German airline Lufthansa today said its third quarter net profit leapt to €628m, three times the level of profit reported the same time last year. Analysts had forecast a much more modest net profit of €390m.
The German carrier's operating profit in the three months from July to September climbed to €783m, a gain of €565m on the year.
'The good result is the consequence of the increasingly positive development of demand in passenger and freight traffic,' Lufthansa said. It also pointed to 'success of the cost-cutting programmes in all of the business segments, as well as of the realised synergy potentials in the airline group.'
Lufthansa also owns Austrian Airlines, the British carrier BMI, Germanwings and Swiss.
Lufthansa has raised its outlook for 2010 operating profit and now forecasts a result of over €800m, well above the previous outlook for an improvement on the 2009 figure of €130m.
'Following the extreme winter, pilot's strike and airspace lockdowns, which all burdened the result and led to an operating loss after the first six months, the group has gone on to record an operating profit of €612m for the first nine months of the year,' the statement said.
That represented a gain of around €386m from the first nine months of 2009, it added.
