Skift Take
Summertime pertains to the rescue of this much leaner airline company, and CEO Carsten Spohr will be happy to get rid of the overhanging financial obligation it collected.
Matthew Parsons
German airline company Lufthansa will create favorable cash flow this summertime, while it ought to be possible to totally loosen up a Covid-19 rescue package in a year’s time, CEO Carsten Spohr told Reuters on Tuesday.
Most Lufthansa flights were grounded by the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, plunging the airline into crisis and leading the German federal government to acquire a 20 percent stake as part of a $7.1 billion rescue bundle.
Germany’s economic stabilisation fund said last week it would begin offering down its stake in the coming weeks with a view to getting rid of it completely by the end of 2023.
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“We are eased that the federal government has actually gotten in the process of leaving,” Spohr said in an interview, including that he expected the rescue and stabilisation of the airline to be mainly finished up next summer.
Cost cost savings mean Lufthansa can create cash even with passenger numbers at half pre-pandemic levels– a level reached throughout the summer holiday, stated Spohr. For the year as a whole, Lufthansa can reach 40 percent of pre-crisis capability.
Lufthansa’s cargo operation was performing highly and is expected to generate profits of a $1.2 billion this year, he included. That compares with in 2015’s air freight revenue of $757 million.
(Writing by Douglas Busvine. Modifying by Mark Potter)
This post was written by Ilona Wissenbach from Reuters and was lawfully licensed through the Market Dive publisher network. Please direct all licensing concerns to [email secured]
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