Letter from the Executive Board
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders,
The Lufthansa Group can look back on a successful year 2025. We achieved key turning points in many areas. With the implementation of our strategy we are making progress on our way to becoming a more closely networked and integrated airline group, with significant synergies and shared processes.
Our flight operations implemented many operational improvements last year, which resulted in significantly higher stability and punctuality figures. In combination with higher product quality and new service offerings, this enabled us to offer the 135 million passengers on board our aircraft a materially improved travel experience.
We not only reported higher customer satisfaction in the reporting year, but also improved our financial performance indicators, increased the share price and raised employee satisfaction at the same time.
We achieved these successes in a global environment that was defined by both geopolitical crises on the one hand, and macroeconomic uncertainty on the other.
The global airline industry nonetheless remained stable and once again proved itself to be highly resilient in a volatile operating environment. Total passenger numbers reached nearly 5 billion, an increase of 4% on the previous year. As the fourth-largest airline group in the world, the Lufthansa Group profited from the positive market environment and its own successful transformation.
Although yields contracted slightly and unit costs were higher, the Adjusted EBIT for Passenger Airlines improved year-on-year by 4% to EUR 1.1bn in the 2025 financial year. Earnings were also positively affected due to lower kerosene prices. In the reporting year, Lufthansa Airlines – supported by the effective measures undertaken as part of the turnaround programme – also delivered a positive earnings contribution again after reporting a negative result in the previous year. This was a key factor in the continuous decline in our unit costs’ rate of growth over the course of the year. Overall, all our airlines were profitable in the 2025 financial year. It remains evident that action is still required to increase profitability at Lufthansa Airlines.
The positive development also continued in the Logistics business segment, which benefited from generally stable market demand, driven in particular by ongoing strong business from Asia. Lufthansa Cargo expanded its traffic overall and its Adjusted EBIT of EUR 324m was 29% higher than the previous year’s good result.
Growth in the global aviation sector resulted in higher demand for maintenance and repair services in the MRO business segment. Adjusted EBIT for Lufthansa Technik was roughly stable year-on-year at EUR 603m in the 2025 financial year. This was despite the depreciation of the US dollar, as well as inflation- and growth-related cost increases and higher tariffs.
The Lufthansa Group generated Adjusted EBIT of around EUR 2bn in total in the 2025 financial year, which represents an improvement of 19% on the previous year. As in prior years, we want our shareholders to profit from the positive result. At the Annual General Meeting we will therefore table a proposal to pay a dividend of EUR 0.33 per share. This represents a dividend ratio of 30%, which is an increase per share of 10% compared with the previous year.
Looking ahead, we anticipate further capacity and revenue growth for the 2026 financial year, as well as significantly higher Adjusted EBIT than in the 2025 financial year.
The biggest fleet modernisation in our history is vital for our positive performance. It is being accompanied by further improvements and upgrades to the products and services for our passengers. The airlines in the Lufthansa Group put 23 modern and particularly fuel-efficient aircraft into service in the reporting year, which also require less maintenance than their older predecessors. These investments are an important prerequisite for the earnings improvement targeted for our Passenger Airlines. In addition, they are the most effective lever for reducing CO2 emissions produced by air traffic.
The new aircraft in the fleet include seven Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners and one Airbus A350-900 at Lufthansa Airlines, which are fitted with the newly developed Allegris cabin, a unique feature in the industry, and the first A350-900 at SWISS, which is fitted with SWISS Senses, the new holistic travel experience from SWISS. Our Swiss holiday airline Edelweiss also put four Airbus A350-900s into operation and was thus able to add new destinations to its route network.
We explained our strategic alignment to our investors, shareholders and analysts at our Capital Markets Day in September 2025 and published new mid-term financial targets. Our transformation programmes pave the way for greater profitability, which is essential for the planned fleet investments. In the period from 2028 to 2030 we are aiming to realise an Adjusted EBIT margin of between 8 and 10%.
2026 is a very special year for us, as we are celebrating our 100th anniversary. Aviation has been a growth industry for one hundred years and will remain so in future. Over this time, our pupose has not changed: to connect people, cultures and economies across continents and borders – sustainably and with responsibility for future generations.
This is also refelcted in the new Lufthansa Group brand identity with the guiding principle “Trust at every altitude”.
Trust is the foundation for everything we do. We want to lead your Lufthansa Group, dear shareholders, to sustainable success over the next 100 years. For you, for our guests and for our more than 100,000 employees.
We are pleased that you are accompanying us on our journey. Thank you for your continued support!
Frankfurt am Main, February 2026
Carsten Spohr
Chairman of the Executive Board