Lufthansa AG said Thursday its third-quarter profit dipped 21 percent as fuel costs ate into its bottom line, but said it was on track to improve its operating profit for the year and is hiring 2,500 new workers, REPORTED AP. The Cologne-based airline earned ¤329 million (US$413.8 million) in the July-September period compared with ¤416 million the year before. That beat the estimate of ¤284 million (US$357.27 million) of analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires. The company's third-quarter figures were hampered by higher fuel costs that have plagued the aviation industry as well as the setting aside of US$85 million (¤67.6 million) to settle classic-action lawsuits filed in the United States over alleged price fixing by its cargo unit. Sales rose 10 percent to ¤5.3 billion (US$6.7 billion) from ¤4.8 billion a year earlier in part because of improved passenger numbers . Shares of Lufthansa were up more than half a percent to ¤17.96 (US$22.59) on the better-than-expected financial report in Frankfurt trading. «Lufthansa remains on a successful course,» Chairman and Chief Executive Wolfgang Mayrhuber said. «The result and the resonance in the market underline our strategic direction. We have become better, larger and more profitable. We are investing in our future and will be taking on 2,500 new employees this year.» Mayrhuber reiterated the company's claim that it expects to post an operating profit of some ¤750 million (US$943.5 million) for 2006. He added that the airline, Europe's third largest behind British Airways and Air France, expects to have spent some ¤3.4 billion (US$4.3 billion) on fuel this year. Without fuel price hedging measures, fuel would have cost an additional ¤144 million (US$181.2 million). Speaking in regard to the delayed Airbus A380, Chief Financial Officer Stephan Gemkow said the airline had ordered five A330s to help bridge demand until the first superjumbo is delivered in summer 2009. The airline has ordered 15 of the giant planes, but production snags have delayed their initial delivery. «The order of five A330s will enable us to implement our growth plans and bridge the delay in delivery of the A380 in 2008,» he said. Lufthansa flies to some 330 destinations in 90 countries worldwide with its main hubs in Munich and Frankfurt. Its cargo unit is the world's second-biggest, trailing only Memphis, Tennessee-based Fedex Corp.
