Lufthansa Group during the third quarter continued to see business travel bookings increase, with revenue for this segment at about 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels, the company reported Thursday. Volume is expected to “continue normalizing at the current rapid pace,” Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said during an earnings call.
Lufthansa Group carriers include Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, Brussels and Eurowings airlines. Eurowings plans to increase its capacity for business travelers “significantly” due to rising demand, including expanding the capacity of its business-class product on numerous routes, according to the company.
Lufthansa reported €10.07 billion (US$10.03 billion) in 2022 third-quarter revenue, a 93 percent increase from €5.21 billion a year prior. Passenger revenue for the group was €8.23 billion, up about 110 percent from Q3 2021. Net profit for the quarter was €809 million, up from a loss of €72 million a year prior.
The company increased the number of its flights to nearly 242,800, up 44 percent from a year ago. The number of passengers for the period was up 70 percent to more than 33.3 million. Third-quarter passenger load factor increased 17.3 percentage points year over year to 86.1 percent.
“I think we did indeed impressively demonstrate this month that the Lufthansa Group has left the crisis mode behind,” Spohr said, adding that demand for air travel “continues unabated.”
Lufthansa plans for total fourth-quarter capacity to be about 80 percent of 2019 levels and expects to achieve an operating profit in the quarter “despite the usual seasonal slowdown in business.”
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