(FILES) An employee walks past an Airbus A340-600 aircraft by German airline Lufthansa parked on the tarmac at the international Frankfurt Airport, Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on May 6, 2026. Profit at German aviation group Lufthansa plunged in the second quarter, the firm said on August 4, 2026, as higher jet fuel costs hit earnings. Excluding one-off effects, core profit fell almost 56 percent to 383 million euros (USD 440 million), Lufthansa said, even as sales rose 10 percent to 11.1 billion euros in the three months to the end of June. Higher fuel prices increased costs by about 750 million euros, the operator of the Swiss, Brussels, Eurowings and Lufthansa airlines said. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP via Getty Images)