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Passengers at Frankfurt Airport (2021)
Photo: Boris Roessler / dpa
Lufthansa has identified a strong recovery in flight demand for the first travel wave of the year at Easter.
"Easter bookings are above the pre-crisis level," said Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr at the annual meeting of the industry association Airlines for Europe (A4E).
Lufthansa will launch all available aircraft.
In the summer, the development of travel destinations that are no longer isolated like China is similar.
At the largest German airport, Frankfurt, the Lufthansa Group expects more than 225,000 passengers with more than 1,500 departures on the first holiday weekend just before the holidays.
The airline has made extensive preparations with more check-in counters and more staff.
Nevertheless, longer waiting times at the controls at the airport are to be expected, so that Frankfurt Airport recommends being there at least two and a half hours before departure.
Fraport explained that the volume of traffic will be significantly increased in the Easter holidays with around 1100 departures a day in Frankfurt.
The airport has not yet found enough staff again.
The peaks in traffic late in the morning and early in the afternoon are therefore a major challenge for airport operations.
Ticket prices are likely to be higher than before the pandemic
Meanwhile, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary expects that flying in summer could be more expensive than before the outbreak of the corona pandemic.
"I think the prices will be the same or higher than before Covid," he said at the conference.
According to Lufthansa boss Spohr, not only high fuel prices are currently having an impact on airlines, but also inflation.
However, in the past few decades, nothing has become as much cheaper as plane tickets in Europe.
"Flying will continue to be very affordable compared to other products," said Spohr.
O'Leary spoke out in favor of delaying parts of the EU's tightened climate targets, the so-called "Fit for 55" package of the European Commission.
The proposed legislation should help EU countries reduce CO2 emissions by 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels and become carbon neutral by 2050.
He doesn't think his customers can afford to pay significantly higher environmental taxes for flights at a time when oil is at $120 a barrel.
hej/Reuters/dpa