Airline in upswing

Lufthansa's net profit for 2013 slumped to 313 million euros ($436 million) from a 2012 bottom line of 1.2 billion euros, Germany's biggest airline announced in its 2013 annual report released Thursday.

The drop by 75 percent had been expected, the airline said, as the 2012 result had largely been boosted by non-recurring income from transferring operations at its Austrian Airlines subsidiary. Moreover, 2013 earnings had been depressed by restructuring costs such as severance pay for laid-off workers, it added, as well as by outlays for projects such as changing seats in Lufthansa's Business Class.

Stripping out the one-off effects, operating profit jumped by 62.1 percent to 1.042 billion euros last year on the back of slightly lower revenues of about 30 billion euros.

Noting that Lufthansa's earning power had again been strengthened in 2013, Chief Executive Christoph Franz said that the airline's performance had been driven primarily by rising passenger numbers.

“This performance in our core business segment has prompted us to propose to the annual general meeting that a dividend of 0.45 euros be paid,” Franz said in a statement.

Lufthansa last paid a dividend in 2011 - one which was considerably lower at 0.25 euros per share.

uhe/tj (AFP, Reuters, dpa)