Lufthansa Manages to Post Smaller 2Q Loss

Europe's third-largest airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG on Wednesday posted a smaller-than-expected second-quarter loss by cutting costs and winning new passengers. For the three month period April-June the German airline lost €34 million ($38.4 million) compared to €159 million for the same period a year ago. Turnover shrank to €3.9 billion from €4.3 billion a year earlier. Despite suffering through miserable business conditions including worries about the war in Iraq and the deadly respiratory disease SARS in Asia, Lufthansa managed to book an operating profit of €65 million in the second quarter of 2003. “Despite weak macroeconomic momentum, the Iraq war and SARS, we achieved a fine result,” said Lufthansa's Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber while presenting the interim figures in Frankfurt. “The aviation industry is still operating in a difficult economic environment. But it looks like we have now come through the worst.”