(ANSA-AFP) - FRANKFURT, 06 AGO - German airline giant Lufthansa said Thursday it made a net loss reaching 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) in the second quarter as the coronavirus pandemic slammed the brakes on travel. The German flag carrier carried around 1.7 million travellers during the three months to the end of June -- a 96 percent drop from the same period last year as lockdowns to slow the spread of the coronavirus restricted air travel worldwide. Profit in the same period of the previous year was 754 million euros. Lufthansa said demand for air travel would return to pre-crisis levels in 2024 at the earliest, as it predicted a "clearly negative" operating loss in the second half. The group, which received a government bailout worth 9 billion euros, had announced in June that 22,000 jobs would have to go. Although it had said then that it would use schemes for shorter work hours and other crisis arrangements to avoid outright redundancies, the company said Thursday that was now "no longer realistically within reach for Germany either".

(ANSA-AFP).