Entry bans by Asian countries slow air recovery: Lufthansa CEO

The head of Lufthansa said the German airline will not be able to resume pre-COVID flight frequency to Japan and China as quickly as hoped. "We've now realized that it will take a marathon to get through the crisis, not a sprint," CEO Carsten Spohr said. Demand for air travel remains weak. As of the end of August, the number of Lufthansa flights was around one-third of the pre-pandemic level. Passenger traffic was down by 75%, and the carrier operates roughly half the number of regular routes. Of the 760 planes in its fleet, only 300 are active. Lufthansa used to operate 45 weekly flights between Japan and Europe, but stood at only five by the end of August. The company plans to increase this to 16 in September with five flights a week between Frankfurt and Tokyo. But this is far fewer than planned in July, as few reservations are coming in. "We had to reduce because of a sudden slump in demand," said Spohr. "An increase in international air travel will always depend on entry regulations put in place by countries worldwide; be it Japan, China, Singapore or any other country," Japanese government announced to lift the reentry ban for foreign residents on Tuesday, allowing those who left the country after coronavirus travel bans were imposed to return. Spohr hopes demand will grow. As for the Frankfurt-Nagoya route frequently used by auto industry business people, he said: "The current demand, unfortunately, doesn't allow for flights between the two cities. Our current planning sees us operating to and from Nagoya by summer next year at the earliest." China is recovering from the pandemic faster than other nations. But Spohr noted that regulations are curbing demand for air travel. Spohr said, "It will take at least until 2024 before demand bounces back to where it was in 2019," stressing the need for restructuring to cut costs. Story has more.<br/>