Lufthansa CEO says will “comfortably” achieve 2015 profit target

Lufthansa is confident it will achieve its profit target this year thanks to strong business in July and August and a turnaround in its short-haul European business, the airline’s chief executive told Reuters on Friday.

“We are positive that we will comfortably achieve our adjusted EBIT target of more than 1.5 billion euros this year,” Carsten Spohr said in an interview at the group’s main base in Frankfurt.

He said the Germanwings unit, which has been taking over much of Lufthansa’s short-haul routes in Europe, will make a double-digit million euro profit this year.

“(It’s) beyond our expectations considering where we started from two years ago,” he said.