Lufthansa aiming for 60-70 per cent passenger capacity by the end of the year

Lufthansa, the German airline giant, has said that it is aiming for around 60-70 per cent of pre-pandemic passenger numbers by the end of the year.

It is currently operating at around 40 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

Jens Fehlinger, a manager at Lufthansa, suggested that things are beginning to look up for the airline industry.

“We started into the summer with about 10% of passengers and 15% of flights compared to pre-crisis levels,” he said.

However, increased vaccine uptake has increased travel across Europe and beyond.

It is operating 55 per cent of the flights it had been “pre-crisis”, and serving 192 destinations. While it is serving more destinations than it had done in the summer of 2019, flights are much less frequent.

American Airlines, meanwhile, said it expects to post better-than-expected second quarter results thanks to $1.4 billion federal handout to cover their payroll costs, as reported by the Washington Post.

The company expects between a loss of $35 million and a profit of $25 million for the second quarter.

“We are clearly moving in the right direction,” CEO Doug Parker and President Robert Isom said.