Jobs cuts
September 21, 2009
After implementing a billion-euro savings program in the passenger and cargo divisions, Europe's largest airline has switched the focus to its central administration.
Lufthansa said it would reduce its personnel in core operations by around 15 percent gradually until 2012.
A Lufthansa spokesman emphasized that the cost-cutting measures would not necessarily mean job losses. Personnel costs were to be reduced by five percent annually over the next three years, he said.
No information has been released by Lufthansa on the exact number of jobs at risk, a report in the business newspaper Handelsblatt said.
Lufthansa's core operations are also to cut purchasing by 20 percent due to a sharp decline in passenger sales. Corporate customers in particular are opting to fly economy class instead of in business- or first-class seats.
Lufthansa had earlier announced that its non-core operations, the Cargo airfreight division and the LSG Sky Chefs catering division, would cut expenses. It has also frozen the salaries of senior management till the end of 2010, the newspaper said.
nrt/dpa/AP
Editor: Jennifer Abramsohn