Originally Posted by
Volume
I always love this calculation of losses...
LH loses 48 M€ on three days, this obviously means they make 5.8 G€ (365*48M/3) every year.
Did I misunderstand Mathematics, or do the LH people simply put rhetoric pressure on the pilots, having fully valid issues?
You misunderstand mathematics.
Lufthansa don't take 48M€ off its passengers in a normal three days and move them about at no cost; as we surely all understand, airlines are very much a matter of margins; the costs are huge, the revenue is huge, the difference is the profit or loss. And when the revenue goes away, many of the costs don't.
At its most basic, 48M€ is the lost revenue minus the costs avoided - unpaid wages for striking pilots and fuel not burnt.
For example if the normal expected revenue without the strike was 90M€, the normal expected cost of operation for that period was 89M€, then normal profit for the three days would be 1M€ and annual profit would be about 122M€ per year.
If the cost of fuel and pilot's wages saved was 42M€, but the lost revenue was 90M€, then instead of making 90M€-89M€ = +1M€, they'll save 42M€ but lose 90M€, making 42M€-90M€ = -48M€.
A 48M€ loss, and a huge hole in the annual profit.
And that's with no allowance at all for damage to the reputation of the business or for the people who planned to fly Lufthansa one way during the strike and the opposite direction before or afterwards, who are forced by an industry that largely runs on return tickets to fly both legs with someone else.
I am reluctant to believe that this level of mathematics or accounting is beyond anyone who is capable of obtaining a pilots licence.