Lufthansa Group is expecting a “travel boom” this summer but this is likely to be fuelled by strong leisure demand, which continues to recover more quickly than the corporate market.

The European aviation giant, which also owns Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Eurowings and Brussels Airlines, said it was “back on track” as it announced reduced losses for the first three months of 2023.

Lufthansa announced a net loss of €467 million for the first quarter of 2023, compared with a loss of €584 million a year ago. Revenue rose by 40 per cent year-on-year to €7 billion, as passenger numbers jumped from 13 million to 22 million. Average yields were also up by 19 per cent on 2019 levels indicating higher ticket prices.

Carsten Spohr, Lufthansa’s CEO, said: “After a good first quarter in which we were able to significantly improve our result, we now expect a travel boom in the summer, as well as a new record in our traffic revenue for the year as a whole. 

“On short and medium-haul leisure-oriented routes, demand is already exceeding 2019 levels. The focus now is on once again offering our guests a consistent premium product experience on all group airlines.”

Lufthansa said its Q1 loss was “mainly due to normal seasonality” and noted that this has been “exacerbated” by the faster recovery of the leisure market compared to business travel.

“Costs for the planned expansion of flight operations in the summer, investments in operational stability and the effects of various strikes at German airports (in which the Lufthansa Group was not a negotiating partner) also weighed on earnings,” added the company in its earnings release.

The company said that it expects group capacity in the April-to-June quarter to reach around 82 per cent of pre-Covid levels and rise to 85-90 per cent of 2019 capacity across the whole year.

Chief financial officer Remco Steenbergen added: “We will continue to invest in operational stability to offer our customers a smooth travel experience, even if this means that we are currently operating at a much lower efficiency and productivity level than originally planned.”