Lufthansa to cut 4,000 jobs

2025-10-04 22:43:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

German industry is still, as the saying goes in professional circles, "under pressure." After the recent worrying announcement from Bosch of massive job cuts, the next concern comes from Lufthansa. As management announced on September 29, around 4,000 jobs are planned to be cut by 2030.

According to the company, the focus of the job cuts will be in administration and not in "operational work." Administrative processes should be digitalized, automated and unified. This specified and confirmed the concerns expressed in the public after speculation about cuts at the German airline, Europe's largest.

In addition, more ambitious medium-term financial targets will be formulated - therefore higher profits are planned. Lufthansa, which has 103,000 employees, wants to achieve an operating profit of eight to ten percent of revenue in the future. Until now, the target value was eight percent.

For the current year, management is optimistic: operating profit should, as planned, significantly exceed last year's amount of 1.6 billion euros.

Lufthansa to cut 4,000 jobs

To achieve the planned revenue growth, the various airlines that are part of the group must be unified and managed more centrally. In addition to the core Lufthansa brand, which is experiencing some difficulties, the company also includes Swiss, Austrian, Brussels Airlines, and Lufthansa is also a minority shareholder in the Italian company Ita.

Lufthansa's low-cost arm, Eurowings, will also be strengthened, as will its logistics and aircraft service and maintenance departments. The plan also includes increased activity in the air force, that is, in defense.

The aim of all measures is to better position the concern for the future and to ensure good profits for shareholders in the future: they can still count on dividends in the amount of 20 to 40 percent of the concern's profit.

However, management must first deal with the impending pilots' strike. The referendum by the pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) ends on Tuesday.

He called on his members at parent company Lufthansa and cargo arm Lufthansa Cargo to strike. The point of contention is pensions. Lufthansa dismissed the demands as unfeasible due to the costs.

Lufthansa to cut 4,000 jobs

Late last week, the world's largest auto parts supplier, Bosch, from Gerlingen near Stuttgart, announced that it plans to cut around 13,000 jobs at its factories in Germany, more than previously announced. Together with the previously announced cuts, around 22,000 jobs will be cut by the end of 2030.

In recent months, the company has repeatedly signaled that it has significant labor surpluses, especially in segments related to the production of parts for cars with internal combustion engines.

As the automotive industry shifts more quickly to electric vehicles, demand for certain types of parts and technology is falling. The result is that in some manufacturing segments, the need for workers is decreasing, while at the same time the demand for experts in the field of battery systems, software solutions and energy efficiency is increasing.

Bosch employs more than 400,000 people worldwide, a significant portion of whom are in Germany. It is the German factories, especially those related to the production of engines and classic automotive components, that will be most affected by the cuts.

The company says the goal is to avoid mass layoffs and that early retirement, retraining, and internal transfers of employees are preferred. Despite this, workers and unions are expressing concern about potential job insecurity and the long-term consequences./ DW