BERLIN, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Revenues of Lufthansa fell by 18 percent year-on-year to 6.4 billion euros in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020, resulting in a net profit loss of 2.1 billion euros (2.35 billion U.S. dollars), Germany's largest airline announced on Wednesday.
"Global air traffic has come to a virtual standstill in recent months," said Carsten Spohr, chairman of the executive board of Lufthansa. This had impacted the company's quarterly results to an "unprecedented extent."
According to the airline, travel restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic had "significantly impacted the Lufthansa Group's earnings development." In April, passenger numbers of Lufthansa airlines had collapsed by 98.1 percent year-on-year.
On Monday, Lufthansa's supervisory board accepted a nine-billion-euro (10 billion U.S. dollars) governmental stabilization package. The state aid, including various credit lines, still has to be approved by shareholders. A general meeting with shareholders to discuss the package is scheduled for June 25.
On Wednesday, Lufthansa also announced to implement restructuring measures to "significantly reduce unit costs compared with pre-crisis levels."
The airline had already reduced fixed costs by setting around 87,000 employees on short-time work. In addition, ongoing restructuring programs at its subsidiaries Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines would be "further intensified."
At Austrian Airlines, capacity would be reduced in the long-term by downsizing the fleet as well as personnel costs by around 20 percent each. At Brussels Airlines, the fleet would even be reduced by 30 percent.
From mid-June, all Lufthansa airlines would be expanding their schedules to around 2,000 weekly connections to more than 130 destinations worldwide. Lufthansa announced to further increase the offered capacity by up to 40 percent of the original schedule by September.
However, "uncertain further development of the coronavirus pandemic" would still make it impossible to offer a precise forecast of the earnings trend for 2020, although Lufthansa confirmed that the company continued to expect a "significant decline" in adjusted earnings.
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