Lufthansa sees earnings boost from strong summer travel

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -German airline group Deutsche Lufthansa said it expected strong demand for holiday travel this summer to fill seats on its planes and help it reach its full-year targets.

"The continuously strong demand gives us confidence for the coming months," finance chief Remco Steenbergen said on Wednesday.

Lufthansa said it still expects to post a significant year-on-year improvement in adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for the full year 2023.

For the first quarter, it posted an adjusted EBIT loss of 273 million euros ($300.96 million), improved from a 577 million loss in the year-earlier period and broadly in line with analyst consensus for 279 million.

Revenues jumped 40% to 7.02 billion euros in the three months through March, though the figure fell short of consensus for 7.57 billion.

($1 = 0.9071 euros)

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan, Editing by Friederike Heine)