Lufthansa state aid: How difficult can it be
to give away €10bn? — May 2020

Lufthansa Group entered the current crisis as well-prepared as could be expected from any airline. Its finances were in good shape, and the future had been looking rosy.

In 2019 revenues in 2019 had grown by 2.5% to a record €36.4bn. While profitability had been under pressure from increases in fuel prices and intense competition in Vienna, the group still managed to report an operating result of over €2bn and a margin of 5.5%. Within this, the network airlines — Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian — achieved respectable margins of nearly 8%, while losses at the point-to-point Eurowings airline subsidiary had been cut by more than a quarter to a mere €-166m.