Germany's Lufthansa Group swings to loss in March quarter

The Lufthansa Group has reported a consolidated net loss of €8 million for the January to March 2016 quarter as against a net profit of â‚¬425 million in the corresponding quarter last year. The German aviation conglomerate also saw traffic revenues dip 3.9 percent to â‚¬5.24 billion from  €5.44 billion in the March 2015 quarter, according to the first interim report released on Tuesday.

The company attributed the decline in traffic revenues to pricing. Other revenues grew 10.2 percent to â‚¬1.68 billion during the quarter, the company said.

The net profit of â‚¬425 million in the March 2015 quarter was due to a â‚¬500 million one-time gain from the sale of its stake in JetBlue AirwaysCorp.

The company's fuel costs reduced by 18 percent to â‚¬1.07 billion and overall operating expenses were down 5.3 percent on a year-on-year basis. The overall passenger load factor was 74.9 percent during the quarter.

Lufthansa Group said the planned capacity growth for 2016 is being reduced to 6 percent (from the earlier 6.6 percent).

The Group's Asia-Pacific and Middle East operations witnessed about a 3.5 percent fall in net traffic revenues during the quarter, though passenger traffic rose about 3 percent.

The Lufthansa Group's business segments comprise Passenger Airline Group, Logistics, MRO, Catering and Other Activities. 

The Passenger Airline Group comprises the airlines Lufthansa Passenger Airlines (including Germanwings and Eurowings), SWISS and Austrian Airlines. Besides, the Group also has equity interests in Brussels Airlines and SunExpress.  The Group is a member of Star Alliance.

The airline had 1,21,894 employees as on March 31, 2016.