BERLIN: Germany's Lufthansa lowered its profit guidance for 2015 for the second time this year on Thursday due to a stuttering global economy and falling ticket prices and said any further strikes could also impact the target for this year.
The airline, Europe's largest by revenue, said it now expected its 2015 operating profit to be "significantly above" the 1 billion euros ($1.26 billion) seen for 2014, compared with a previous forecast for 2 billion euros.
Pressure on yields - a measure of pricing - is not letting up, Chief Financial Officer Simone Menne told journalists, adding yields would be stable rather than rise in 2015.
"We still have a yield pressure, not in Europe, but in other regions, especially North America. We will react with capacity measures," she said.
Yields fell a currency-adjusted 3.9 percent in the third quarter, extending a drop of 2.6 percent in the previous three months.
The airline is also being impacted by swings in oil prices and foreign exchange rates, Menne said. Weak European currencies mean airlines in the region are seeing less benefit from falling fuel prices than their rivals in the United States.
The airline maintained its forecast for 2014 operating profit of 1 billion euros, despite a series of strikes this year that have cost Lufthansa around 170 million euros so far.
However, Menne said further major strikes in the final two months of the year could result in changes to the 2014 target.
Rival Air France KLM has lowered its profit guidance for 2014, saying a two-week pilots' strike in September and weakening demand has cost it 500 million euros in profit.
Lufthansa reported third quarter operating profit of 735 million euros on sales of 8.46 billion euros, beating average analysts' expectations for 709 million and 8.26 billion in a Reuters poll.
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