“With rising demand for business travel and a record result of Lufthansa Cargo, we have mastered another milestone on our way out of the crisis: we are back to black,” chief executive Carsten Spohr said in a statement.

The airline said its revenues almost doubled in the period from July through September, and it posted a small underlying, or operating, profit of €17 million, compared with a loss of €1.3 billion a year earlier.

Looking ahead, Lufthansa said it expects to narrow its full-year operating loss to “less than half” the €5.5 billion it booked for 2020 when travel restrictions shut down large parts of the airline industry.

Its third-quarter performance this year was driven mainly by record operating profit of €301 million at its Lufthansa Cargo division, the statement said.

The global supply chain crunch has increased already high demand for air freight.

A week before the US opens its borders to vaccinated travellers – a key route for the group – Lufthansa said bookings had reached 80% of pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

In the July-September period, Lufthansa operated at 50% of its pre-pandemic capacity, as measured by kilometres travelled by passengers.

The airline expects this key indicator to increase to 60% in the fourth quarter and then to 70% in 2022.

Lufthansa, which also includes Austrian, Swiss and Brussels Airlines, was saved from bankruptcy last year by a German government bailout.

It is in the throes of a painful restructuring to slash costs, including thousands of job cuts, with over 30,000 already axed since the start of the pandemic.