CFO sees positive outlook for North America routes despite Trump
Despite some recent entry issues for travellers to the US, Lufthansa has not yet seen any reluctance to book. „Our important transatlantic business still looks very good“, emphasises the new CFO, Till Streichert, in an interview with Börsen-Zeitung.
Any downturn in this key market would be particularly painful for the airline group, as its business in the second major region, Asia, continues to struggle – at least in the passenger segment. „Asia was difficult for us in 2024, with significantly declining yields, because Chinese airlines, which can use Russian airspace without restrictions, have brought a lot of capacity to the market“, explains Streichert. „However, I believe this will normalise in the medium term.“
Turnaround program in progress
The core Lufthansa brand has been struggling recently, and not only due to the weakness in Asia. In the past fiscal year, an adjusted EBIT loss of 94 million euros was recorded. This was partly due to irregular costs amounting to 840 million euros, caused by events such as strikes. A turnaround program is now underway. It is of great importance for the entire group, as Lufthansa accounts for about 45% of total passenger airlines revenue.
A positive passenger airlines result of 1.5 billion euros is forecast for 2026, growing to 2.5 billion euros by 2028. „Strict cost management“ is the focus, and further investments will be made to sustainably increase revenues, especially in the premium offerings for customers.
For the current fiscal year, Streichert, who has led Lufthansa's finance department since mid-September 2024, expects „a significant improvement in the group's results.“ The market environment for this year is positive, particularly for the North Atlantic business. On the cost side, the ongoing fleet renewal is an important lever. „We expect a new aircraft every two weeks this year," he said. "The fuel consumption of these planes is about 30% lower than their predecessors.“
„There's room for the stock price to rise“
In this context, Streichert is convinced that „there is still room for the stock price to rise.“ The target return of 8% is also in sight, up from 4.4% last year. „Excluding Lufthansa Airlines, we were already close to our target margin in 2024“, Streichert highlights. „And of course, we want to achieve the goal with the important core brand as well.“
