Passenger numbers at Lufthansa are currently around 40% of pre-pandemic levels and it is aiming to reach 60-70% by the end of the year, a manager at the German airline said. “We started into the summer with about 10% of passengers and 15% of flights compared to pre-crisis levels”, Jens Fehlinger said. Lufthansa is currently running about 55% of the flights it used to. While it is serving 192 destinations - more than in summer 2019 - it is flying many routes less frequently. The airline and its subsidiaries are using 520 aircraft, compared with roughly 800 before the crisis, Fehlinger said.<br/>
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Lufthansa said Tuesday it was retiring "ladies and gentlemen" as an on-board greeting in favour of gender-neutral alternatives. A spokesman for the German company said the move was intended to make all passengers on board feel welcome, including those who do not identify as male or female. "Crews are being instructed to choose a greeting that includes all passengers," he said, adding that "dear guests" or a simple "good morning/good evening" would be used instead. The new policy, which will be phased in gradually, applies to German flag carrier Lufthansa as well as the group's Swiss, Austrian, Brussels and Eurowings airlines. The company said it was responding to a "discussion that is rightly being held in society" about non-binary gender identification and a desire "to value all guests on board".<br/>
Ryanair has lost a legal challenge against the provision of financial support to Austrian Airlines on state-aid grounds. In a ruling on 14 July, the General Court of the EU rejected a call from Ryanair and Laudamotion for the annulment of a E150m subordinated convertible loan to the Vienna-based carrier that had been provided by the Austrian government. The measure was part of a financial package of E600m which included a E300m loan from local banks and a E150m equity investment by parent company Lufthansa. On 6 July 2020, the EC approved the measure under its temporary state-aid framework, put in place to allow governments to compensate companies amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The court dismissed Ryanair and Laudamotion’s argument that the Commission had not examined all the aid measures granted to the airlines in Lufthansa Group or the relationship between them, and ruled that the aid did not constitute “overcompensation”. It says that under a deduction mechanism, applicable to all the measures adopted in favour of Lufthansa, the overall aid granted by Germany to the entire group was reduced by the aid granted by other states to a particular company within it, so that the overall amount received by the group remained the same. The Commission, it adds, had already taken into account all the aid measures granted to the airlines forming part of Lufthansa Group, including Austrian, and the relationship between them.<br/>