Saturday 19 June 2021

“Enough for video conferencing”
Lufthansa sees return of commercial flights

In aviation, which has been hit hard by the pandemic, there are signs of relaxation: Lufthansa boss Spohr no longer expects such a sharp drop in business travel as was initially forecast. The urge to see each other “in person” is great. For some it is worth even more money.

Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr expects a less drastic drop in business travel after the pandemic than before. “I had previously estimated a drop of 10 to 20 percent. In the meantime I believe that the minus will reach more than 10 percent,” said Spohr of “Südetsche Zeitung”.

“The group expects business travelers to return very clearly from the third quarter,” said Spohr. The longer the crisis lasts, the smaller the proportion of visits that will be completely replaced by video conferences. “People have had enough meetings via video conference. They want and want to see each other in person again,” Spohr confirmed. According to him, some guests will even use the more expensive business and premium economy classes privately, because of the space and comfort offered.

After last year’s dark red figures, government aid and job cuts, Lufthansa also lost $1 billion in the first quarter. For the full year, management expects the group to make fewer losses in day-to-day trading than in 2020. Recently, Spohr announced that he wanted to pay back the government’s billions of dollars in aid before the general election on 26 September.