Lufthansa and Swiss defy Trump's tariff storm – also thanks to the increasing desire to travel between the USA and Europe

There is a sense of alarm in the American aviation industry. The looming recession in the United States due to President Donald Trump's erratic policies is already reflected in declining consumer confidence and declining bookings for leading U.S. airlines.

So far, this only affects American carriers. At the Lufthansa Group, which also includes the Swiss airline Swiss , business on the financially very lucrative transatlantic route is still going strong.

Demand for air travel to and from North America remained strong in the first quarter, the company announced on Tuesday . The number of passengers increased by a good 7 percent compared to the previous year, CEO Carsten Spohr added in a conversation with journalists. He also expects growth of 6 percent for the summer. Capacity utilization was higher than in the previous year.

When asked, Spohr pointed out that the warnings about declining business among American competitors had primarily affected domestic traffic in the USA and, to a lesser extent, routes to and from Canada and Mexico. Regarding transatlantic connections, the differences between US airlines and Lufthansa were not particularly significant.

North America remains a growth market for the Lufthansa Group . Accordingly, average yields in the first three months climbed by almost 7 percent year-on-year. Demand in the US sales region is currently even continuing to rise. The airlines of the Lufthansa Group, which includes Swiss, Austrian, Brussels, and Eurowings, as well as the Italian airline ITA with a minority stake, flew 25 percent more passengers from the United States to Europe in March than in the previous month.

Swiss management is also optimistic about the summer. The airline expects solid bookings for its US business, said CFO Dennis Weber. However, the unpredictable changes in the political and economic environment create uncertainty.

European airlines don't need problems on the North Atlantic route either. They've already been at a disadvantage in traffic to Asia since 2022, because Russian airspace is closed to European carriers, but Chinese airlines don't have to fly this detour.

Overall, the Group experienced a mixed start to the year. The bottom line was an adjusted loss before interest and taxes of €722 million, which was, however, significantly better than the previous year. The struggling core brand Lufthansa suffered the largest loss, at around €550 million, while Swiss only posted a small loss of €10 million.

Significantly rising fees for air traffic control and airports, as well as regulatory costs such as the German air traffic tax, also contributed to Lufthansa's poor results. Strikes in Germany also occurred again in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank described the passenger airlines' total loss of €934 million as disappointing. The share price fell by around 6 percent to around €6.15 by mid-afternoon.

However, it should be noted that the first quarter is often accompanied by losses for airlines due to the seasonality of the travel market, and this year the popular Easter holiday season fell in April, not March. This alone cost Lufthansa 80 million euros in profit, Spohr said.

Lufthansa Technik's maintenance business and the logistics division Lufthansa Cargo performed well to very well. Technik achieved a record first-quarter result of €161 million, and Cargo achieved a profit of €62 million. This was due to companies, particularly in the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors, filling their warehouses in the US in the first quarter due to the threat of tariffs and transporting correspondingly large quantities of products across the Atlantic.

Despite ongoing geopolitical challenges and high volatility, management remains optimistic for the remainder of the year and maintains its current outlook. However, there are also positive factors, such as falling fuel prices and favorable exchange rate developments.

The group also anticipates a strong summer of travel, especially for popular Mediterranean destinations such as Spain, Italy, and Greece. This also applies to flights to and from North America. Ticket sales for the second quarter are already above the previous year. However, the group is still unclear about developments in the third quarter. Spohr clarified, however, that capacity could be adjusted if demand declines.

You can follow Frankfurt business correspondent Michael Rasch on the platforms X, Linkedin and Xing .