"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 euros (US$20 million), compared with a loss of 1.3 billion euros a year earlier.

Looking ahead, Lufthansa said it expects to narrow its full-year operating loss to "less than half" the 5.5 billion euros 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 euros 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 United States opens its borders to vaccinated travelers – a key route for the group – Lufthansa said bookings had reached 80 percent of pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

In the July-September period, Lufthansa operated at 50 percent of its pre-pandemic capacity, as measured by kilometers traveled by passengers.

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

Elsewhere, Irish no-frills airline Ryanair on Monday announced a narrowing of losses during its first half as the lifting of travel restrictions saw passenger traffic more than double.

Ryanair's net loss for the six months to the end of September came in at 48 million euros ($55 million), which compared to a loss after tax of 411 million euros a year earlier.

The Dublin-based carrier, which flies mainly throughout Europe, added in its earnings statement that the group's recovery primarily occurred during its second quarter or three months to the end of September.

"Following a very badly disrupted first quarter, which saw most Easter flights cancelled and a slower than expected easing of EU government travel restrictions [...] traffic rebounded in Q2 with the successful rollout" of the European Union's vaccine passport, said Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary.

Ryanair said its passenger numbers soared by 128 percent to 39.1 million in its first half.

Revenue jumped 83 percent to 2.15 billion euros.