The Lufthansa Group expects to see "an increasing recovery in business travel" in the second half of this year, with third-quarter capacity reaching about 50 percent of 2019 levels.
The group reported €3.2 billion in sales in the second quarter, up 70 percent year over year, but for the full first half of this year, which includes comparisons with the pre-pandemic beginning months of 2020, sales were down about 30 percent. The group's capacity in the second quarter was 29 percent of its capacity in the second quarter of 2019, and the number of passengers carried was 18 percent of 2019 levels.
However, Lufthansa noted that business "improved steadily" during the second quarter. Bookings in June were twice what they were at the beginning of the quarter. By the end of June, capacity had increased to 40 percent compared with two years prior, and the load factor had improved to 58 percent, compared with an average of 51 percent for the quarter, as demand on short- and medium-haul routes in Europe grew.
Capacity growth in the third quarter will include long-haul markets as restrictions lift, and the group expects that to happen for North America in the late summer and "gradually towards Asia towards the end of the year." The group currently is offering service to 84 percent of the destinations served prior to Covid-19 and expects "nearly all" destinations to be offered by September.
The group reported a net loss of €756 million in the second quarter, compared with a loss of €1.5 billion in the second quarter of 2020.
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