German aviation group Lufthansa said Tuesday that volatile jet fuel costs thanks to the Mideast war could mean that it makes less this year than last, sending its shares down sharply.
The firm now expects core profit of between 1.7 and 2.2 billion euros for 2026, having previously expected to have “significantly” higher earnings this year compared to the 2025 figure of 1.96 billion euros.
Speaking on an earnings call, Lufthansa finance boss Till Streichert said there was a question mark over how much Lufthansa could pass higher fuel costs onto customers.
“We are of course expecting to continue our strategy in the second half of the year of raising ticket prices to compensate for higher fuel costs,” he said.
“Visibility there is somewhat lower than it would otherwise be because we are seeing customers book less in advance,” he added.
Lufthansa shares were down over 11 percent in trading on the Frankfurt exchange as of Tuesday morning.
Excluding one-off effects, core profit fell almost 56 percent to 383 million euros in the second quarter, Lufthansa said, even as sales rose 10 percent to 11.1 billion euros in the three months to the end of June.
Higher fuel prices increased costs by about 750 million euros, according to the airline group, which also operates airlines including Swiss, Brussels and Eurowings in addition to the Lufthansa brand.
Lufthansa had managed to pass on about 60 percent of higher fuel costs to customers, Streichert said on the call.
“We could make up for a good amount of these additional costs,” he said. “But not entirely.”
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Lufthansa is the latest airline to have been hit by soaring jet fuel prices as the war in the Middle East rumbles on, disrupting supplies of petrochemical products down the Strait of Hormuz.
British Airways parent IAG on Friday said net profit fell more than a third, while Air France-KLM, Easyjet, American Airlines and Ryanair last month all reported nosediving profits as a result of the war.
Strike action at Lufthansa also hit earnings by 200 million euros in the three months to the end of June, the company said.
Thousands of Lufthansa flights have been cancelled so far this year, hit by repeated walkouts from cabin crew and pilots in a dispute over pay and pensions.
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