Lufthansa pulls more big jets, issues gloomy outlook

Lufthansa is mothballing more jumbo jets because air travel just isn't bouncing back

Via AP news wire
Monday 21 September 2020 17:39 BST
Germany Lufthansa
Germany Lufthansa (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

German airline Lufthansa, already bailed out by the government, says it will have to make more staff cuts and mothball more jumbo jets than originally planned because the outlook for air travel is worse than the company first predicted.

The company said Monday it would have to drop more than the already announced 22,000 full-time positions, without saying how many more. The airline will also pull its remaining eight Airbus A380 jets out of service and put them in long-term storage, along with 10 four-engine A340-600 aircraft.

Overall, it said that a modest rebound in air travel had petered out after the end of the summer vacation travel season. It expects to offer only 20-30% of its normal capacity in the last three months of the year, compared with the same period in pre-virus 2019.

The final number of job reductions will be negotiated with employee representatives. It said it was hoping to reduce cash burn to 400 million euros ($470 million) a month this winter from 500 million euros a month presently. Management is staying with its prediction that it will return to positive operating cash flow some time in 2021.

Lufthansa has secured a 9 billion euro ($10.6 billion) bailout from the German government.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in