidiary is expected to catch up with its competitors in terms of profitability. The benchmark is the British airline Easyjet, which reported a return of more than seven percent last year.

For the second half, the Lufthansa Group expects a slight increase in ticket prices and an increase in fuel costs of 850 million euros [ad_2]
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