Lufthansa Group strengthens financial base with best-ever nine-month result

The Lufthansa Group increased its total revenues for the first nine months of the year by 12.1% to €26,761m (prior-year period: €23,870m). Traffic revenues rose 14.4% to EUR €21,360m (prior-year period: €18,674m). The key performance indicator of Adjusted EBIT increased by €883m to €2,560 (prior-year period: €1,677m). As a result, the Lufthansa Group’s result for the period was a further substantial improvement on its previous record level of 2016. The good nine-month result is attributable primarily to continuing positive business trends at the Group’s airlines. Despite increasing overall capacity for the period by 11.7%, the Group’s air carriers improved their aggregate nine-month seat load factor by 2.1 points. Unit costs excluding fuel and currency factors were reduced by 0.8% in the same period, though a slight 0.2% increase was recorded for the third quarter mainly due to provisions for higher profit sharing payments of 1.1 points).
Net profit for the first nine months of 2017 amounted to €1,853m, broadly in line with a prior-year result that had felt the €713m positive impact of certain non-recurring items. Cash flow from operating activities increased €1,405m €4,459m, thanks largely to the good result and higher advance bookings. Despite a 10.3% increase in capital expenditure to €1,802m, free cash flow improved by 83.3% to €2,790m (prior year: €1,518m).