Lufthansa announces record losses for 2020

Berlin: The German airline Lufthansa on Thursday announced a record loss of €6.7 billion ($8 billion) in the COVID-19-stricken year of 2020. That compared with a profit of €1.2 billion for 2019.

CEO Carsten Spohr described the pandemic year as "the most challenging in the history of our company."

Thousands of flight cancellations and travel restrictions because of the coronavirus crisis meant the airline reported a loss of nearly €5.6 billion for the first nine months of the year.

The German, Belgian, Austrian and Swiss governments propped up the company with some €9 billion in 2020. Since then, the German government has been the largest individual shareholder in the airline.