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Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr
Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa
That's not necessarily what citizens want to hear just before they start their summer vacation: Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr has prepared the passengers for further difficulties in air traffic.
The situation, characterized by a lack of staff, a shortage of parts and restricted airspace, will "hardly improve in the short term," said the head of Europe's largest airline group in a letter to passengers.
The industry is planning several thousand new hires in Europe alone.
"However, this increase in capacity will only have a stabilizing effect in the coming winter."
On behalf of the company, Spohr apologized for the fact that after the Corona slump, the "start-up of the complex air traffic system from almost zero to currently almost 90 percent again" had not led to the desired reliability, punctuality and robustness.
The manager admitted that the Lufthansa Group also lacked staff in some areas.
From next summer, the group would like to use the A380 aircraft, which have since been decommissioned.
In another letter to the workforce, Spohr explained that the board of directors had overdone the savings "at one point or another".
The Lufthansa boss cited the pressure of the losses of more than 10 billion euros in the corona crisis.
He pointed out the uniqueness of the situation: "To be honest: it was also the first pandemic that our management team and I personally had to deal with."
Tui reports: No failures
After all: The tourism group Tui gives its customers hope for a relatively relaxed summer vacation.
"Despite all the challenges due to staff shortages in the industry, the holidays will go smoothly for the vast majority," said the German boss of the travel group, Stefan Baumert.
Unlike Lufthansa, the group's own airline Tuifly does not want to cancel any flights.
The flight schedule of the company's own Tuifly machines will remain in place, as will plans for additional reserve aircraft at peak times.
Baumert recommended that it is often worth changing the airport to start your holiday from a federal state in which holidays have not yet started.
According to the manager, demand for summer travel has increased significantly in recent weeks and is "consistently above the level of 2019".
"We are catching up rapidly and are more than confident that we will see summer business this year that will come close to 2019," Baumert confirmed earlier expectations.
Bookings for the months of September and October have also been rising sharply for a few days.
beb/dpa
