The total number of seats available from January to June will be almost 120 million, four percent higher than in the same period last year, the BDL said on Thursday. This corresponds to 86 percent of the 2019 level, the year before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. "This means that air traffic continues to develop much more weakly than in other European countries," the association added. In the rest of Europe, the number of passenger flights on offer is higher than ever before, at 107 percent of pre-coronavirus levels.
Growth is being curbed by the low number of domestic flights – according to the BDL, it is climbing by three percent compared to the previous year, to just 50 percent of 2019. Short and medium-haul flights within Europe or to North Africa are increasing by five percent to a recovery rate of 91 percent. The number of long-haul flights on offer is continuing to approach pre-crisis levels, with an expected 96 percent of 2019.
A major factor in the German market's lagging behind is the reluctance of the major low-cost airlines, such as Ryanair and Easyjet. They complain that location costs in German aviation are too high due to taxes and fees. The market segment of point-to-point airlines with their direct flights is recovering with an increase in capacity of eight percent to 76 percent compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, European network airlines, led by Lufthansa, are hardly expanding their capacities at all – their recovery rate compared to 2019 is 83 percent.
(Report by Ilona Wissenbach. Edited by Olaf Brenner. If you have any questions, please contact the editorial team at frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com)