Lufthansa adds flights as confined Germans plot festive breaks

Lufthansa will expand its Christmas flight schedule after a surge in bookings from German tourists, a rare piece of good news for the carrier as it battles to recover from the coronavirus crisis. Lufthansa will add flights to southern European destinations including in Greece, Italy and Spain to meet the rising demand, the company said in a statement on Thursday. The airline will also reactivate routes to major cities to carry expatriates back to their homelands over the festive period. A surge in bookings marks a glimmer of light at the end of a gloomy year for Lufthansa, which took a E9b government bailout in June. The carrier said a month ago it needs to double operations from current levels if it’s to stem losses, having reduced capacity to 25% of year-ago traffic. The extra demand for European travel comes after countries including the UK and Italy said they’d temporarily loosen lockdown rules to allow families to gather during the holiday season. Still, Lufthansa faces an arduous winter as Europe fights a resurgence of coronavirus infections about a year after the pandemic originated in China. <br/>