COVID-19: Lufthansa airline says it lost 1.2 billion euros in first quarter of 2020
With World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) projecting that the deadly coronavirus could cut 75 million jobs in the travel and tourism industry across the world, German airline, Lufthansa is already counting losses.
According to Reuters, Lufthansa, which has grounded almost all its aircraft due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said its operating loss increased to 1.2 billion euros during the first quarter (January, February and March) of the year 2020. In the previous year, the airline lost 336 million euros.
The airline is already bracing for the worse as it expects the loss to be considerably higher in the current quarter (April, May and June).
“Crisis-related asset impairments and a slump in the value of fuel hedges would have a further significant negative impact on first-quarter net income,” the German airline said on Thursday.
The tourism and hospitality industry have been the worst hit by the pandemic as worldwide flights went down by almost 80% by early April, a report released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) revealed.
IATA also said African airlines may lose $4 billion in 2020 revenue as the industry is virtually grounded due to lockdown imposed by African leaders since March to contain the spread of the virus into their countries.
President of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), Bankole Bernard, also revealed that in the first two months since the global lockdown went into effect, the Nigerian travel industry has lost more than N180 billion and thousands of jobs.
“It is disheartedning that travel agencies have suffered losses of over N180 billion since the outbreak of COVID-19,” Bankole said at a news conference in March 2020.
“There will be a global recession because virtually every aspect of the economy has been affected.”
