Lufthansa forecasts huge earnings from bookings

Lufthansa has lifted its full year profits forecast as higher business bookings indicate annual earnings of about last year’s level.

The German airline said adjusted earnings before interest and tax for the nine months to end September were EUR€1.67 billion, compared with EUR€1.69 billion in the same period last year.

Total revenue of EUR€23.9 billion was also slightly lower than the EUR€24.3 billion of 2015.

Lufthansa said in a statement that “short-term bookings of business travellers in September have developed better than expected.

“However, political and economic uncertainties continue to significantly burden long-term bookings, especially on long-haul routes to Europe. Forecasting short-term bookings therefore remains challenging and may lead to significant volatility in earnings.”