The Lufthansa Group reported strong performance on long-haul North America and Asia routes in the second quarter but faced high competition and low fares on short-haul routes, especially those out of Germany and Austria. The group said European markets would "remain challenging at least until the end of the year." It also expressed concerned that "overall economic prospects growing gloomier" in its home markets could hurt short-term bookings on long-haul routes in the second half of the year, especially in premium classes. Traffic revenue increased 2 percent year over year during the quarter to 13.5 billion euros. Traffic rose 6 percent as capacity increased 5 percent, and load factor inched up 0.9 percentage points to 80.8 percent. The group reported a net profit of 226 million euros for the quarter, down from 752 million euros in the second quarter of 2018.
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