Parent company plans 3,500 job cuts worldwide “in coming years”
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Airline Swiss and its mother company Lufthansa both showed losses for the first quarter of 2012, a year that the parent firm expects to remain difficult. Lufthansa posted a loss of euros 397, despite higher passenger traffic that resulted in revenues of euros 6.6 billion, a 5.6 percent increase.
High oil prices were the main culprit but the company noted its earning were also hit by “the air traffic tax imposed in Germany and Austria and the costs of emissions trading in force in Germany since 2012 all had an adverse effect on the Group’s operating result.”
Swiss showed an operating loss of euros 6 million and its sister airline in the Lufthansa Passenger Airlines group had a loss of euros 67m, out of a total loss of euros 442m for the group.
Lufthansa says its cost-cutting plan “is to be achieved partly by cancelling loss-making routes and restricting capacity growth, which has been set at zero for 2012 and a maximum of four per cent for the years 2013 and 2014 each.” It is stepping up its investment in first-class service, saying it intends “to remain the European airline with the most First Class seats by far.”
