The Lufthansa Group's earnings largely held steady year over year in the second quarter despite higher fuel costs and expenses from integrating the former Airberlin fleet.
Lufthansa's adoption this year of IFRS accounting standards changed the way Lufthansa reports passenger-based fees and charges and thus skewed year-over-year revenue comparisons. Excluding that, traffic revenue increased 6.3 percent year over year in the second quarter to 7.37 billion euros. The group reported "particularly strong customer demand" on North Atlantic and European routes among its network airlines.
Meanwhile, the revenue of Lufthansa group low-cost carrier Eurowings increased more than 25 percent year over year for the first half of the year, excluding the accounting change. However, the carrier also faced heavy expenses as it integrated the Airberlin fleet, "particularly to the higher technical, charter and leasing costs incurred to achieve the capacity expansion required within such a short time," according to Lufthansa.
The group's fuel costs over the first half of the year increased by 216 million euros to 2.8 billion euros due to both higher fuel prices and higher volumes.
It reported a net income of 734 million euros for the second quarter, down slightly from 740 million euros in the second quarter of 2017.
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