Lufthansa soars to record profits

Frankfurt am Main: German airline giant Lufthansa reported record profits for 2017 Thursday, celebrating a year that saw it bury a smouldering dispute with pilots and gobble up parts of defunct rival Air Berlin. Net profits at the group — which includes Lufthansa, Eurowings, Swiss, Brussels Airlines and Austrian Airlines — added 33.1 per cent to hit 2.36 billion euros ($2.92 billion), higher than the 2.28 billion predicted by analysts. “Our endeavours of the past few years are paying off... we are lowering our costs where this does not affect the customer, and are simultaneously further investing in our product,” chief executive Carsten Spohr said. — AFP