FRANKFURT, Sept 20 (Reuters) – German airline Lufthansa no longer expects to improve on last year’s operating profit as economic uncertainties stack up and after its passenger airlines unit had a weaker than expected August.

“As viewed currently, the target of a further increase on the previous year’s figure no longer appears to be achievable,” the company said in a brief statement on Tuesday.

While the number of people travelling by plane is forecast to rise 5 percent a year over the next 10 years, the airline industry has been hit hard by the uprisings in North Africa, a tsunami in Japan and the soaring cost of jet fuel.

Added to this are increasing fears of economic slowdown. Industry body IATA earlier on Tuesday forecast a 29 percent fall in airlines’ 2012 profit on the back of a weak global economy and stubbornly high jet fuel prices. .

Lufthansa said this economic uncertainty had prompted it to alter its view on expected booking trends.

Lufthansa generated an operating profit of 876 million euros ($1.19 billion) last year.

Analysts on average had been expecting profit of 1.04 billion euros for 2011, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine, which gives greater weight to top-rated analysts. Estimates had ranged from 856 million euros to 1.07 billion.

COLOGNE, Germany (Reuters) – Lufthansa (LHAG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is still seeing stable demand for seats in the premium sections of its planes despite turbulence in financial markets, an executive at Germany’s largest airline said on Wednesday.

“We are still seeing that we can sell most of the additional premium capacity we introduced to the market in the summer,” Jens Bischof, sales chief of Lufthansa’s passenger business told Reuters on the sidelines of a travel conference in Cologne.

Business travel collapsed during the 2009 recession as firms cut jobs and curtailed expenses, but has recovered strongly since last year.

The current stock market turbulence and a swathe of job cuts in the financial industry could knock this recovery, experts fear.

“Of course we’re concerned, seeing the turbulences on the stock market and how that could hit the real economy,” Bischof said.

The very top end of the market also offered good growth opportunities and Lufthansa was keen to expand its private jet services into new world regions, Bischof said.

Lufthansa offers customers within Europe the chance to take a private jet to an airport, such as Frankfurt or Munich, where they can then climb abroad a long-haul flight.

COLOGNE, Germany, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Travel groups are juggling exclusive, luxury products and package deals to ensure they attract customers and maintain returns in the face of online competition and consumer cutbacks, a travel and tourism conference heard.

“No business model is immune to shocks and our industry is more susceptible,” Horst Baier, chief financial officer of German tourism and shipping group TUI AG (TUIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), told the conference on Tuesday.

“We believe we’ve already achieved reasonable margins but we are not where we want to be yet,” he said at the conference in the western German city of Cologne.

The travel industry has taken a knock this year from the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, two fast-growing and popular markets.

In addition, tour operators TUI Travel Plc (owned by TUI) and rival Thomas Cook Group Plc have both seen sales in the UK come under pressure as public spending cuts bite into people’s budgets.

“It’s a hard business. The Internet has made competition tougher and people have become more experienced travellers,” WestLB analyst Raimon Kaufeld said.

Big groups like TUI Travel and Thomas Cook have therefore put a lot of focus on “differentiated holidays”, with sport packages, expeditions, spa holidays and hotels they can offer exclusively.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Shares in Air Berlin (AB1.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) jumped last week after founder and CEO Joachim Hunold said he was stepping down, prompting optimism that a fresh pair of hands will be able to lead the loss-making company through a restructuring.

“I have the intention of changing things,” designated interim Chief Executive Hartmut Mehdorn told Reuters last week. “I want to pull all the strings together.”

Analysts have warned, however, that a new captain in the cockpit, route cuts and minimal fleet reductions will not be enough to bring Air Berlin back to profitability next year, with its mishmash of routes service business, low-cost and tourist markets.

Air Berlin shares have dropped 35 percent since the start of the year, underperforming the STOXX Europe 600 Travel & leisure by 16 percent and cutting the company’s market value to 217 million euros.

The following is a summary of options open to Mehdorn, who took tough steps to increase profits at Deutsche Bahn during his tenure at the state-controlled rail operator, to bring Germany’s second-largest airline back into the black.

SELLING PLANES

Between 2006 and 2009, Air Berlin made acquisitions worth about 500 million euros and ordered dozens of planes as Hunold strove to super-size the carrier.

FRANKFURT, Aug 11 (Reuters) – German tourism and shipping group TUI AG (TUIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) abandoned its forecast for higher 2011 profit, as uprisings in North Africa put tourists off and in the face of a tough shipping environment.

TUI, which owns Europe’s largest tour operator TUI Travel , reported an 11 percent fall in third-quarter underlying earnings and said profit for the year to September will be flat.

The company had said in May it expected profit to rise.

“Earnings benefited from higher customer volumes and better average prices. On the other hand, they were impacted more strongly than expected by the impact of the unrest in North Africa,” TUI said on Thursday.

The tourism division accounts for the vast majority of turnover and includes TUI Travel as well as TUI AG’s own hotel and cruise operations.

The uprisings and the bomb attack in Marrakesh in April particularly affected bookings from customers in France, as well as TUI’s hotels in Egypt, the group said.

London-listed TUI Travel is, however, coping better than rival Thomas Cook and reported solid trading in the UK on Wednesday.

FRANKFURT, Aug 10 (Reuters) – German consumer goods group Henkel (HNKG_p.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said further price rises were on the way for its products as it and rivals battle increasing raw material costs.

An improved sales outlook and an 8 percent rise in core quarterly profit also boosted its shares on Wednesday.

Henkel, whose brands include Persil detergents in most of Europe, Schwarzkopf hair products and Loctite glue, said it managed to increase selling prices across all divisions in the past quarter, including in its laundry and homecare division for the first time since 2009.

“We see further price rises in raw materials and packaging and because of that we want to increase our prices in the second half,” Chief Executive Kasper Rorsted told journalists on Wednesday.

Chief Financial Officer Lothar Steinebach told analysts he expected the worst of the impact from higher input costs in the second and third quarters.

Rivals Procter & Gamble , whose products include Gillette razors and Olay skin creams, and Unilever (UNc.AS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), home to the Dove, Knorr and Lipton brands, have also increased prices this year in response to soaring costs for commodities like oil, plastics and chemicals.

Henkel shares led German blue chips after the group said it now expected sales growth adjusted for currencies and portfolio changes of 5 percent in 2011, at the top end of a previous range of 3-5 percent.

FRANKFURT, Aug 9 (Reuters) – German air traffic controllers will not strike on Tuesday morning, after their employer agreed to mediation at the last minute.

Shortly after midnight, a judge in Frankfurt rejected an appeal from the air traffic controllers’ authority, the DFS, thus allowing a six-hour strike planned by air traffic controllers’ union GdF for 0400-1000 GMT on Tuesday to go ahead.

However, just after the final decision was announced, the DFS air traffic controllers’ authority said it would enter mediation, thus invoking a no-strike clause for four weeks.

Airlines and airports had spent Monday preparing for the strike, which the BDL air travel association said would affect about 3,000 domestic and international flights and some 400,000 passengers. [ID:LDE777026]

Lufthansa (LHAG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Air Berlin (AB1.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Thomas Cook’s airline Condor (TCG.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and TUI (TUIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (TT.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) all said they were bringing dozens of departures forward to before 0400 GMT, with updated flight times to be found on their websites.

Some package holiday flights will be kept at the earlier departure time, even now that the strike has been averted.

“It’s unbelievable that 400,000 people who want to fly tomorrow are being held hostage,” Condor boss Ralf Teckentrup said.

FRANKFURT, Aug 8 (Reuters) – A Frankfurt court said Germany’s air traffic controllers can strike for six hours on Tuesday morning in a dispute over pay and conditions, a move which will disrupt thousands of flights in a busy summer week.

The DFS air traffic authority said on Monday it would appeal the decision by the court to reject calls for an injunction to prevent the stoppage, which will take place from 0400 GMT until 1000 GMT on Tuesday.

The air traffic control authority DFS refused to enter mediation, as suggested by the judge, as it believes some demands being made by the GdF union are illegal.

The DFS had successfully brought an injunction against a strike planned for last Thursday. Monday’s appeal will be heard by the court at 1900 GMT.

Airlines and airports were bracing for the strike, which the BDL air travel association said would affect about 3,000 German and international flights and some 400,000 passengers.

Lufthansa said it regretted the uncertainty caused for passengers by the strike.

“We have already started to make first preparations and, should it come to a strike, we will do everything in our power to minimise disruption,” a spokesman said.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Adidas (ADSGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) raised its year forecasts again on Thursday after demand for its three-stripe branded sportswear from Chinese and U.S. customers led to a 5 percent rise in second quarter sales.

Adidas, the world’s second-largest sports clothing company after Nike (NKE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), has already raised its sales outlook twice this year as demand for sportswear soars.

“Why are people buying? It keeps them healthy and fit and this is what people want, they want to enjoy their life,” Chief Executive Herbert Hainer told journalists. He said running shoes and sports fashion products were selling especially well.

The German group said it now expects sales this year to be up 10 percent and earnings per share up by 15 percent, with demand in North America also remaining strong.

That compares with previous forecasts for sales to increase by a high single-digit percentage rate and earnings by between 10 and 15 percent.

Hainer said Adidas was taking market share from its main competitors in a lot of countries and shrugged off concerns over the U.S. debt crisis, saying that its customers were still buying brand new styles as soon as they hit the shelves.

“No matter which retailer I speak to, or which market share statistic I read, our product sell-throughs are stronger than they have ever been,” he said.

LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Some of Europe’s biggest consumer goods groups defied high input costs and tepid demand to report higher sales.

Unilever, Adidas and Beiersdorf raised prices, saw strong demand in China and benefited from a warm spring in Europe.

With an array of top brands like Lipton, Knorr and Dove, Unilever (ULVR.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (UNc.AS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was able to push its prices higher, Adidas (ADSGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) saw its second-quarter Chinese sales rise 41 percent and Beiersdorf (BEIG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) enticed consumers back to its key Nivea brand.

Strong quarterly sales boosted all three stocks. Unilever Plc shares were up 5.3 percent at 20.07 pounds, Adidas rose 1.6 percent to 49.60 euros and Beiersdorf increased 4.2 percent to 44.40 euros by 1050 GMT.

Anglo-Dutch Unilever expects its input commodity costs for the likes of vegetable oils and chemicals to rise 15 percent this year, but it pushed through big price rises of 5.1 percent in the second quarter to see underlying sales beat forecasts with a 7.1 percent rise.

“Unilever’s results in our view look impressive, showing a sharp acceleration in sales growth from 4.3 percent in Q1 to 7.1 percent in Q2,” said analyst Graham Jones at Panmure Gordon.

With commodity cost pressures appearing to peak and most price rises now complete, analysts said Unilever was on track to meet Chief Executive Paul Polman’s goals of sales volume growth and profit margin expansion for 2011.