German aviation group Deutsche Lufthansa AG (DLAKY, DLAKF) Thursday reported a wider loss in its traditionally weak first quarter, with traffic figures down in both the passenger and cargo business. However, the company said it still expects higher operating results and revenues for 2013.
The company noted that the first quarter was dominated by the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone, volatile exchange rate movements, as well as persistently high fuel costs.
Lufthansa said its executive board and supervisory board will propose to the annual general meeting to suspend dividend for the 2012 financial year.
Christoph Franz, chairman of the executive board stated, "2013 is the year in which we want to show that we are capable of implementing our ambitious plans. We intend to reach an entirely new level of profitability by 2015 with an operating profit of EUR 2.3bn."
For the quarter, net loss attributable to shareholders of Deutsche Lufthansathe was 459 million euros, wider than 394 million euros in the previous year. Loss per share was 1.00 euros, compared with 0.86 euros loss a year ago.
Operating loss totaled 359 million euros, flat with last year. Loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization was 3 million euros, compared with earnings of 76 million euros last year.
The group's revenue decreased 0.1 percent to 6.63 billion euros. Traffic revenues were 5.34 billion euros, down from 5.35 billion euros a year earlier. Lower volumes and adverse currency movements reduced revenue by 0.7 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.
Passengers carried in the period declined 1.6 percent to 21.63 million. However, Passenger load factor improved 2.0 points to 76.1 percent. Cargo load factor was 70.5 percent, up 0.6 points from the preceding year.
Operating expenses climbed 1.7 percent to 7.7 billion euros.
For full year 2013, Lufthansa Group said it still expects higher revenues and operating result to be higher than that of 524 million euros reported for the 2012 financial year.
On Frankfurt's XETRA exchange, the company's shares are trading at 15.57 euros, up 2.54 percent, on a volume of 4.58 million shares.
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