Lufthansa’s operating fell by nearly 20% to €820 million ($1.07 billion) in 2011. The German airline group announced a net loss of €13 million for the year last week. The poor results were blamed on taxes (German and Austrian aviation tax cost €361 million) and high fuel prices, which rose by 25% to €5.8 billion.
Chairman and CEO Christoph Franz stated that many of its airlines, specifically, Germanwings, were affected by Germany’s ecological tax.
However, Lufthansa’s cost-cutting drive is seeing results with €1 billion saved over three years, with plans to save a further €500m by the end of 2014.