Status: 05/10/2022 4:10 p.m
Lufthansa may be flying back to pre-corona levels before 2025, it said at the company’s shareholder meeting. Passengers should continue to voluntarily offset their CO2 emissions.
Deutsche Lufthansa does not want to oblige its passengers to offset CO2 emissions caused by their flight with money. “We rely on the principle of voluntariness, with increasing success,” said Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr at the virtual general meeting. A regulation that provides for compensation via ticket prices would have to be uniform worldwide in order to avoid distortions of competition. But that is not realistic.
Aviation is responsible for around three percent of global CO2 emissions. The industry tries to compensate for its emissions of greenhouse gases with compensation payments that finance climate protection projects or the purchase of low-emission synthetic fuels.
According to Spohr, Lufthansa customers have recently been able to financially offset the CO2 emissions of their trip with just one click. This is more accepted than before when the compensation had to be booked in addition to the flight. So far, very few consumers have been willing to make a contribution to climate protection in this way.
Criticism of climate strategy
Climate protectionists criticize such compensation schemes. CO2 emissions do not have to be compensated but avoided, demanded Jonas Asan from Robin Wood. “Green planes are just those that stay on the ground.” Aviation must shrink, there is no way around it.
At the shareholders’ meeting, representatives of investment funds also called for the airline to make an additional commitment to climate protection. Lufthansa has a clear goal of halving net CO2 emissions by 2030, said Henrik Pontzen from Union Investment. But a strategy for a credible restructuring is still missing. “The reduction of CO2 emissions and working towards more sustainable flight operations must be given greater consideration,” said Deka fund manager Ingo Speich.
Before 2025 at pre-crisis level?
In his speech, Lufthansa boss Spohr also addressed progress in the operational business. After an annual loss of 2.2 billion euros, Lufthansa almost halved its losses in the first quarter thanks to high demand.
“After two years of the pandemic, we are mentally leaving the crisis behind us today and looking to the future with renewed strength,” explained Spohr. The supply could possibly reach the pre-crisis level before 2025. Previous forecasts may have turned out to be too cautious. After 75 percent this year, the company wants to fly around 95 percent of the 2019 offer in 2023.
After the massive downsizing from around 36,000 to a good 100,000 jobs in the Corona crisis, the airline group also wants to create jobs again. Lufthansa is planning several thousand new hires this year, it said in response to a shareholder question.
Fleet is to be modernized quickly
According to Spohr, the company came through the crisis better than most of its competitors and used the pandemic to develop new strengths. The range of flights was geared more towards private travellers. Despite its high level of debt of over 14 billion euros, the company is focusing on modernizing its fleet quickly in order to reduce kerosene consumption and CO2 emissions. The company announced last night that it would buy a further 17 long-haul jets from Boeing, including seven 787 passenger planes and ten 777 freighters.
For the third year in a row there is no dividend for the shareholders. As long as the Federal Economic Stabilization Fund is on board, no dividends may be paid anyway. The federal government has committed to selling its shares by October 2023.