Lufthansa profit halved by 1-off charges

Germany's biggest airline Lufthansa said on Friday that one-off charges cut its bottom line almost in two in the second quarter but excluding those factors, its performance improved. Furthermore, Lufthansa said it was sticking to its targets for a rise in both revenues and operating profit for the whole of 2013. In the period from April to June, Lufthansa's net profit nose-dived by 42.6 percent to 255 million euros ($337 million), disappointing analysts' expectations for a figure of about 300 million euros. Revenues eased slightly by 0.7 percent to 7.836 billion euros and operating or underlying proifit was down 27.4 percent at 431 million euros. Taking the first half of the year, Lufthansa flew in a net loss of 204 million euros and revenues slipped by 0.3 percent to 14.464 billion euros. Nevertheless, "adjusted for restructuring costs and one-off effects, the Lufthansa group increased its operating result by 233 million euros" in the period from January to June, the group insisted. "The restructuring of the Lufthansa Group is gaining speed," said chief financial officer Simone Menne. "Without the one-off effects, the group's operating profit would have been higher than in the first half of last year," she said. And looking ahead to the full year, "the Lufthansa group still anticipates that revenue will be up on last year and that the operating result will be higher" than the 524 million euros recorded in 2012, the statement said.