Lufthansa wants to fight the corona crisis with massive cuts. “We have to deal with this extraordinary situation with drastic and sometimes painful measures,” announced Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr. “The longer this crisis lasts, the more likely it is that the future of aviation cannot be guaranteed without government aid.”
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The top management of the board will forego 20 percent of his basic salary this year, said Spohr. Around 700 of the fleet’s 763 aircraft are currently on the ground. According to the group, only five percent of the originally planned flights are currently taking off.
An industry stands still
Because of the corona virus crisis, Deutsche Lufthansa does not want to pay a dividend to shareholders for the past financial year. The group strives to keep all financial resources together – to protect the future of the company. The airline, which was hard hit by the pandemic, no longer dares to look ahead to 2020. Lufthansa subsidiary Brussels Airlines has now asked the Belgian government for financial aid. The Belgian newspaper “Tijd” reports that it is about 200 million euros.
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The crisis is also hitting international Lufthansa competitors. The Italian government has approved 500 million euros for the rescue of Alitalia, which has been insolvent for years. The airline has been insolvent since May 2017 and since then only flies with government loans totaling 1.3 billion euros. The corona crisis now dealt another blow to Alitalia.
US airlines probably need $ 50 billion
In the United States, US airlines are demanding over $ 50 billion in government aid. It would be the first time since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that the US aviation industry received government aid on a larger scale.
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The “Airlines for America” alliance calls for $ 25 billion in immediate emergency liquidity aid and a further 25 billion in zero or zero interest rate loans or credit guarantees for passenger airlines in the medium to long term. An additional total of around eight billion dollars is needed for cargo flight providers. In addition, the organization, which represents all major US airlines, is making additional subsidies, such as tax breaks.
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