Summarize this content in well-structured paragraphs in German language and keep HTML tags Recent strikes by staff cost Lufthansa Group around €350 million during the first quarter of the year leading the European airline giant to cut its profit forecast for 2024.
Lufthansa faced a series of disruptive strikes in the early months of the year as both ground staff and cabin crew took industrial action. While these disputes have now been settled, the group revealed that the strikes “impacted earnings” by around €350 million in the first quarter.The company said its adjusted loss before interest and tax was €849 million during Q1 of 2024, compared with a much smaller loss of €273 million during the same quarter last year.Lufthansa added that it also expects a further financial hit of €100 million in the second quarter due to the impact the strikes had on short-term demand for travel. The group also faces “ongoing conflicts” at Austrian Airlines.“In addition, the ramp-up of capacity in the second quarter is forecasted to be slightly lower than originally planned to support improvements in punctuality for the customers and because of delays in new aircraft deliveries,” said the company in an update.“Overall, incoming bookings are in line with original expectations, especially for the summer holiday months, supporting the group’s forecast for the second half of the year when the result is expected to be higher than in the previous year.”Lufthansa Group added that it is now forecasting earnings before tax and interest of around €2.2 billion in 2024 – down from its previous forecast of €2.68 billion for the year, which would have matched 2023’s performance.“The as yet unforeseeable effects of the recent escalation of the Middle East conflict and further geopolitical uncertainties pose risks to the group’s full year financial outlook,” added the company.Lufthansa’s strikes also impacted traffic at its main hub Frankfurt with the airport estimating that 300,000 passengers were affected by the disruption in March when 2,200 flights had to be cancelled.Despite this disruption, Frankfurt still increased its traffic in March to 4.6 million passengers, up by 7.8 per cent on March 2023. The figures were boosted by the timing of the Easter holidays this year but remained down by around 17.6 per cent on March 2019 traffic.