The Lufthansa Group continues its successful path in the first quarter of 2018. The Group’s Network Airlines increased their Adjusted EBIT margin by 3.2 points to 2.4% in what is traditionally the weakest quarter for all airlines.
Lufthansa Cargo achieved a strong Adjusted EBIT margin improvement: up 4.3 points to 10.1%. These improved earnings were largely offset by significant one-off costs at Eurowings from its growth in the context of the Air Berlin insolvency. As Lufthansa Technik and “Others & Consolidation” showed earnings declining to the levels of earlier years, the total Adjusted EBIT increased only slightly by €1m to €26m for the first-quarter.
Despite new record numbers of passengers carried and high seat load factors, the total revenues of around €7.6bn (of which €5.8bn traffic revenues) for the first-quarter were broadly on previous-year level due to the first-time implementation of the new IFRS 15 accounting standard. Without this, first-quarter revenues would have been increased by 4.5%. The net group result for the period improved by €11m to €-57m.