Category Archives: Lufthansa Group

Lufthansa Group introduces a mandatory mouth-nose cover

Lufthansa Group has made this announcement:

Airlines recommend to carry a mouth-nose cover throughout the entire journey

From Monday, May 4, 2020, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group are asking all passengers to wear a mouth-nose cover on board their flights. In addition, the company recommends that passengers wear them throughout the entire journey, i.e. also before or after the flight at the airport, whenever the required minimum distance cannot be guaranteed without restriction. Despite numerous adjustments to service procedures, it is not always possible to maintain the required distance on a flight. Therefore, this measure serves as additional protection for all passengers. All flight attendants on Lufthansa Group flights in direct contact with customers will also wear a corresponding mask.

The Lufthansa Group is thus complying with the official regulations of numerous European countries in which the wearing of a mouth and nose cover is now mandatory in public places.

All passengers are requested to bring their own mouth and nose cover. A reusable fabric mask is recommended, but all other types of coverings such as simple disposable masks or scarves are also possible. The airlines will inform their passengers in advance by SMS or e-mail and on their websites about the new regulation.

The obligation to wear the mask will preliminarily apply until August 31, 2020.

The current regulation of Lufthansa Group Airlines to keep the neighbouring seat free in Economy and Premium Economy Class will no longer apply, as wearing the mouth-nose cover provides adequate health protection. Due to the current low occupancy rate, seats will nevertheless be allocated as widely as possible throughout the cabin.

In principle, infection on board remains very unlikely. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, no concrete cases of transmission on Lufthansa Group flights have become known. All Lufthansa Group aircraft are equipped with the highest quality air filters, which guarantee air quality similar to that in an operating theatre. In addition, the air circulates vertically instead of being distributed throughout the cabin.

Lufthansa Group extends repatriation flight schedule until May 31

Lufthansa Group has made this announcement:

Due to continuing national and international travel restrictions, Lufthansa’s repatriation flight schedule will preliminary be extended until May 31. Some connections will also be included in this timetable. Lufthansa is thus guaranteeing an important minimum level of air traffic connections and contributing to the provision of basic services.

As of May 18, Lufthansa will be operating flights from Frankfurt to Athens (Greece), Porto (Portugal) and Gothenburg (Sweden) in its reduced repatriation flight schedule. The airline’s domestic flights from Munich will be doubled. All destinations can be called up daily on lufthansa.com.

Lufthansa is thus offering a total of 15 weekly long-haul connections: three times a week each from Frankfurt to Newark and Chicago (both USA), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Bangkok (Thailand) and Tokyo (Japan). In addition, Lufthansa is now offering 330 weekly flights from its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich to the most important cities in Germany and Europe instead of the previous 280.

Originally, the already greatly reduced flight schedule was valid until May 17. As of today, the additional cancellations will be implemented successively and passengers will be informed of the changes.

Swiss, too, will continue to offer three weekly long-haul flights a week to Newark (USA) from Zurich and Geneva, in addition to a substantially minimised timetable for short- and medium-haul services to selected European cities.

Eurowings will continue to provide basic services at Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Cologne airports with a skeleton programme, offering domestic flights within Germany and connections to selected European destinations.

Austrian Airlines has to extend the suspension of its regular scheduled flight operations once again – by a further two weeks from May 18, 2020 to May 31.

In addition, Brussels Airlines is extending the temporary suspension of its flights further until May 31.

Passengers whose flights have been cancelled or who have been unable to take their flight can keep their ticket and rebook for a new travel date – by April 30, 2021 at the latest – and, if necessary, a new destination by August 31, 2020. If they start their journey before December 31, 2020, they will receive an additional reduction of 50 EUR for rebooking. This can be obtained in the form of a flight voucher online via the airlines’ websites.

Lufthansa Group publishes preliminary results for the first quarter and provides outlook on liquidity development

Lufthansa Group has made this announcement:

The travel restrictions implemented as a consequence of the global spread of the coronavirus had a significant impact on the Lufthansa Group’s earnings development in the first quarter of 2020.

On a preliminary basis, Group revenues fell by 18 percent to 6.4 billion euros
(previous year: 7.8 billion euros) in the first quarter. In March alone, revenues declined by almost 1.4 billion euros or 47 percent.

Cost reductions could only partially offset the revenue decline in the quarter.

On a preliminary basis, the Lufthansa Group’s Adjusted EBIT¹ in the first quarter of 2020 amounts to around -1.2 billion euros (previous year: -336 million euros). The Group expects crisis-related asset impairments and the negative development of the value of fuel hedges to have a further significant negative impact on Group profit in the quarter. Details will be published in the quarterly financial statement, which has been postponed to the second half of May (originally scheduled to be published on April 30).

At present, it is not possible to foresee when the Group airlines will be able to resume flight operations beyond the current repatriation flight schedule. The Group therefore expects a considerably higher operating loss in the second quarter compared to the first quarter. Available liquidity currently amounts to around 4.4 billion euros. Financing measures totalling around 900 million euros since mid-March have helped strengthen liquidity. In particular, bilateral credit lines were drawn down and short-term loans were taken out.

However, in view of the business outlook, existing multibillion liabilities related to trade payables and refunds of cancelled tickets as well as upcoming repayments of financial liabilities, the Group expects a significant decline in liquidity in the coming weeks. The Group does not expect to be able to cover the resulting capital requirements with further borrowings on the market. The Group is therefore in intensive negotiations with the governments of its home countries regarding various financing instruments to sustainably secure the Group’s solvency in the near future. The Management Board is confident that the talks will lead to a successful conclusion.

The Group will be announcing the exact publication date of the quarterly financial statement planned for the second half of May well in advance.

Responsible: Dennis Weber, Vice President Investor Relations, Phone +49 69 696 28000

¹Adjusted EBIT is not an indicator according to IFRS. Information on the calculation of adjusted EBIT is available in the Annual Report 2019 of Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

Lufthansa Group almost completes repatriation flight program

Lufthansa Group has made this announcement:

Around 90,000 travellers were flown home by the airlines

The rapidly spreading Coronavirus pandemic and the travel restrictions imposed worldwide as a result have triggered the return of an unprecedented number of holidaymakers and travellers since mid-March. After just over a month, the repatriation programmes of various European governments and numerous tourism providers have almost been fully completed. All airlines in the Lufthansa Group have supported their respective governments by providing return flights.

Since March 13, 2020, Lufthansa Group airlines have repatriated around 90,000 holiday makers and travelers. 437 special flights departed from 106 airports worldwide – from New Zealand all the way to Chile – all on their way Europe. Eleven more will follow in the coming days. The governments of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium in particular, but also tour operators and cruise lines have ordered these return flights from Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Edelweiss, Eurowings, Lufthansa and Swiss.

For now, Lufthansa’s last special flight is expected to arrive in Frankfurt at about 9 a.m. next Monday, April 20, 2020, from Lima.

In addition, the Lufthansa Group has already operated 94 cargo special flights with relief supplies on board.

To date, Eurowings has also already operated 27 so-called “harvest helper flights” with around 2,500 passengers on board, with nine more are currently planned.

Lufthansa and Eurowings have been commissioned by the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin to fly more than 34,000 Germans and EU citizens back to Germany from their holiday homes and places of residence, some of which are very far away. Among the passengers was a girls’ choir from Hamburg, which was flown home from Baku (Azerbaijan). The return flights were planned, prepared and carried out as charters within only a few days. In some cases, passengers from the destination country were also on board the outward flight.

The challenge was more than carrying out an enormous number of individually planned special flights, which already exceeded the usual annual average for Lufthansa: Since around 40 airports were not regular Lufthansa Group destinations, additional personnel for handling, catering, and accommodation for cockpit and cabin crew, fuel and maintenance had to also be organized in a very short amount of time. The local embassies and diplomatic representations as well as the German Foreign Office also provided support, especially with regard to the necessary overflight and traffic rights.

Further challenges included local curfews, rapidly changing restrictions and partly already closed airports.

Unions attack Lufthansa Group’s desire to dismantle Germanwings

The trade unions of the Lufthansa Group have issued this joint statement about the future of Germanwings:

Joint appeal by VC, UFO, Verdi, IGL/TGL and ACA
Stabilization of Lufthansa only possible with all employees

On April 6, the trade unions and associations, VC, UFO, Verdi, IGL/TGL and ACA made a joint appeal to the Lufthansa Group Executive Board.

The background is the Lufthansa Group’s unilateral decision to question the future of its subsidiary Germanwings.

Markus Wahl, President of Vereinigung Cockpit: “The announcement that in an unprecedented crisis such as the current one, a part of the workforce will be confronted with an existential threat is met with incomprehension. Right now, every decision must take the concerns of all employees into account. This is the only way employees can stand behind the group and work towards stabilization.

The Corona crisis has hit the aviation industry particularly hard. Great efforts will be necessary to overcome this crisis. We as trade unions in the Lufthansa Group offer our support for solutions that can be supported by all employees.

Note: Germanwings previously operated its aircraft for Eurowings.

Germanwings aircraft photo gallery:

Lufthansa Group extends returnee flight schedule until May 3, 2020

Lufthansa Group has made this announcement:

Due to the continuing travel restrictions, Lufthansa has decided to extend its returnee flight schedule, which was originally scheduled to run until April 19, until May 3, 2020. This also means that all remaining flights of the original flight schedule between April 25 and May 3 will be cancelled. Flights which were planned to operate until April 24 were cancelled at an earlier date. As of April 2, 2020, the route cancellations will be implemented successively and the passengers affected will be informed of the changes.

Lufthansa will thus continue to offer an urgently needed basic service. A total of 18 weekly long-haul flights are scheduled: three times a week each from Frankfurt to Newark and Chicago (both USA), Montreal (Canada), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Bangkok (Thailand) and Tokyo (Japan). Flights to Johannesburg (South Africa) had to be cancelled by April 16 due to official regulations. In addition, the airline still offers around 50 daily connections from its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich to the most important cities in Germany and Europe.

Swiss, too, will in future offer three weekly long-haul services a week to Newark (USA) from Zurich and Geneva, in addition to a substantially reduced short- and medium-haul timetable focusing on selected European cities.

In addition to the regularly scheduled services, the airlines in the Lufthansa Group (Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings and Edelweiss) have been operating more than 300 special flights since March 13, taking some 60,000 holiday makers back to their home countries of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium. Around 45 further flights are already in preparation. Clients are and have been tour operators, cruise lines and governments.

In addition to regular cargo flights, the Lufthansa Group has already operated 22 pure cargo special flights with relief supplies on board. A further 34 special cargo flights are already planned.

Passengers whose flights have been cancelled or who were unable to take their flight can keep their booking and do not have to commit to a new flight date for the time being. The ticket and ticket value remain unchanged and can be converted into a voucher for a new booking with a departure date up to and including 30 April 2021. The conversion into a voucher is possible online via the airlines’ websites. Customers who choose a new travel date up to and including 31 December 2020 will also receive a 50 Euro discount on every rebooking.

Lufthansa aircraft photo gallery:

Lufthansa Group publishes flight schedule for returnees

Lufthansa Group has made this announcement:

Lufthansa Group Airlines’ flight schedule geared to returnees
Return flight schedule initially valid until 19.4.
Lufthansa Group provides 920,000 face masks to health authorities

From the beginning of next week, a return flight schedule will be in effect for the airlines in the Lufthansa Group. This will initially be valid until April 19, 2020.

Harry Hohmeister, Member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG: “This situation has a historic dimension. Hardly anyone wants to or is currently allowed to travel. That is why our returnee flight schedule is now essentially geared to the needs of European citizens who want to return to their home countries. We are now flying as many people home as possible!”

The intercontinental return flight schedule in detail

Long-haul flights are offered as scheduled from Frankfurt and Zurich. Lufthansa’s intercontinental flight schedule from Frankfurt is as follows: three times a week to Newark, Chicago (both USA), Montreal (Canada), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Bangkok (Thailand), Tokyo (Japan) and Johannesburg (South Africa).

In addition to a substantially reduced short- and medium-haul timetable (48 services from Zurich), Swiss will in future offer three weekly long-haul flights to Newark (USA).

Lufthansa’s short- and medium-haul schedules

From its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich, Lufthansa still offers around 40 daily connections to the most important cities in Germany and Europe.

Short and medium-haul flight schedule of Eurowings

Eurowings flight program focuses on the basic supply of the airports of Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Cologne.

Special flights for governments and tourism companies

In order to bring as many people as possible back home quickly, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group are currently operating numerous special flights all over the world in close consultation with the governments of their respective home countries and on behalf of tourism companies. With around 130 extra flights operated by Lufthansa, Eurowings, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Edelweiss, around 25,000 passengers have so far flown home. Around 100 further flights are already being prepared.

Renunciation of the use of face masks

The Lufthansa Group is waiving the purchase of more than 920,000 permanently ordered face masks and making them available to the health authorities. In this way, the company assumes social responsibility and supports medical facilities that urgently need these masks. The Group has a sufficient quantity of masks in stock for Lufthansa Group employees.

In addition, Lufthansa Group employees who have completed medical training can now be released quickly and unbureaucratically on a voluntary basis for specific work in a medical facility.

Lufthansa Group achieves adjusted EBIT of 2 billion euros in a difficult economic environment

Lufthansa Group issued this statement:

Outlook 2020: magnitude of the expected decline in adjusted EBIT currently not predictable
Corona crisis: Comprehensive savings measures throughout the Group including: far-reaching capacity reductions, ”short-time working” mechanism in home markets and suspension of dividend
Flight schedule for relief flights until 19 April
In addition over 140 special flights planned and operated until now
Executive Board waives 20 percent of basic remuneration

Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG:

“The spread of the coronavirus has placed the entire global economy and our company as well in an unprecedented state of emergency. At present, no one can foresee the consequences. We have to counter this extraordinary situation with drastic and sometimes painful measures. At the same time, we must live up to the special responsibility that airlines bear in their home countries. We are doing everything we can to bring as many passengers as possible home on relief flights. In addition, we are doing our utmost to help ensure that supply chains for many thousands of businesses do not break down by mobilising additional capacity for air freight transport. The longer this crisis lasts, the more likely it is that the future of aviation cannot be guaranteed without state aid. In view of the massive impact of the Corona crisis, today’s publication of our results for the past financial year is unfortunately sidelined.”

The most important key figures of the 2019 annual financial statements have already been reported in an ad hoc announcement on 13 March.

At 2.0 billion euros, the adjusted EBIT of the Lufthansa Group was in line with the forecast despite considerable charges. The main drivers for the decline were a 600 million euro increase in fuel costs and a noticeable economic slowdown, especially in the Group’s home markets. Earnings development was also impacted by high price pressure in the European market due to overcapacity and the weakening of the global airfreight market. Lufthansa Group revenue in 2019 rose by 2.5 per cent to 36.4 billion euros (previous year: 35.5 billion euros). The adjusted EBIT margin was 5.6 per cent (previous year: 8.0 per cent). Consolidated net profit fell by 44 per cent to 1.2 billion euros (previous year: 2.2 billion euros).

Unit revenues of the passenger airlines in the Group fell by 2.5 per cent in 2019, adjusted for exchange rate effects, in particular due to the overcapacity in the Lufthansa Group’s home markets. At the same time, unit costs adjusted for fuel and currency effects were reduced by 1.5 per cent in 2019, the fourth year in succession.

In 2019, the Lufthansa Group invested 3.6 billion euros (previous year: 3.8 billion euros), a large part of which in new aircraft. Adjusted free cash flow fell to 203 million euros (previous year: 288 million euros) due to lower profits and higher tax payments. Return on capital employed (adjusted ROCE) after taxes decreased to 6.6 percent (prior year: 10.8 percent).

At year-end, interest-bearing net liabilities amounted to 4.3 billion euros. Including lease liabilities of 2.4 billion euros recognized for the first time as a result of the application of IFRS 16, net debt thus amounted to around 6.7 billion euros (prior year: 3.5 billion euros). Pension liabilities rose by 14 percent to 6.7 billion euros (previous year: 5.9 billion euros), mainly due to the lower interest rate used to discount pension obligations, which fell to 1.4 percent (previous year: 2.0 percent).

In order to secure its strong financial position, the Lufthansa Group has raised additional funds of around 600 million euros in recent weeks. In actuarial terms, the Group thus has liquidity of around 4.3 billion euros. In addition, there are unused credit lines of around 800 million euros. Further funds are currently being raised. Among other things, the Lufthansa Group will use aircraft financing for this purpose.

“The Lufthansa Group is financially well equipped to cope with an extraordinary crisis situation such as the current one. We own 86 per cent of the Group’s fleet, which is largely unencumbered and has a book value of around 10 billion euros. In addition, we have decided to propose to the Annual General Meeting that the dividend payment be suspended, and we are proposing short-time working in our home markets,” said Ulrik Svensson, Chief Financial Officer of Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

The Lufthansa Executive Board also decided yesterday to waive 20 per cent of its basic remuneration in 2020.

Corona crisis: Drastic cuts in Lufthansa Group flight operations / numerous special relief flights planned and carried out

Due to entry restrictions in many countries and a collapse in demand, the Lufthansa Group was forced to make drastic cutbacks in its flight operations. Air Dolomiti conducted its last flight for the time being on 18 March. Today the last regular scheduled flight of Austrian Airlines landed in Vienna. With the exception of special flights, Austrian Airlines is suspending its flight operations until 28 March. Brussels Airlines will not be offering any regular flights in the period from 21 March to 19 April.

Lufthansa is discontinuing its long-haul operations in Munich and will initially only offer long-haul flights from Frankfurt. Swiss will offer only three weekly long-haul flights a week to Newark (USA) in addition to a substantially reduced short- and medium-haul schedule. Lufthansa’s short-haul program will also be substantially reduced further, and only Lufthansa CityLine services will be operated from Munich. From the hubs in Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich, only a few European metropolitan areas will be served. The relief flight schedule runs until April 19 and only provides for a total of about five percent of the originally planned program. Around 700 of the Lufthansa Group’s 763 aircraft will be temporarily parked.

In order to bring as many people as possible back home quickly, Lufthansa Group airlines are also operating numerous special relief flights around the world. This is also possible due to the unparalleled support and solidarity of the crews as well as ground staff, who at a moment’s notice volunteered their assistance.

In close consultation with the governments of their home countries and on behalf of tour operators, Lufthansa Group airlines are currently offering around 140 special relief flights. More than 20,000 passengers are thus flying home with Lufthansa, Eurowings, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Edelweiss. The figures alone include the special flights that were firmly planned until yesterday. Numerous other special flights will follow in the next few days.

In addition, the Lufthansa Group is making every effort to ensure that supply chains in Germany and Europe do not come to a standstill. Lufthansa Cargo continues to fly its regular program, except for cancellations to mainland China, keeping the entire freighter fleet in the air. This currently consists of seven Boeing 777Fs, six MD-11Fs and four 777Fs from Aerologic. In addition, the company is currently examining the possibility of using passenger aircraft without passengers as pure cargo aircraft in order to further increase cargo capacity.

Lufthansa Cargo aircraft photo gallery:

Lufthansa Group airlines continue operating to the USA

Lufthansa Group has made this announcement:

Chicago, Newark (New York) and Washington will still be served
Special flight schedule for the USA will be available soon
Flight operations to Canada continue unchanged
The impact of the changes in the entry regulations for India is currently being assessed
Customers are asked to check their current flight status on lufthansa.com, swiss.com, austrian.com or brusselsairlines.com

Despite the new travel guidelines ordered by the US administration on passengers from the European Union, Switzerland and other countries, Lufthansa Group Airlines will continue to offer flights to the USA from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium.

The Lufthansa Group will continue operating flights from Frankfurt to Chicago and Newark (New York), from Zurich to Chicago and Newark (New York), from Vienna to Chicago, and from Brussels to Washington beyond March 14, 2020, thus maintaining at least some air traffic connections to the USA from Europe. The airlines are currently working on an alternative flight schedule for the USA. Passengers will still be able to reach all destinations within the USA via the U.S. hubs and connecting flights served by partner airline, United Airlines.

In addition, all other U.S. flights will be suspended until further notice due to U.S. administration restrictions, including all departures from Munich, Düsseldorf and Geneva. The Lufthansa Group will continue to serve all destinations in Canada until further notice.

As planned, the Lufthansa Group’s airlines are offering 313 connections to 21 destinations in the USA from Europe in the winter schedule, which is still valid until March 28, 2020.

The impact on the Lufthansa Group flight program due to the recently changed entry regulations for India is currently being evaluated.

Lufthansa passengers planning a trip over the next few weeks are advised to check the status of the respective flight on lufthansa.com, swiss.com, austrian.com or brusselsairlines.com before embarking on their journey. Guests who have provided Lufthansa with their contact details will be informed if their flight is cancelled.

Lufthansa aircraft photo gallery:

Lufthansa Group plans to reduce flight schedule by up to 50 percent, may ground all Airbus A380s

Lufthansa Group has made this announcement:

Due to the exceptional circumstances caused by the spread of Covid-19 and the resulting drastic decline in bookings as well as numerous flight cancellations Lufthansa Group decided to reduce the flight capacity on offer even more than previously planned. Depending on the further development of demand, capacity is to be reduced by up to 50 per cent in the coming weeks. These capacity adjustments apply to all passenger airlines in the Lufthansa Group.

In addition, the extent to which the entire Airbus A380 fleet (14 aircraft) can be temporarily taken out of service in Frankfurt and Munich is currently being examined.

This measure is designed to reduce the financial consequences of the slump in demand. It complements the planned savings actions in the area of personnel, in material costs and project budgets, and other liquidity measures. In addition to an immediate hiring freeze, Lufthansa Group has already offered its employees the use of voluntary individual personnel measures in recent weeks. These include the granting of unpaid leave and bringing forward annual leave. The company is in talks with its operating partners and trade unions in order to avoid dismissals – among other measures – by means various part-time models, including probationary periods.

It is not yet possible to estimate the burden on earnings to be expected from current developments. The Group will publish key financial figures at the annual press conference on March 19, 2020.

Lufthansa aircraft slide show: