The Lufthansa Group announced on Thursday that the Group’s airlines will restore 90 percent of their short and medium-haul routes and 70 percent of their long-haul destinations by September 2020.
Yesterday (June 4, 2020), the Lufthansa Group announced that the Group’s airlines (Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings and Air Dolomiti), will significantly expand their schedules through September. With the significant flight schedule expansion, the Group will restore 90 percent of short and medium-haul routes and 70 percent of long-haul destinations. Customers can now plan their autumn and winter holidays with a comprehensive network of connections through all the Group airline hubs. In autumn, the flagship Lufthansa brand alone will offer 100 weekly flights to North America from Frankfurt and Munich. The carrier will also offer over 80 weekly flights to Asia, 20 to the Middle East and over 25 to Africa. Some popular destinations on offer include Windhoek and Nairobi in Africa, Beirut and Riyadh in the Middle East, Houston, Boston and Vancouver in North America and Hong Kong and Singapore in Asia.
From September, Lufthansa will offer 1,800 weekly short and medium-haul connections with 102 destinations on offer from Frankfurt and 88 from Munich including Malaga, Alicante, Valencia, Naples, Rhodes, Palermo, Faro, Madeira, Olbia, Dubrovnik and Reykjavik. From June 1st, Lufthansa has reactivated their normal meal and beverage service for Business Class guests on short and medium-haul flights. On long-haul flights, all Lufthansa guests will be offered the full range of beverages, while First and Business Class customers can once again choose from a range of menu options. Economy Class guests on long-haul flights will also continue to receive a meal.
Austrian Airlines will resume regular long-haul flights from July, for the first time since mid-March with up to three weekly flights to Bangkok, Chicago, New York-Newark and Washington, D.C. Austrian’s first long-haul flight will take off for New York at 10:15 AM on July 1st, 2020. The carrier will also expand its European offer in July including service to popular holiday destinations in Greece such as Chania, Corfu, Heraklion, Karpathos, Kos, Rhodes, Santorini and Zakynthos. In July, Austrian will increase their flight schedule from 5 to 20 percent, compared to last year. In a separate announcement Thursday, Austrian Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer, Andreas Otto said,
“June demand is good, considering the circumstances. This means we can continue to increase our capacity. I am particularly pleased that long-haul flights can finally take off again in July, as they are particularly important for Austria as a business location and for Vienna as a hub.”
Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) plans on resuming around 85 percent of their pre-pandemic destinations by autumn at about one-third capacity. The initial service of Switzerland’s airline will be on European services from Zurich and Geneva including, Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, Warsaw, Vienna and popular holiday destinations such as Bilbao, Brindisi, Cork, Malta, Porto, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca, Sylt, Valencia and Venice. The carrier will also introduce additional intercontinental destinations to their route network.
Eurowings is expanding its flight program for business and leisure travelers and will offer around 80 percent of their destinations through the course of the summer. With the lifting of flight restrictions, demand is returning for service to holiday destinations in Italy, Spain, Greece and Croatia. Therefore, Eurowings will restore between 30-40 percent of their flight capacity in July, with a focus on flights from Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart, and Cologne/Bonn.
Source(s): Lufthansa Group, Austrian Airlines, SWISS