Lufthansa Group has issued a profit warning as terrorist attacks have reduced demand for long-haul flights to Europe.
The largest airline group in Europe also said it was cutting its profit forecast for 2016 to below the previous year’s results “due to increasing political and economic uncertainties”.
“Advance bookings, especially on long-haul routes to Europe, have declined significantly, in particular due to repeated terrorist attacks in Europe and to greater political and economic uncertainty since the original forecast was made in March,” said Lufthansa in a statement to investors.
Lufthansa made the profit warning despite registering a 13% rise in profit before tax and interest (Ebit) to €529 million in the first half of 2016, compared to a profit of €468 million during the same period last year.
Total revenue for the group, which also includes Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings, fell slightly from €15.4 billion to €15 billion year-on-year.
Lufthansa’s executive board said that it had lowered its profit forecast from “slightly above previous year” to “below previous year” following a meeting yesterday (July 20).
“In particular in the third quarter, the executive board expects unit revenues at the Passenger Airline Group business segment to develop significantly weaker,” added the company.
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