2025 and 2026 will be transitional years for the Lufthansa Group. Progress is being made on the recovery plan, and efforts are underway to contain costs. However, challenges remain. Flight delays, labor disputes, and strikes are weighing heavily, impacting profits and margins last year. This is "a year of transformation toward greater efficiency" stated Group ceo Carsten Spohr at a media event on Tuesday, September 9.

In 2024, the ceo had made a promise: to relaunch the company by 2026. "I believe I can also say that this turning point in 2025 has been reached", commented Spohr, who said the company is achieving better results than in recent years. "We haven't been as operationally efficient as we are this year in over a decade", he said. Punctuality and regularity have also improved significantly.

Future goals include further integrating airlines within the Group, such as Swiss, Austrian, and Brussels Airlines, streamlining operations, continuing the acquisition of Ita Airways, and expanding the multi-family model to Vienna and Brussels. Among the strongest airlines currently are the new subsidiaries City Airlines and Discover, which are strengthening the Group: "In the coming years, they will account for the majority of growth". Furthermore, Eurowings, Lufthansa Cargo, and Lufthansa Technik, called the "billionaires' club" by the ceo, together generate around one billion euros in pre-tax profit. Conversely, "the cost disadvantage of the traditional division, the heart of the core business, is so great that the Group's growth is currently taking place elsewhere. We would like to be able to reduce these costs", Spohr stated. One of the factors hindering improvement in Germany is the burden of taxes: Lufthansa is among those airlines that have often criticized the increase in taxes at European airports.

By the end of 2026, the Group plans to deliver 60 new aircraft, both Airbus and Boeing: a pace Spohr described as unprecedented. A Boeing -787/9 Dreamliner with a luxurious Allegris cabin was also delivered to Lufthansa this month, but with a delay related to seat certification. Deliveries are ongoing, but with some challenges.

In any case, the ceo is optimistic: with more stable operations, new products, and a unified structure, Lufthansa could be ready to regain its competitiveness and strengthen its Group identity. However, the ceo underlying comment is bitter: "Let's be clear: without a turnaround at the main airline, Lufthansa, not even the success of Eurowings, Cargo, Technik, and ITA will be enough...".