Transports
Lufthansa to cut more jobs than planned
The Lufthansa Group has announced that it will further reduce its fleet and staff due to the air transport crisis linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
Lufthansa, the leading European air transport group, saved from bankruptcy by the German state, announced on Monday thousands of additional job cuts, faced with a recovery “much slower than expected” after the almost total shutdown of thefts due to the coronavirus.
The company, which currently loses 500 million euros per month, will part by 2025 of 150 planes – out of a total fleet of 763 -, against 100 initially planned, resulting in “an increase” in the number of “positions”. surplus ”compared to the 22,000 (full-time equivalent) already announced. The exact number of job cuts targeted has not been communicated and Lufthansa claims to want to find agreements to “limit the number of dry layoffs”, in particular through more part-time work and therefore wage cuts. These negotiations are proceeding slowly.
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By the first quarter of 2021, the company wants to have cut 20% of executive jobs. All of its 14 Airbus A380s will remain grounded in the long term: they are “withdrawn from the schedule” and can only be reactivated in the event of a “surprising” recovery, the company said in a press release. The group, which had already definitively removed six A380s from its fleet, is following the trend of the sector, which is separating from its larger aircraft, already more difficult to operate profitably before the pandemic. Aircraft withdrawals will weigh on the balance sheet in the third quarter to the tune of up to 1.1 billion euros.
Limit bleeding
Lufthansa had already suffered a net loss of 3.6 billion euros for the first six months, including 1.5 billion in the second quarter, when the peak of the pandemic had led to the almost total shutdown of world aviation. But after a summer recovery, demand remains weighed down under the effect of quarantine obligations and travel warnings from the German government. “The numbers of reservations and passengers are falling again with the end of the travel period” this summer, the group notes.
In the fourth quarter, Lufthansa – which owns Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines – now expects only an offer representing 20% to 30% of last year’s level, while the group previously expected to reach 50% . The group wants to limit the bleeding of cash to 400 million euros per month this winter and aims for a cash flow “in the course of 2021”.
The carrier, which lost -7.95% to 7.92 euros around 2 p.m. GMT on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, benefited in the spring of a rescue plan of 9 billion euros of public money, which made the government its first shareholder in Germany.
(With AFP)
