(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).
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