German airline Lufthansa has surprised analysts by announcing that it flew back into profit in the second quarter of the current year thanks to prudent capacity adjustment and rigid cost-cutting.
But the German flag carrier warned that with no lasting global economic recovery still in sight and current booking figures not yet pointing to a marked improvement in the second half of the year, it still expected to record an operating loss for the full year.
Lufthansa reported an operating profit of €65m for Q2, compared with a loss of €415m in the preceding three months. In the second quarter of 2002, Lufthansa had managed to chalk up an operating profit of €320m.
The profit came as a surprise to most analysts, who had been pencilling in a second quarter loss as the airline continued to battle the economic fallout of the Iraq war, the SARS crisis, the downturn in the world economy and increasing competition from low-fare airlines.
At the bottom line, Lufthansa remained in the red, posting a second quarter net loss of €34m, compared with a profit of €159m a year earlier. Second quarter revenues fell by 10.6%.
