For Lufthansa accounts in 'red' Alitalia-style. CEO Ritter: "Without structural changes, arrival of new planes at risk."

Alarm sounds in the Lufthansa household.. To launch it Is the CEO of the German company, Jens Ritter, which stated that "without structural changes, there will be no prospects for Lufthansa Airlines."

Indeed. Not only that, if things don't change, Ritter warned, Lufthansa "will not be able to afford" the dozens and dozens of next-generation aircraft it has ordered from Boeing and Airbus.

The CEO used such dramatic tones at a particular time, when Lufthansa is entering into negotiations with pilots over pensions, to get them to minimize claims. But also released some numbers that tell how little tripe there is to binge on at the moment.

While, in fact, during the first half of the year, the Lufthansa Group, of which Swiss, Austrian, Brussels Airlines and Germanwings are also members (there is also ITA Airways whose economic performance, however, is not yet counted for the purposes of the Group's counts) reported profits of 149 million (a very small margin, but still positive), Ritter said Lufthansa lost 274 million euros in just six months while the entire Lufthansa division (which also includes the CityLine, City Airlines, Discover and Air Dolomiti brands), recorded a 'red' of as much as 307 million euros.

Asked if those figures had not been 'manipulated' for the purposes of negotiations with the pilots, Ritter said that "no one would benefit from portraying the company's economic situation negatively." His 'boss', Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr (the one in the negotiations with ITA, to be clear) has stepped up his game, claiming that the lack of growth is related to excessive costs and that "if Lufthansa Airlines doesn't work, we certainly won't be able to bail it out with Swiss or ITA, since it is by far the largest company in the Group."

Whether even within ITA they should begin to worry about the German carrier's 'red,' it is too early to tell. The Group's accounts remain in the black, but it is nevertheless foreseeable that, given LH's 'weight' within the Group, if its economic performance were to deteriorate further, even what little 'black' remains on the Group's accounts could be eroded easily and even rather quickly."

It is difficult to delve into a cost analysis of the German carrier. However, We have also been writing about Lufthansa for some time on The Flight Club as a A carrier with an old and wasteful fleet both in terms of fuel and maintenance and creator of 'Suicidal' choices like that of the new Business Allegris which has created and is creating huge headaches in terms of certification, as well as other 'unfortunate' like that of the Boeing 777X which has been entrusted with a key role (with 20 examples ordered) in fleet renewal and which, five years after its first flight, has yet to enter service.

From a fleet and in-flight product perspective, Lufthansa has certainly been left behind in Europe by its eternal rival Air France even companies such as KLM and British Airways are now ahead of them, thanks to cabin renovation strategies that have had shorter timelines and lower costs than those of Allegris.

In addition, the German carrier's on-time performance has also been declining over the years, with its two hubs in Frankfurt and Munich being among the least efficient in Europe. And now, on the horizon, a pilot strike may be on the horizon as well, since negotiations on pension treatment have started all uphill.

• carsten spohr
• accounts
• lufthansa group
• jen ritter
• red