Lufthansa is set to cut about 15 percent of its managerial staff by 2012. The German national carrier confirmed this report and said that the losses would be better than more enforced redundancies.

This is part of the airline’s Climb 2011 program. This was a program that was announced back in July of this year to cut €1 billion in costs from its operations. This included cutting up to 20 percent of its workforce.

The Climb 2011 project was announced just after Lufthansa announced a €8 million profit for the first six months of 2009. This is just €669 million less than for the same time frame last year. During the time from January to June, total revenue fell by 15.2 percent from €12 billion to €10.2 billion compared to the same six months in 2008.

Traffic revenue slumped by 19.3 percent to just €7.8 billion while its operating income actually dropped by 10.1 percent to €11.6 billion. The operating profit for the company in the first six months fell to just €20 million, which is being compared to the €743 million for the same period in 2008.

Lufthansa, which has already spoken about a crisis in the industry, has now blamed the very weak demand and the altered travel behaviors of passengers as the main reasons for the losses. The company went on to say that business travellers in particular have changed their travel habits. Right now, it is understood that Lufthansa employs about 2,000 administrative staff.