Lufthansa Group refines forecast for 2013

Lufthansa Group reported operating result before restructuring costs and non-recurring effects increased to about €860m in the first nine months of 2013, the operating result, including non-recurring costs for the Score program and project costs for product improvements, came to €660m for the first nine months (previous year: €907m). Lufthansa Group increased its adjusted operating result by 47% in the first nine months of 2013. Excluding restructuring costs in connection with the Score program (€168m) and project costs for product improvements (€30m), the Group generated an operating profit of about €860m in the period from January to September. This is an increase of around €280m compared with the adjusted result for the same period last year. The Group succeeded in keeping revenue stable at €22.8bn. Despite a drop in the number of flights, capacity (in seat-kilometres) remained constant, as did the number of passengers. The load factor for flights went up. For the full year 2013, the Company is forecasting an operating profit of €600 to 700m. The restructuring and project costs included in this are expected to come to €300m in total. Adjusted for these items, the operating profit is then predicted to be between €900 and 1bn.