Lufthansa upbeat over summer, but watching US for weakness

Berlin — German airline Lufthansa stuck to its 2025 financial guidance on Tuesday and said it was optimistic about the key summer season, striking a more upbeat tone than some rivals while cautioning it was monitoring the impact of trade tensions.

European airlines are entering the first-quarter earnings season with investors fretting about demand as US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies hit US air travel and cloud global growth prospects.

“Despite all the geopolitical uncertainties, we … remain on course for growth, are optimistic about the summer, and are sticking to our positive outlook for 2025,” Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said.

Earlier this month, US carrier Delta pulled its 2025 financial forecast, pointing to Trump’s tariff threats as a drag on demand. Virgin Atlantic also said it had seen a slowdown in travel to Britain from the US.

Air France-KLM, which reports first-quarter results on Wednesday, said earlier this month it would consider cutting economy fares to boost transatlantic travel if needed.

The transatlantic route is key for global airlines, underpinning the results of players such as IAG-owned British Airways.

Lufthansa said demand in the US sales region was continuing to rise. In March, the airline group carried about 25% more passengers from the US to Europe than a year earlier.

Still, the company said it had set up “a task force to closely monitor current developments and, if necessary, respond quickly and flexibly to any weakening in demand, for example by adjusting capacity”.

Lufthansa is counting on the lucrative transatlantic route as it strives to revive its core airline, bogged down by wage talks and high pay, and find new sources of revenue as it struggles to compete with Chinese carriers in Asia.

Spohr told journalists there was some weakness in bookings for the third quarter, particularly to the US, but that Lufthansa was still hopeful the numbers could rebound.

Lufthansa shares were down 3.5% at 10.45am GMT (12.45pm) after the media call, having been little changed after the results were published.

“Macroeconomic uncertainties, particularly the trade tensions between the US, the EU and other regions, are making it difficult to forecast the coming quarters accurately,” the German flag carrier said.

Spohr added that capacity growth for the fourth quarter to the US would be revised down from 6% to 3%.

For the first three months of 2025, Lufthansa reported an adjusted loss before interest and tax of €722m, about in line with a company-compiled forecast.

That is a 15% improvement from a loss of €849m for the same quarter last year. Revenues were up 10% on last year at €8.1bn.

Weakening oil prices have “the potential to offset any potential modest demand softening” in the market, said Neil Glynn, MD at Alvarez and Marsal.

However, RBC analyst Ruairi Cullinane pointed to an increase in operating losses at Lufthansa’s passenger airlines as “disappointing”.

Reuters