Lufthansa Group Presents Shareholders Good Result for 2010

Lufthansa Group Presents Shareholders Good Result for 2010

Annual General Meeting in Berlin

At his first Annual General Meeting as CEO of the Lufthansa Group, Christoph Franz presented a good result to around 1,500 stockholders in Berlin at the beginning of this week. The Lufthansa Group achieved a net profit of around €1.1 billion and an operating result of €876 million for the last fiscal year - more than any other European aviation group. Aside from a significantly strengthened earning power, Lufthansa also clearly improved its competitive position, invested and made provisions at the same time, and developed the airline to Europe's number one airline. Foto: Rolf Bewersdorf

Franz confirmed the forecast for the current fiscal year, saying that he continued to believe that the Group would post revenue and an operating result above the previous year's figure. He emphasized that this would require the continuation of efforts undertaken. Even if IATA expected an average growth rate of about 6 percent per year in international air travel to 2014, Lufthansa had to face increasing fuel prices, additional capacities in the market and a price level that was recovering only slowly. Also, the introduction of an air traffic tax, which has been levied since January, represented an additional burden for the German market. The tax was a major competitive disadvantage for German airlines compared to their international competition.

"Our declared and ambitious aim for the Group is to achieve profitable growth with the market", said Franz. For that, Lufthansa must continue to maintain a clear focus on its core business and improve the results in Continental traffic, further expand joint ventures and push forward such investments and innovations that directly benefit the customers. In order to achieve these aims it would be immensely important that the Lufthansa Airline Group grows together and imperative that we proceed with the extremely important turnarounds at AUA and bmi, Franz added.