(New: Statements from conference call on average revenues in summer, costs of strikes and IT breakdown, new hires, collective bargaining talks with pilots, maneuver "Air Defender", share price reaction)

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Lufthansa passengers must prepare for high ticket prices and full planes this summer. With flights to Corona still reduced, Europe's top-selling airline group expects business to be brisk. "We are on the verge of the strongest summer in our company's history in terms of revenue," Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said Wednesday when presenting figures for the first quarter of the year.

Nevertheless, Lufthansa shares were down more than six percent at times in the morning. In the afternoon, the stock was still down by a good two and a half percent at 9.40 euros, making it one of the biggest losers in the MDax, the index of mid-sized stocks.

According to analysts, the Group's business figures were largely in line with expectations. The statements by the Board of Management on the business outlook were also positive. However, industry expert Jarrod Castle from the major Swiss bank UBS had already expected that investors would first take price gains on Wednesday. Thus, the Lufthansa share was recently traded even after the recent price loss still a good fifth more expensive than at the turn of the year.

Above all, Lufthansa is being driven by the return of private travelers. While the number of business travelers is only at around 60 percent of pre-pandemic levels, private travelers are compensating for this shortfall even in the more expensive seat categories. The demand meets a limited supply on the market - and Lufthansa can therefore push through higher ticket prices.

The Group is targeting 85 to 90 percent of its pre-crisis flight supply for the full year, but will probably end up at the lower end of the range, according to Spohr. "We are missing out on quite a bit. We all could have sold more tickets," the top Lufthanseat spoke for the entire industry. The background to the situation is massive delivery delays for long-haul aircraft from manufacturers Airbus and Boeing, as well as engine problems with Airbus A220 and A320neo medium-haul aircraft.

Spohr promised customers more service and better IT services than in the chaotic summer of 2022. "Something like last year must not be repeated. Passengers, but also our staff, cannot be subjected to that again," the Lufthansa CEO said. According to the group, it has already hired more than 6,000 additional staff this year to cope with the rush. At the end of the quarter, just under 112,400 people were employed by the Group.

Cooperation with service providers and airports has also been improved, Spohr explained. In February, Lufthansa had already cancelled thousands of flights from the summer flight schedule in order not to overload the overall system. Now, other providers have followed this more cautious assessment and cancelled their flights.

The danger of strikes can never be ruled out in European air traffic, the Lufthansa boss said, referring to France. This year, labor disputes at German airports and a major IT glitch have already cost the company around 70 million euros. On the other hand, Spohr was optimistic about the tough collective bargaining talks with the company's own pilots, who will be able to go on strike at Lufthansa's core company from July. As long as negotiations continue, there will be no strikes.

The Lufthansa CEO expects problems as a result of the NATO maneuver "Air Defender" planned for June, for which parts of German airspace are to be repeatedly closed within two weeks. Lufthansa expects that during the largest air maneuver since World War II, existing night flight bans will be handled more flexibly. Airlines should not lose underused takeoff and landing rights.

After halving its operating loss to 273 million euros (previous year: minus 577 million) in the traditionally low-travel first quarter, the Executive Board believes the Group is on track to increase its day-to-day profit this year well above the 1.5 billion euros from 2022 as planned. Revenue in the first three months increased by around 40 percent year-on-year to 7.0 billion euros. Passenger numbers were 64 percent higher than at the start of 2022, when the Corona variant Omikron was still hampering passenger traffic.

Whereas Lufthansa owed its turnaround and profit in 2022 primarily to Lufthansa Technik and the cargo division, the passenger airlines are also expected to generate significant profits again in 2023. In addition to significantly higher passenger numbers, increased ticket prices are expected to contribute to this.

In the first quarter, average revenues were already 19 percent higher than in the same period before the Corona pandemic in 2019, and in the second quarter they could even be up to 25 percent more expensive than in the corresponding pre-crisis period, explained chief financial officer Remco Steenbergen. For the third quarter, which is the busiest in terms of travel, he predicts an increase of at least 23 percent compared to summer 2019./ceb/stw/DP/jha/