Lufthansa is preparing to welcome what could possibly be a post-pandemic record number of passengers this week. As the school holidays begin in Hessen, the state containing Frankfurt Airport, the airline is preparing to welcome some 76,000 passengers over the course of two days.
At the start of the summer, Lufthansa was only operating around 15% of its pre-pandemic flights, serving approximately 10% of its pre-pandemic passengers, according to Reuters. However, things are now looking up. The airline is up to 55% of its flights, with enormous short-haul travel demands anticipated for the summer as people seek to escape the country following a winter of lockdown.
55% of pre-pandemic network
According to Lufthansa, the airline now offers more than 1,800 connections per week, which is just over half of what it was offering this time in 2019. The airline actually offers more destinations than it did before the pandemic, with over 192 on offer.
With the start of the school holidays in Frankfurt and the surrounding area, Lufthansa expects that this weekend will be incredibly busy at its central hub. Lufthansa is hoping to fly some 72,000 passengers from its Frankfurt hub this weekend and is thus encouraging passengers to be prepared for travel.
The 747 is coming
This weekend will also see the arrival of the Boeing 747-8 on one specific high-traffic route in the Lufthansa network. At 10:20 on Saturday, LH1152 will depart from Frankfurt Airport (FRA) to Palma de Mallorca Airport as usual. However, this weekend something different will happen.
The airline is planning to operate the route with one of its Boeing 747-8 aircraft instead of the usual A320 family aircraft. Mallorca is colloquially called the 17th German Federal State, given its popularity with German tourists. The airline is seeing even more demand this summer, as much of the world remains off-limits.
Reducing the risk list?
Last week Germany added the whole of Spain, including the Balearic and Canary islands, to its simple risk list. The simple risk list doesn’t add any restrictions to travel, other than the need to complete a contact tracing form. However, there has been a suggestion that the simple risk list could be on the way out.
According to Frankfurt local radio station FFH, the German government wants to abandon the simple risk area designation. New rules on travel into Germany should enter force at the beginning of August, and there are hopes that only the high incidence and variant area categories would remain.
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Those traveling from high incidence countries must quarantine for at least five days unless they are vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19 in the past six months. Those traveling from variant areas are only allowed to enter the country if residents in Germany or German citizens. These travelers must quarantine for 14 days regardless of their reason for travel or vaccination status.
What do you think the summer will hold for Lufthansa? Let us know what you think and why in the comments below!
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